"I am a selfish child.
I hope the sunshine lies only upon me, so I can feel its warmth.
I am a selfish child.
I hope there is a corner of the world that can comfortable for me when I am sad,
I am a selfish child.
I hope my mom belongs only to me, so I can enjoy the sweetness of love. "
This poem was written by a middle school student in a lonely mountains town in Yunnan Province during her first poetry class. The girl missed her mother, who died when she was 5.
Kang Yu, the teacher who taught the girl how to write the poem, graduated from Renmin University of China in Beijing in 2015. Soon after her gradation, Kang moved to a town in Yunnan, and worked as a teacher at a middle school there.
Kang said, "Compared with students in the city, perhaps students in the countryside need a way to express their feelings and be heard more." Supported by the headmaster and other teachers, the school held eight poetry classes for students every year.
As the classes grew in popularity, Kang became the school's favourite teacher. After she finished her teaching at the school in June 2017, she returned m Beijing and planned to study abroad.
However, on Teachers' Day in 2017, Kang received a big box full of poems and Letters written by students at her old school. She felt she was needed and decided toabandonher plan of studying abroad. Instead, she set up Enlighten our Future, a charity that reaches students in the countryside how to write poems.
"Now, I go to several places every week I sleep less than six hours a night and the job provides no vacations and little money, but the happiness and satisfaction I feel is rewarding enough." Kang said.
