Nice reflections! 淘大俠早上好！

與淘大俠商榷：

Most of his elementary school classmates had dropped out of school one after the other, I would change "one after the other" to "one after another" because "one, the other" seems to indicate there were only two.

Only time is restraining. Do you mean only time is limited, restrained? or maybe say: Only time is the restraint.

that used to fascinate him so long ago at his tender age. I heard of at a tender age, at the tender age of 15, but not sure if you can use his/her/my etc. in front of tender age.