Memoir (final)

A memoir to my former self

Choosing which university to attend is an immense decision to make for a young person in China. I think that emphasis on academic excellence is strongly embedded in our culture and the tradition of encouraging children to strive for excellence through Chinese education system. There is too much pressure and high workloads being put on children by their parents, school and society; some Chinese parents take this too far. There is an annual countrywide college admission test held June 7 & 8 every year and all over China traffic will be re-routed away from test centers and construction sites will silence their commotion. If anyone fails or misses this test their next chance will be the next year same time. It's the best or the worst time for seniors. The college entrance exam that I attended at 2005, there were about 10 million Chinese seniors graduated, with less than 6 million will go to college, with about less than 2 million will go to good colleges.

2005 is my lucky year because it is the year of rooster according to the Chinese calendar. I don't really believe in Feng Shui, but that year I gave it a shot. I cleared out my room, I got rid of everything that I don’t love and value and I placed little statues of frogs everywhere. I was really trying to create a positive flow of energy. Even I don't believe in the underlying principles of Feng Shui, but the ideas and actions that go along with it can really help out, and luckily in 2005 I did excellent job on the exam.

After finishing my first year of university, I suddenly realized that something was not right. I got a taste of what college life is like, and idea of what it is like to learn Economics. I was also exposed to serious academic corruption, dry and irrelevant courses, and repetitive memorization teaching. Somewhere along there I lost interest in the curriculum, and began losing confidence in China’s education system like many other Chinese college students were, but I refused to drop out of school to express my disappointment or waste time bribing teachers to pass the tests. The only value of my college life in China is I met so many people and made some great friends. Thereupon I studied English on one hand and wasted my time in university on the other.

At the end of the year, I made the biggest decision in my life, I choose to move long distances to America for my further education to experience a new culture, learn a new language, to make new friends. My parents were in full agreement with me studying abroad, and they thought moving to a new country is an eye-opening experience as well.

The way society functions among other cultures is very different from one’s own; and my parents also felt I cannot fully understand another culture until I've been there by myself. For these reasons they encouraged me to move to America to go to school there.

Finally, filled with desire to move to America and experience my interest in western culture and learn more in an American school than in Chinese I went. Since then, it has been a great experience, meeting new people, making friends and basically enjoying every minute here. I am really glad that I took this opportunity, which has opened new doors for me, and allowed me to focus on my fields of study. I also learned how to adapt to unfamiliar situations. It was fun meeting so many new people in such a short period of time, but it was hard being independent and living on my own and far away from my parents. I am now looking forward to going back to my Chinese college next year in order to finish my degree, and might end up in America after I graduate, hopefully. Studying abroad offered me many new and exciting experiences, and in my generation I believe we should do something new and different.