September 11, 2005, 11:31pm

Four years ago around this time, like many other people, I was watching the TV and wanted to know what's going on in the World Trade Center. But it meant more to me because on September 12, I had to fly to London for my master's. (Carmen, I don't know how we made such a bold decision.)

Now, here I'm going for my PhD. It took me four years to walk this small step. I want to say, I'm trying to embrace every moment here.

I was doing the laundry this afternoon. Just like last week. When it's done, I carried the huge bag of cleaned clothes back to my apartment. I was feeling, this just can't be better. It's the clear blue sky and I'm here alive to enjoy this very moment. I feel I'm so blessed.

I want the endless sky. So many times when I was in the Faculty of Medicine, HKU, looking out of the pantry window overseeing Lantau Island and Lamma Island, I promised myself, I want a wider sky. And I finally made it.

I want very much to share my joy with everyone of you. Without you, I won't be who I'm. I wouldn't be able to make it to this point. Thank you.

I remember Bert, my friend in Scotland, told me how excited he was every time he heard the plane flying when he was small. Planes were new inventions by then. (If I remember correctly, Bert is 86 this year.)

He would run out of the house and saw the plane above. Then he joined the Royal Air Force as a bomber pilot in World War II.

I was looking at his photos in his 20s when he's in the airforce. "How did you know how to fly the plane?"

He said, "I learnt to do it. They had classes to teach us how."

I hope I will never forget this lesson. Remember what you want to do. Find out the way and learn to do it. We can fly. (I want to fly too. But I don't want to fly a plane and kill.)