My Experience

To whom that cares!!!

At this moment when i am sitting down here writting this, I suddenly think of this time last year when I was fresh out of highschool, hearing about Berea for the first time. I sent my application to Berea with lots of confidence and hope, and I knew I was not accepted. College to me, as much as to many others, is so important. At the time I heard the news of my being denied, I was dissappointed, but soon I realized that my failure was just among the many challenges that anybody has to face during their lifetime. Further more, I happened to know, later on, about the two other Vietnamese who were accepted. Having known that hardly ever more than one student from each country is accepted to Berea, I was so proud to know that the ability of Vietnamese students has been recognized and that, despite of the fact that our country still faces many dificulties, the students have been trying to reach high goals.

In Vietnamese proverbs, we have this saying :” A day one goes, a sea of knowledge he earns”. By this time, I have realized how true it is. Last year, I was an exchange student in a highschool in Mississippi. That was the first time I went overseas. Although, before this trip, I was quite used to living independently because I had to live without my mom for almost 7 years during the time she went to work in Poland. However, my first trip abroad was something totally new and different. I was first met by a very different country and her people. I gradually got used to everything and felt that those adaptions I had made also came with growth in my maturity.

When mentioning about maturity, I am quite sure about what I am talking. Obviously, I still am a long way from being an adult who has gone through enough hardships in life to have the right to jugdement on life. However, I believe that the ten months I was away from my homeland, from my family, I now look at my life and future with a very serious and subjective point of view. If I had not been in the U.S, I would never have known of an eventful U.S senior year in highschool, and the people, the lifestyle there. Also, I realized how poor Vietnam is. Am I proud of my country? Yes, I very am !!! I know that many foreigners, including those from the U.S pay much appreciation to many victories that the Vietnamese people had made. More than anybody, I belong to the generation that were luckily born after all the wars. We pay lots of respect to the ones who had sacrified for the peace. This year, we ‘ve just celebrated the 25th of unification. It’s really high time that we need to work out for a real development other than living with the past. Everything needs changes. Say our two countries, U.S and Vietnam, we have turned down the memories of the war to become friends. Vietnam has receive a lot of supports from the U.S , as well as friends from over the world. And after that many years, we, the young generation, are still wondering why our country is developing so slowly. One thing that anybody who applies for a visa to the U.S all knows is that many officials doubt if we would come back to Vietnam after our study. I think the doubt is reasonable because it really happens that there are some people who do like that. However, most of the students that I know are not the same way. We want to study abroad to look for a better education. The wish that Vietnam had been more developed, the education system is Vietnam had been better to attract Vietnamese students has come to many students. In fact, at the moment, study abroad is very popular in Vietnam. Sometimes, students study on self-funding happens, but most of all,we look forward to scholarship opportunities from many sources.

PS: This is not the end of my essay yet, how to finish it is what I am looking for