Good morning, it's an honor to be here. Good morning,
everyone, I am honored to be here today.
The poet Elizabeth Bishop once wrote:
American poet Elizabeth Bishop • once wrote:
at The Art of Losing IS not Hard to Master (So) Things MANY SEEM Filled with the Intent to BE at The Lost Their that Lost IS NO Disaster..
Lost Art It's not difficult to master.
Too many things seem to be ready and leave us.
So such a loss is not a disaster.
I am not a poet. I am a person living with early onset Alzheimer's, and as that person I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories.
I am not a poet . I am just a patient with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This identity made me learn to lose this art. I lost my grace, my goal, my sleep; and the most lost thing was memory.
All my life, I've accumulated memories; they've become in a way my most precious possessions. The night I met my husband, the first time I held my textbook in my hands, having children, making friends, traveling the world. Everything I accumulated in life, everything I worked so hard for, now all that is being ripped away. As you can imagine, or as you know, this is hell, but it gets worse
. In a sense, they have become my most precious treasure. The night I met my husband, when I first got the textbook I wrote; I gave birth to children, made close friends, and traveled the world. The bits and pieces accumulated in this life, and the harvests that I have worked hard to pay, are now drifting away from me. Maybe you know something, or you can imagine, this feeling is like being stuck in hell, and it gradually worsens, getting deeper and deeper.
Who can take us seriously when we are so far from who we once were? Our strange behavior and fumbled sentences change other's perceptions of us and our perceptions of ourselves. We become ridiculous, incapable, comic, but this is not who we are, this is our disease. and like any disease , it has a cause, it has a progression, and it could have a cure.
when we get past their own very different, who can treat serious? We behave strangely, talk and stammer, become shocking to others, and even make us feel strange to ourselves. We become ridiculous, clumsy and incompetent. But this is not who we are. It's just this disease that makes us like this. Like all diseases, this disease has its roots and developments, and there must be a cure.
My greatest wish is that my children, our children, the next generation do not have to face what I am facing. But for the time being, I'm still alive, I know I'm alive. I have people I love dearly, I have things I want to do with my life. I rail against myself for not being able to remember things. But I still have moments in the day of pure happiness and joy. And please do not think that I am suffering, I am not suffering. I am struggling, struggling to be a part of things, to stay connected to who I once was
. But at least at this moment, I'm still alive. I know, I'm still alive. I still have someone I love, and I still have a dream to be fulfilled in my lifetime. I blame myself for my inability to maintain my memory, and at the same time I have a pure happy time. Please don't feel that I am suffering. I have not suffered. I'm just struggling to make the present self exist in life as much as possible, and the past self to exist as much as possible in the present.
So living in the moment I tell myself. So living in the moment I tell myself
.
It's really all I can do. Live in the moment, and not beat myself up too much, and, and not beat myself up too much for mastering the art of losing.
This is all I can do . Live in the moment, cherish possessions, don't blame yourself for everything, and don't urge yourself to know the lost art.
One thing I will try to hold on to though is the memory of speaking here today. It will go, I know it will, it may be gone by tomorrow. But it means so much to be talking here today like my old ambitious self who was so fascinated by communication.
But one thing I will try to remember is the speech here today. I know that this memory will fade away, maybe tomorrow, it will fade away. But this speech is of great significance to me, because it allows me to see the self in the past, the ambitious and language-loving self.
Thank you for this opportunity. It means the world to me.
Thank you for this opportunity. To me, it is the whole world.
Thank you!
Thank you!
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