So, this is my personal statement. All kinds of criticism is welcome. Thank you!
"Hey, we don't ride horses to school."
I always considered myself a "gentle girl". Seldom would you find me angry or ignore anybody. But there was one exception: my avoidance with Kaidi, my highs school classmate, lasted for half a month.
I was fifteen that year. As one of the three students from a place two thousand kilometres away, I was excited everyday to find everything new. One day in the cafeteria I overheard Kaidi bragging with his friends: "I went to Qinghai (my hometown) once. The people eat food with plastic basins. Man, they don't really know anything about courtesy!" And another boy echoed: "Totally! They smell like they don't take a shower for weeks!" Unconsciously, I pulled up my t-shirt and sniffed. I was relieved to find out that I smelled pretty nice. It would be funny to hear this conversation while I am having a warm bubble bath at home. And even though people back home often had big appetites, but plastic basins? That was just too much of exaggeration. Despite my fury, I suppressed my urge to jump in and say "you know what, I am from Qinghai!"-I was too shy and timid. I thought that if they had a bad impression about my hometown, they probably did not like me either.
Those days I struggled to live with a knot in the heart every day, as I tried to escape from every contact with him. It was especially hard: we met each other on a daily basis as we were all boarding students.
I thought that life would just go on, and we would graduate without exchanging a word, until one morning when I was reading out English on Dao Hill, a small hill inside our school, Kaidi suddenly showed up-he wanted to read English out too. I kept on reading pretending that I did not see him. I was not sure if he detected the drastic battle that was going on in my heart in that second: should I talk to him or not? I was tired of living in a jail built with my own cowardice. I realized that escaping a problem is not the right way of solving it. I was offended by their narrow-minded remarks concerning my hometown, but maybe I would be able to change his opinion. I decided to crawl out of my shell and be friendly.
Unexpectedly, after I said hi, the conversation just went on by itself. And I could still remember the first thing he said to me.
"Oh it's you! I've always wanted to ask you: do you guys ride horses to school in Qinghai?"
I laughed so hard for ten minutes. I cannot believe the problem that occupied my heart for so long was resolved so easily. Rubbing my tummy, I explained to him life about my hometown: our food, our culture, our customs, etc. He understood that, Qinghai is developing enormously fast now, and "no, we don't ride horses to school anymore." It turned out that we became best friends. Later when we talked about first impression, I said jokingly: "well apparently my impression about you is that this ignorant guy really has some things to learn about."
So in two years time I managed to build a bridge between North and South China. I am happy to be the cultural ambassador of my hometown, to change the old image of Qinghai in people's eyes, which is also what made me succeeded in applying UWC schools, schools to unite people from different parts of the world.
Languages, geometric distance, cultural differences are barriers setting people apart, are walls need to be pushed over. My experience told me that hard may the process be, making friends from other cultural backgrounds is never impossible. Cultural understanding has always been a crucial theme of my life and I will carry on where ever I go. Because I believe that if we all try to understand the others there will be no fights or wars in this world, and the world will become such a better place.
find me angry or ignoring anybody.
But there was one exception: my avoidance of Kaidi, my high school classmate, lasted for half a month.
I was fifteen that year. Not necessary
Capitalize: ...urge to jump in and say, "You know ...
Capitalization: Later when we talked about first impression, I said jokingly: "Well apparently
Because I believe that i If we all try to understand the others there will be no fights or wars in this world, and the world will become such a better place.
:-)
