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Hey Mark, oh my goodness that’s a long list of questions lol..
I’ll pick the last one. I moved to the States when I was 19. I left my family, my friends, my home and everything behind. My English wasn’t good because I started learning English when I was probably around 16 or 17. I took the TOEFL and SAT three times each to get an acceptance to my dream school.
When I first arrived in the States, I was pretty overwhelmed by cultural differences, new environment, and new food etc. Fast forward 5 years of struggles and hard work and pushing myself every day, I graduated from college with Departmental Honors and summa cum laude. I pursued my graduate school right after and graduated as a top student and Honors.
Though graduating with Honors and being recognized as a top student is huge, what I’m most proud of is my persistence and determination. It’s easy for people to say that I’m born smart or make such comments. But as a person who has gone through it, I can 100% say it wasn’t easy and I had many moments I felt like I was close to giving up. I’m happy to be where I am and proud of myself for never giving up on my goals.
You’ve shared before that, when you first came, it literally took you a week to read one chapter in English, yes?
Amazing grit.
What would you say was the #1 factor in your perseverance? What made you persevere? Genuinely asking: wanting to “prove” yourself, perhaps because of past life experiences or a home environment were you were told you wouldn’t or couldn’t succeed? (this has been a factor in my success) Were you taught to persist from a parent or sibling?
Again, I’m confident that there were many factors – I’m asking the #1 and, in particular recognizing that sometimes we’re driven to succeed by past failure/disfunction and sometimes drive to succeed by healthy values and function. We each have our drives. What was your #1 drive to persevere?
That’s a great question, Mark! It’s kinda hard to say but I was heavily focused on academics since elementary school.
I remember participating in a Math competition in my first grade and had done tons of competitions through school. I did very much enjoy competing with kids, having that thrill of setting a goal, and winning competitions and making my mom and my family proud of me. That continued through my undergrad and grad school in States as well.
It’s really hard to pinpoint a single thing to say that this was the main reasons why I persevered. I think many factors contributed to it. For example, for my undergrad, I got a full-ride scholarship from my government, and there was no way I’d fail in classes because if I did, the government would cut the funding and I’d have to go back to my home country. In fact, that was one of my major fears before I left. The government set 3.0 GPA as the minimum and they’d cut the funding if students fail to get the minimum 3.0 GPA.
So all in all, I don’t know exactly why I persevered through things.. maybe it’s my personality?
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