After 17

原來17歲的自己，留下了許多精彩回憶

在照片裡，我重回那自由的17歲，許多的場景一一變得鮮活﹣﹣會考前努力溫書獎勵自己的下午茶、分手前的最後一次約會、SARS期間被口罩遮掩恐懼的人們、在街巷遊走看別人的生活……

特別是考試結束後，我從未感到如此的自由，大人沒法再管我了，每天拿著相機到處閒逛﹣﹣我還記得，有天回家時看到遠方的落霞好美，卻沒帶相機，便跑回家拿相機，靠著一股衝動直奔那公路盡頭的夕陽，跑在陌生的路、走過天橋下路宿者之家，什麼都不理，只想拍下那令人感動的顏色。

那是我第一次為了拍照，熱血的揮灑汗水，靠「非拍不可」直覺，把理智都放一旁。後來我人生有了許多任性地覺得「非做不可」的事，也許都是這樣滋養出來的。17愈見遙遠，愈帶著閃亮的神秘光茫，我依稀記得，我那時好喜歡綺貞老師的歌詞：「自一步一步走過昨天我的孩子氣／孩子氣保護我的身體／從那一天起我自己做決定／自從那一天起不在意誰的否定／when I am after seventeen」。

My sweet but sentimental seventeen

I was 17 in year 2003, when the SARS virus attacked the city I attended my first Public Examination. Then I have already started my personal website Never Land and picked up my camera to record life – from the afternoon tea , old streets and market, skies and flowers to children at play. In the vast freedom and long summer holiday, I broke up with my first boyfriend, bought myself a first film camera (LOMO LC-A), wrote excessively no matter in peotry or prose.

For the first time in my life, I ran home to grab my camera and chased towards the east for a beautiful sunset – on my way home I see the purple shade and started running by instinct into an area that I have never been to. Such instinct of ‘I must do something’ probably shaped part of the craziness in my character.