"I was a failure. I hardly ever noticed whether the sun was shining, because I had no time.
"My parents couldn't support me, and I wasn't well educated. I was alone in the city, searching for a future.
"I looked for many jobs, but no one hired me. Perhaps no one liked someone who wasn't good with words, didn't enjoy communicating, and hadn't shown enough ability.
"For three whole days, I ate only two pieces of bread. Hunger kept me awake at night. Fortunately, I had paid a month's rent in advance, so I could keep living in that dark basement instead of enduring the extraordinarily cold winter wind outside.
"At last, I found a job keeping watch at a hospital at night-keeping watch over the morgue.
"The hospital at night was even colder than I had imagined. The wall lamps in the corridors weren't lit, and everything was dim. I could only rely on the little light spilling out of the rooms to see where I was stepping.
"The smell there was awful. Now and then, a dead person would arrive in a body bag, and we would work together to carry him into the morgue.
"It wasn't a very good job, but at least it let me afford bread. I could also use my free time at night to study. After all, few people wanted to visit the morgue unless a body needed to be delivered or taken away for cremation. Of course, I didn't yet have enough money to buy books, and for now, I couldn't see any hope of saving any.
"I had my former colleague to thank. If he hadn't suddenly quit, I might not have been able to get even a job like this.
"I dreamed of being rotated onto the day shift. Always