Hazel. Once again, the refrain: “This is not real. Thursday we go back to Campbell River and then by bus to Victoria and enter the real world again. No more sitting. No more relaxing. No more extra sleep or fun with dogs. Soon we go back to Hong Kong and the real world of so much study and so much hard work!”

“That is true if you choose it to be true. But think about it. When you go back on Thursday, where is Sally? Where am I? Where are the dogs? If this is not real, do we disappear?”

“You live dream life! We students have to go back to ugly world. It would be nice to stay here!”

“I admit that it would be nice. And that is why we do it. If you think it is nice, too, why don’t you do it? Why not let the others go back and you stay?”

“Why?”

At that point the question hits home. Hazel wonders why. And there is no answer forthcoming. She just looks at me kind of confused. The usual habit-answer doesn’t seem to work. A tear rolls down her cheek. She turns her head away and wipes it clean. Still no answer.

I know that Hazel can’t stay on Read and she knows it, too. Too impractical. But she really does have choices in her life and it is that realization that hits home. Maybe she does not have to do what everyone expects her to do…….?

…….or does she? And that is the question she now ponders. To what extent is she freely making choices and to what extent is she a prisoner of her own circumstances?

Of course, we all think about that at some point. I know, for a fact, that as soon as someone is free of an obligation or a previous relationship or even just a project, the freedom feels a bit like emptiness and is soon filled with something else. Often it is a similar burden to the one just released. We tend to repeat our choices. But, really, we don’t have to. Much of it is habit.

For the Chinese kids all of it seems habit. They seem to have less freedom-to-choose in just about everything in their lives. They even seem less aware that they have choices to contemplate. They are programmed more deeply than even we are. It is that kind of conversation that Dennis wants us to have with them.

He is still unsure if it is a good thing, though.

After all, he is a pillar of the society that values obedience, harmony and productivity. He doesn’t feel as if he has a lot of choices, either. His calendar is also filled. And he really doesn’t want a lot of free-choosers running amok. It is so unharmonious. Still, something prompts him to send these kids.

He thinks we are a safe first step to seeing choices. We can raise the questions but we don’t offer the opportunity for anyone to actually jump ship. They are going to have to think a great deal more like this if they are to get off the Hong Kong Highway to Harmony and Obedience.

And, of course, if you get off, what exit do you take? Where will you end up? For these kids, we are just showing them that there is a map with choices on it. 99% will end up where they intended.

But Hazel is in Liberal Studies at the university. It is a new faculty intended to foster a bit more radical (but still safe) thinking. This is what she came for. Who knows where this all may lead?