Sea : Lost and Found

 

Do you have a turn of events which changed your life forever and made you who you are today?  For me, about 12 years ago, when I was 16 years old, I was a normal kid studying in a private school in Bangkok. I had nothing interesting in life, just went to school and back home. I did not know what my future would be like and what I liked to do until one of my friends introduced me to listen to Thai alternative pop songs. I started to have a favorite radio channel and was a big fan of one DJ from that channel, Thitawin Kamcharoen, because of the way he selected the music to play and how he thought and talked. One day, he released his own book named Lost and Found which the story was written in Thai language. I knew that I must buy the book even though I did know what it was about. The author mentions on the cover that “He went ten thousand miles to become a non-loser.” Surprisingly, I read the 400-page book all in one day. It was about the fantastic experience of a Thai boy being a one-year exchange student in Paraguay. An adventure trip to a totally different culture country  and the lessons that he learned outside the classroom will make you like this book like I do.  I personally recommend that Lost and Found be required reading for everyone. 

First, the book was easy to follow along. The story is described in a straight timeline like a personal diary which tells how the author’s life went before, why he chose to be an exchange student at Paraguay, who he met throughout the journey, what he did in one year and what he got from that experience. The language used in the book made me feel like a friend was telling the story. When I was reading, I did not have to worry and think too much to understand the content; it kind of made me feel relaxed like watching a movie.

Moreover, if you read Lost and Found, you will understand more about South American culture. To confess, I was not interested in any South American country and had not heard about Paraguay until I read this book. The author mentions that Paraguay culture was lots different from Thai culture. For instance, Paraguayan students had to attend class for only one period per day, whether in the morning, afternoon, or evening, others of which were their free time. People usually went back home for lunch and had a nap after lunch,  which is called siesta. I wish that we could have that culture in Thailand. Compared to the time when I was still a student, every day I woke up early to be stuck in Bangkok traffic for about an hour and must arrive at school before 7.30 A.M. I studied all day long even after school. 

Finally, the book makes you want to step out of your comfort zone and want to go on an adventure for something new. Sometimes life is not about following all the rules. For one year in Paraguay, the author had a lot of experiences. Some were not proper for students to do, such as having a night life or traveling outside the country, which was illegal for exchange students. It turned out that it was an unexpected event that impacted his life and made him become more mature. When I read the book for the first time, I was about the same age as the author in the story. It made me feel that life had a lot more than was studied at school. It encouraged me to find something different to do with my friends, most of them were stupid decisions. For example, I planned to test how accurately I dropped water from a 6-storey building onto someone's head on the ground level or whether my friends would notice that it was not their saliva by trying to put the water in their mouth when they slept with the mouth opened. With no clue, I got  punishments for that, but the memories kept in my mind and usually are picked as a topic when me and my friends have a meeting these days. 

To conclude, Lost and Found is one of the books that everyone should read in their life. The story with the style of writing that is easy to track along helps you understand the South American culture and motivates you to step out of your comfort zone and do something are the reasons. As the author said that the book was about the turning point of his life, this book had taken part to be the turning event of my life.