Woman with Master’s degree From Beijing University becomes house painter

From Sina | Translated by Ivan | Edited by Key

SU Lijie, 39-year-old woman with her master’s degree from Beijing University, ended up working as a house painter back in her hometown. She said that her life is steady, and her soul relaxed.

Born in Nanyang, Henan Province, during her stay in Beijing after graduating from Beijing University in 2005, SU Lijie once taught in universities and also worked in companies. At that time, she tried to integrate into the metropolitan life in Beijing, but failed. Her career and life were far away from ideal. She was even trapped into the sense of loneliness as being isolated from the prosperous metropolis. December 2009, she resolutely gave up her job in this bustling city and went back to her hometown. The familiar local accent and love arrested her. “At that very moment, I had my heart and soul grounded!” she said.

The fact that SU Lijie, the golden phoenix, struggled a lot and managed to fly away to a wider sky, but was finally back to her nest, puzzled her families a lot. SU Lijie tried her best to convince her families and insisted to stay. However, she was again confronted with new problems: she could not get a suitable job immediately and without any income, she needed to depend on her parents. In order to reverse this terrible situation, she decided to find ways to survive first then before hunt for a suitable job. Recently, when she found out that a decoration enterprise provided free training for potential house painters, she applied for it immediately. So, every day in working suit, she studied with other ordinary trainee and dealt with the paint, which always covered her from head to toe.

A woman with her master’s degree from a famous university becomes a house painter trainee confused many people. However, SU Lijie said,“I’ve never thought manual labor as anything embarrassing!”She also said that born in the ordinary working class, and influenced by the plain happiness in her parents’ daily life, she has never thought being a painter is disgraceful. It’s also a way for one to live with one’s own effort. Anyway, it’s also true that learning more skills will never hurt. Moreover, she also appreciated that this manual labor helped her to free her spirit and soul.

With the right attitude and being more practical, path is right under your feet. SU Lijie relieved the job-hunting headache with her own action.