Undergraduate / My Chinese name - Yueqiao, brings my weapons to make me grow and my bridges across the world! [6]

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

My name is WU Yue-qiao. Daring to overcome myself is my parents' expectation under my name. WU, my family name, is my Chinese heritage. Yue means to surpass. When separated the character, it is a combination of Zou, to walk and Yue, an ancient weapon. Qiao are bridges.

A brave warrior, holding weapons to defend herself, walks in the path of life toward happiness with her dignity and pride.

Heretofore, I have found English is my best weapons and bridges.

My parents chose English as my first weapon. Living in a small city in China, I was simply so excited to talk with people with blond hair and blue eyes. I jumped at my English study.

However, memorizing vocabularies and reciting movie dialogues all by myself were dull and tiring for a five-year-old kid. Schools and homework were usually finished at eight p.m., and I still had hours of music practice every day. I couldn't help slacking. Under strict family supervision, I studied English for two hours every day and grasped all the time when other children were watching cartoons and playing toys.

Yet when the first Native American I encountered in streets firmly insisted that I was raised in the US, I felt happier and prouder than ever. I was ten years old. Somehow, I started to expect my English hours every day.

Speaking English, I got into contact with more and more foreigners. Seeing their hearty smiling faces and listening to their travelling experiences over the world, all totally different from Easterners', I started to realize that English is also a bridge to connect one's inner values and outside world. Twelve years old, English opened my windows to see outside world. I enjoy love and dreams that English taught me.

As I coherently delved in English, I wondered how my weapons can help me continue walking ahead. French came into my mind. Bearing a full heart of curiosity, I entered L'Alliance Française when i turned fourteen. However, because of my young age, no class was willing to accept me.

Nevertheless, my confidence come from English didn't allow me to wince before trying. Every impediment catapulted my courage and determination to greater heights. Having conversation with me in English, the Principal, M. Leroux was totally convinced that I was an American. After knowing I learned English completely on my own, he was sure that I have incredible capacity of studying. Therefore, he broke rules to offer me an opportunity to study French. In adult class, a junior high student began her first French lesson. Without English, I could not imagine how I am able to open the door of French.

To study French, I arrived at another city, five-hour driving distance from mine, around midnight all alone at weekends. English helped me to develop my own sense of harmony in life and study. Surrounded by all the unknowns was frightful, but I always found that la vie est une belle. I smiled when seeing a laughing face on an overpass of an unacquainted city. To work efficiently, I released my minds, relaxed and NOT only pursued grades and ranks, like Westerners. I succeeded in school, English and French without wearing glasses. And then, I built my own bridges to France. Now, here I am in France, for my self-managed exchange. Many nights, I looked at stars in the dark sky, appreciating my English and asking myself: What is the bridge to connect realities and dreams? What is the bridge to balance my Chinese traditions and Western education?

Yue-qiao, to surpass bridges is to have wings. Wings make me fly over conventions; bring me liberty and inner-peace. I want to open more doors of outside world, to integrate cultures, to make world less random and to find answers for prayers. I want to build bridge across the Pacific to America, to challenge new unknowns and bring there my own culture.