极简生活主义：选择富足 Minimalism: choose to feel abundant

Author/作者: 杜小雯 (Xiao)

English Editor/英文母语编辑: Isabell (伊莎)

眼睛累了不想看屏幕？在路上不方便阅读？您可以来听作者们为您朗读的这个博客喔！Don’t feel like reading? You don’t have to! Tune in to listen to our authors read you this blog.

Chinese – 中文原声 – 杜小雯 （Xiao）

English – 英文原声 – Isabell (伊莎)

富足，是一种心态。

Abundance is an attitude.

简单的美好 / Simple Beauty

很多观念从小的时候起，就在头脑里根深蒂固。“因为我们没有钱，所以我们不能做什么”。因果关系似乎存在，然而着并非是正确理解事情的方式。父亲从来没有给过我这种念头。当我们路过书店，我想要购买更多的书籍，他不会说我们没有钱，所以我们不可以买。他会说，如果买了一堆书、你却没有阅读，这才是最大的损失。节俭的母亲会时不时提起我们家经济条件不太好，你的未来要靠自己去打拼。这也是母亲以她的方式在激励我要靠自己的实力在自己的一生中去实现更多的目标。

For some of us, ideas of scarcity have been deeply rooted in the mind since childhood. “We can’t do this because we don’t have money.” It seems to make some sense, however, it is not the right perspective to adopt. My father never gave me this idea. When we passed by the bookstore together, I always wanted to buy more books. He would never say “we didn’t have money, thus we couldn’t buy more books”. He would say that if you have a pile of books and you don’t read them throughly, the loss is actually greater. Instead, my frugal mother often mentioned that our financial circumstances were not great and that my future depended on my own efforts, which was her way of motivating her girl to achieve more.

简单的精致生活 / Simple and Exquisite Lifestyle

幸运的是，所有这些观点并没有成为我的观点。获得奖学金来欧洲之后还是选择了住在学校旁边最小的公寓。最开始的时候因为资金宽裕些确实也购置过些多余的东西，后来因为欧盟硕士项目性质的关系我们总需要搬家，也就是在一次次打包好行李再出发之后意识到真正的生活所需是很少的。也从彼时起爱上了最简约的行囊。

Fortunately, I never adopted any hang-ups on scarcity. After receiving a scholarship to study in Europe, I chose to live in the smallest apartment offered by the university near the campus. At first, I did purchase some extra things because I had more disposable income. Later, because of the nature of our masters program, we had to move home many times. After packing my luggage and carting it from one place to another, I learned that we only need very few things to live. I also fell in love with travelling light and since that time, I became a minimalist.

自然的简约与复杂 / The Simplicity and Complexity of Nature

从选择极简生活主义开始，我开始变得富有。因为只购买自己真正需要的东西，没有多余不必要的财务支出。食物、交通、简单但质量好些的衣物。选择耐用的物件、营养的食材、花些时间去烹饪、并开始享受好好照顾自己的时光。

Choosing minimalism made me feel more abundant. Because I only buy what I  really need, there are no unnecessary financial expenditures. Food, transportation and simple, but better quality clothing so that they last longer. Choosing durable items, nutritious ingredients, taking more time to cook, I began to enjoy the feeling that I was taking good care of myself.

美好是可以持久的 / Everlasting Beauty

葡萄酒是我决定追逐的事业。当然、日常生活中也少不了葡萄酒的开支。而如何合理的去购买性价比高的酒款、如何合理搭配美食、从而最大化享受这款葡萄酒的乐趣成为了我生活的主题。

Wine is the career I decided to pursue. Of course, there will be expenditures on wine in daily life. How to purchase wine with high quality-price ratio and how to reasonably match delicious food to maximise the enjoyment of the bottle of wine has become an important theme in my life.

生活中的小确幸 / The Touchable Happiness

钱到底应该花在哪里？2020年3月18日，我正式完成注册，开始了wset diploma的旅程。这是我很大的一笔教育投资。在学业上一路很顺遂的自己，在硕士阶段幸运地获得了欧盟丰厚的奖学金。因为一直坚定相信二年制全职的硕士学位教会了我比diploma更多的知识，为什么要投资去做一件已经做过的事情？然而，职场是一条很不一样的路。从毕业的一刻起，所有的光环都变成你的学业背景，有人会关心、然而并不是每个人都会回顾。总之，如果你能证明自己在这样一份职业技能考试上能取得优异的成绩，你就加入了一个更大的毕业生群体。学习总是好的。“自以为是”是最不好的心态，总要保持旺盛的上进心和强烈的求知欲。葡萄酒的世界里总有你不知道的东西。越谦卑，才能飞得越高。学无止境。舍得交学费，才更有机会在职场里把学费赚回来。

纯净的装饰 / Pure Decoration

So, where should the money be spent? On March 18, 2020, I completed registration and started on the WSET diploma. This was a big investment in my wine education. I was extremely fortunate to have excelled in academia and won a generous EU scholarship at the master’s level. Since I have always firmly believed that a two-year full-time master’s degree has taught me more knowledge than a diploma could offer, I questioned why I should invest in something I have already done? However, the corporate world is a different road. From the moment of graduation, the halo that becomes your academic background is subjective. Some people will care about it, but not everyone will review it. In short, if you can prove that you can achieve excellent results a vocational setting, you will join a larger group of alumni. Lifelong learning is always good and being self-opinionated is the worst state of mind, one must always maintain a strong desire for advancement and a thirst for knowledge. There is always something you don’t know in the world of wine, especially when “The more humble you are, the higher you can fly“. There is no end to learning. If you are willing to pay tuition fees, you will have a better chance to earn them back later in your career.

葡萄园中即将成熟的葡萄 / Grapes in the Vineyard

当人人都渴望拥有更多的时代里，能够感知到自己的富足是难能可贵的。正如常言道：知足常乐。愿今天的你、比昨天更感觉富足！

In an era when everyone is eager to gain more, it is valuable to be able to feel abundant and content with one’s life.  As the saying goes, “contentment is bliss. May you feel more abundant each day!”

葡萄园中的美好 / Beauty in the Vineyard

Photo Credit: Federica Galli, Mukul Wadhwa, Scott Webb, Tanalee Youngblood, Sarah Dorweiler (twice),  Jassy Onyae and Amos Bar-Zeev on Unsplash