I read "unbearable lightness of being" in high school back in Hong Kong, and it had a great influence on me. I realized that we could not always know which path is the right one to choose. That was a relief. After that I didn't worry too much about which school, department, advisor, job, etc.. to choose. Later I used the idea of "lightness" to describe myself. For a few years I felt like floating. I didn't know what I was doing and what I would become. I was very depressed. Only this year I realized that I was much heavier than I thought.

-- email excerpt to R