Undergraduate / French House/Open-mindedness-- Wellesley Supplement Essay/ Wellesley 100 Essay [3]

love and hate

A love-hate relationship is a relationship involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate. That is what has been going on with French and me. I have been a member at French Floor for one year. About one year ago, due to this intense admiration for French like many other naive starters, I took my first French class. However, French to me was more like the stepmother in Snow White. I haven't really looked into myself and tried to figure out what was my motivation for language learning until this spring. This May, a Chinese exchange student's commence speech at University of Maryland went viral on social media outlets. Not in a good way. Her praise about fresh air and democracy in the United States and description of smog issue in China vexed an army of Chinese and has been the trending search on Weibo for days. And millions of Weibo users lambasted her for putting her home country in a bad light and reprimanded her for being a shameful traitor. With experience of living in both countriesI didn't think she deserved this. But it was not how this bothered me that was the problem, but how this drove so many Chinese people crazy that confused me. Later that day, I wrote a post- I said " Sometimes what one wants to say and what others think s/he is saying tend to be different. But with confidence in our home country, her comparison can just be an entertaining joke. Smog issue in China has bothered so many of us deeply. And many of us may have some problems with our government. Why can't we say it out loud? I guess there is no single perfect country. But only because of that we cannot praise other countries and cultures? Is that an in-confidence within? " Later, I experience, the first time, a social media disaster. I received over 12 thousands down-vote comments; and suddenly I became a "backstabber" to my country. I cried the whole day, and deleted everything under my account. But it was then and there I figured out why I want to and should continue to learn French- because I am not proud of shouting door at other civilizations and refusing to see the truth. And I don't want to let others control my head. I take no pleasure in others agreeing with my opinion but meeting with people coming from different backgrounds but with similar goals. Because I experienced in flesh how narrowmindness could hurt innocent people I would think twice before I do that. So I love the concept of French House-- a number of people from France or not are willing to learn not only just the language but the culture and custom in that country. I hope I could continue to be a member in French House and also part of forum like ''culture shock'', because there is nothing I want more than a group of like-minded people with different backgrounds and similar ambitions.

Undergraduate / Wellesley 100: Hilary Clinton (This is the first of 2 paragraph) [5]

I believe that I would flourish in Wellesley

It was Hilary Clinton who gave me the first enlightenment of what we women deserve. Hilary Clinton was my consolation when I got frustrated with my perfectionist father. A natural closeness grew in my heart then and drove me to know more about her work. However, it was at my 14 after I started to live on my own that I began to value how far women before us have made our way and how much still needs to be done. The experience of taking care of my life helped me to understand and to feel how cruel this whole society has been to talented and worthy women like my mother. A well-read and well-educated woman like her, but a hardly more than a good wife behind my father and a good care-taker within the household in people's eyes. I think one thing I learned from Hilary Clinton is to care. Not just myself but countless women like my mother. I felt a strong urge to demonstrate people that our fight is not done and we deserve better than to be called "a nasty woman" with all the hard work. That is why I love Wellesley because I think my care for the world beyond myself and belief in women's right and self-worth would be embraced without judgmental indifference.