記得周末的一天，我和兒子在住處附近的店裡買東西，看到兒子的一個同學手裡拿着一個汽車模型向我們走來。她友好地象兒子講了三遍：Hi J , This is a car 。我明白了她的用意，她想幫助兒子講英文。我很感謝她的幫助。女孩說：我們的班主任老師希望每個同學都能幫助Ｊ，讓他儘快會說英文，在這裡快樂地生活！
You have been at Encanto School for only a short time but while you were here I took some pictures of you with your classmates and I saved some of the papers that you wrote and put them in this book. I hope they will help you to always remember room 25 at Encanto School.
It is very hard to come to a new country and try to learn so many new things. You are a very smart boy and you learn very fast and work very hard. You are also a very nice boy. You are a friend to everyone in our class. You taught us many things about China and about Chinese writing. It has been our pleasure to have you in our classroom.
As I walked to school on my first day, I looked down to my hand for confidence. My mother had lovingly written the word "MEN" on it in permanent marker in case I panicked and forgot which bathroom to go into. We had just moved to the United States from China, and it was my first day of third grade in Phoenix, Arizona. I was only nine, but I learned quickly how to adapt to this new world, and to push myself to learn how to use my new environment to succeed in spite of the many obstacles that this transition brought.
Before I could find my bearing in Arizona, my parents decided to move again to Tampa, Florida. This time, the move was even worse than first one because it happened in the middle of the school year. As a new student among settled groups of friends, I felt alienated; as a foreigner, I felt a huge barrier between me --because I was not able to keep up academically. While the rest of class was reading novels, I was crawling through picture books. My sense of isolation pushed me to revamp my style of learning English. I stopped reading picture books and picked up anything else I could get my hands on, reading until my vision blurred. Four years and two moves later, I lived in New Jersey and had finally gained a control of English that put me on par with my peers. Once I had succeeded in this difficult task, I finally felt acclimated to my new life in the U.S.
Learning to read did not actually solve my entire problem. Moving from New Jersey to the suburbs of Philadelphia forced me to face the shyness that my original language problems had instilled in me. I knew that remaining quiet was my way of protecting myself from being ridiculed by the other students for my verbal shortcoming, and most teachers understood when I approached them about my problem. In eleventh grade, however, I entered the honors English class, which required vigorous class participation in order to do well. My worst fears had been realized, and as I began speaking in class, I felt like a flailing madman. Beads of sweat would pour down my forehead as I realized that the entire class was listening to my convoluted and awkward speech. But, the practice was worth it. I eventually began raising my hand bravely and frequently.
Feeling confident in my language skills for the first time, I became more involved outside of the classroom as well, taking on leadership that I would normally have avoided because they involved speaking before groups. During that year, I became a co-chair of the school student's organization, which raised money for local scholarship. I also found a job working as research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. This opportunity proved invaluable in helping me realized what I wanted to do in life. Realizing that I might have a lasting interest in medicine, I began writing letters to well --known doctors asking them what it took to become successful in medicine. Most told me that in order to be a great doctor, must expand my mind beyond the sciences. Following this advice, in my junior year, I took classes like AP US History in addition to AP Physics and AP Chemistry. I quickly saw the benefit of the doctor’s advice, as these classes helped broaden my view to give me an analytic perspective of the world around me and the role medicine should play in it.
Growing up and becoming comfortable in the U.S. has taught me how to push myself both personally and intellectually in a way that will benefit me for the rest of my life. In building a successful career，I will be forced to adapt to, and thrive in new environments and conditions while facing considerable obstacles. Now that I have the confidence and the belief in my ability to overcome any type of difficult, I am confident that my passion and dedication will make me a valuable contribution to the university. I believe that there's always sunshine after the rain.
春陽，也是我喜歡的一位萬維博主，她幽默的文筆，樸實的文風，平易近人。她在“女兒申請大學記實”中，寫到： “總共申請了一個學校，只等了十天，就被錄取到了自己想去的學校，還是個有藤的。其中女兒最感興趣的是城裡的哥大和牛大，離家只有四十里，又不是太近。但是哥大卻說，可以考慮，但是在bottom of the list，也就是最後考慮，如果還考慮的話。這話叫人很不爽，要就要，不要就不要，bottom算個什麼呢？於是女兒也沒抱希望，誰讓人家學校牆上有藤呢？ 過了幾天，哥大的助理教練專程從城裡趕過來去看女兒游泳隊訓練，還帶來了校隊支持女兒申請哥大的決定。由於他要求見家長，我去了。我問他為什么女兒從候補一躍而成了正式了呢。他說：她克服了困難，把本來只有一天的訓練時間變成了兩天，讓教練和隊友們有時間充分了解她。還有回家以後馬上就去訓練，而大多數孩子都會選擇不去訓練。 我沒作聲了。我這個女兒幾年來生病可以不上學，卻從來沒缺過游泳訓練。難道他們從這些小事情里看到了這孩子的過人之處？” 春陽在這裡分享了孩子的過人之處：是課外做了什麼？課內學的是老師讓你學的，是被動的。而藤校想要的學生，是要你有自己的想法並付諸實踐, 有奉獻精神，將來可以為社會做出巨大貢獻的學生。
