Those were my reading materials when I was 9 years old. My mother bought almost completed the whole collection of different edition & paperbacks for each title, which sadly was ultimately destroyed by the ravaging, hungry termites. Last night, we had a small family get together & I browsed into some of our old family photo albums. My god, how naughty I was. My sidekick was my little brother, we do almost everything together.

We had the luxury at that time – 1st generation of Nintendo Gameboys, Sega Game Gear, Mortal Kombat games, Micro Genius, Atari console, the works. I spent my past time being an avid Tottenham Hotspurs fan, drooling over Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne & Gary Lineker. I’d also spend my dad’s money buying those Popular Electronic, model airplane magazines & also those science magazines that came with a binder & free stuff. I can’t remember what was it called, but those magazines where super cool. I guess my geekness was really there at an early age. I just never bothered to harness it, I guess.

When we lost (almost) everything due to the ’90s economic downturn, thinking back, it was a blessing in disguise. Had we not lost everything, I would ask my dad to send me to MIT. But had we not lost everything, I would have not instilled & nurtured my self determination to succeed in life no matter what the obstacles are in front of me. Had we not lost everything, I would have been a spoiled brat with a different mindset. Had we not lost everything, I would have not learn to be grateful.

Fast forward to present day, I watched my nephew Ben typed his search terms in YouTube’s nicely positioned search box. He was looking for “dragonball”, “digimon” & “majin buu” and added every single video that he finds interesting on YouTube’s quicklist feature. When he’s done, he just click on his quicklist & enjoyed his cartoons. Amazing. Simply amazing. But one thing though, this could be a sign of human evolution but also a sign to show that we, parents & uncles alike, need to teach these kids to learn to read & appreciate books. Hell, until today, my mom’s Britannica Encyclopedia circa 1980s is still my reference & reading material whenever I’m bored at home.

I guess losing is winning.