记得周末的一天，我和儿子在住处附近的店里买东西，看到儿子的一个同学手里拿着一个汽车模型向我们走来。她友好地象儿子讲了三遍：Hi J , This is a car 。我明白了她的用意，她想帮助儿子讲英文。我很感谢她的帮助。女孩说：我们的班主任老师希望每个同学都能帮助Ｊ，让他尽快会说英文，在这里快乐地生活！
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.
春阳，也是我喜欢的一位万维博主，她幽默的文笔，朴实的文风，平易近人。她在“女儿申请大学记实”中，写到： “总共申请了一个学校，只等了十天，就被录取到了自己想去的学校，还是个有藤的。其中女儿最感兴趣的是城里的哥大和牛大，离家只有四十里，又不是太近。但是哥大却说，可以考虑，但是在bottom of the list，也就是最后考虑，如果还考虑的话。这话叫人很不爽，要就要，不要就不要，bottom算个什么呢？于是女儿也没抱希望，谁让人家学校墙上有藤呢？ 过了几天，哥大的助理教练专程从城里赶过来去看女儿游泳队训练，还带来了校队支持女儿申请哥大的决定。由于他要求见家长，我去了。我问他为什么女儿从候补一跃而成了正式了呢。他说：她克服了困难，把本来只有一天的训练时间变成了两天，让教练和队友们有时间充分了解她。还有回家以后马上就去训练，而大多数孩子都会选择不去训练。 我没作声了。我这个女儿几年来生病可以不上学，却从来没缺过游泳训练。难道他们从这些小事情里看到了这孩子的过人之处？” 春阳在这里分享了孩子的过人之处：是课外做了什么？课内学的是老师让你学的，是被动的。而藤校想要的学生，是要你有自己的想法并付诸实践, 有奉献精神，将来可以为社会做出巨大贡献的学生。
