Annie's Corner: Lessons from a Semester in America
My high school experience this year was the most challenging and most wonderful year of my life.
Time spent living with my family and going to Craig High School has taught me many life lessons that I will cherish for the rest of my life, but most importantly the things that I am most grateful for is developing my independence, my critical thinking skills, and getting out of my comfort zone.
As I became more familiar with what was expected of me at school, I tried to take everything in.
However, the most challenging aspect of being part of “school life” was working with other local students.
I was used to being more independent in my learning, but I found that collaborating with others made me more successful as a student and as a person.
I felt a little scared when speaking with American students because I felt that the language barrier was a big obstacle, but I pushed forward and knew that staying in my comfort zone wouldn’t make me grow.
As I opened myself up to my classmates they embraced me with open arms which I didn’t think was going to happen, but this meant so much to me that they would include me in their lives.
Additionally, one huge step for me was taking the initiative to reach out to others in my classes so that I was able to work comfortably with them.
Engaging in teamwork was a long and painful process for me. It took many attempts to try to be assertive enough to be able to work comfortably in my groups, especially in my AP Government class as I am the only Chinese student there.
I’m very grateful to my teacher because she kept me from feeling isolated and grouped me with classmates that made me feel very comfortable and intelligent.
I was able to share my ideas and have political discussions without feeling awkward or embarrassed.
One thing that is hard for teenagers is to put ourselves out there and be vulnerable. I am appreciative that my classmates didn’t do that but instead included me in everything and the words that I looked forward to most were, “Do you want to work with us?”
The other thing I learned during this year is having the independent thinking.
In the past, I would like to trust the news without thinking for myself.
When I came here , I discussed different topics, such as politics, with people that have different views.
I can’t say which one is right because I don’t believe there’s really any objective news.
Both America and China all have bunch of fake news because they all want their citizens to know what they want to them to know.
The only way for us to explore the truth is thinking by ourselves and doing our own research.
This March, I participated in the Washington Seminar with my american classmates to study the US-China relations. I interviewed a lot of political men and talked with them.
After getting the information, I am trying to think for myself and not be directed by any kind of news media.
There are biases here and in other countries when it comes to the news.
So how about just going someplace to experience and think for ourselves. I think that is more real than any news.
My fellow classmates, we are about to journey on into the rest of our lives. We will only have two choices, to merely exist like chickens or to live and be who we are and who we want to be.
Congratulations to the class of 2018!
Annie was one of eight seniors to audition to be commencement speaker. The words of this column are those of her speech.
Time spent living with my family and going to Craig High School has taught me many life lessons that I will cherish for the rest of my life, but most importantly the things that I am most grateful for is developing my independence, my critical thinking skills, and getting out of my comfort zone.
As I became more familiar with what was expected of me at school, I tried to take everything in.
However, the most challenging aspect of being part of “school life” was working with other local students.
I was used to being more independent in my learning, but I found that collaborating with others made me more successful as a student and as a person.
I felt a little scared when speaking with American students because I felt that the language barrier was a big obstacle, but I pushed forward and knew that staying in my comfort zone wouldn’t make me grow.
As I opened myself up to my classmates they embraced me with open arms which I didn’t think was going to happen, but this meant so much to me that they would include me in their lives.
Additionally, one huge step for me was taking the initiative to reach out to others in my classes so that I was able to work comfortably with them.
Engaging in teamwork was a long and painful process for me. It took many attempts to try to be assertive enough to be able to work comfortably in my groups, especially in my AP Government class as I am the only Chinese student there.
I’m very grateful to my teacher because she kept me from feeling isolated and grouped me with classmates that made me feel very comfortable and intelligent.
I was able to share my ideas and have political discussions without feeling awkward or embarrassed.
One thing that is hard for teenagers is to put ourselves out there and be vulnerable. I am appreciative that my classmates didn’t do that but instead included me in everything and the words that I looked forward to most were, “Do you want to work with us?”
The other thing I learned during this year is having the independent thinking.
In the past, I would like to trust the news without thinking for myself.
When I came here , I discussed different topics, such as politics, with people that have different views.
I can’t say which one is right because I don’t believe there’s really any objective news.
Both America and China all have bunch of fake news because they all want their citizens to know what they want to them to know.
The only way for us to explore the truth is thinking by ourselves and doing our own research.
This March, I participated in the Washington Seminar with my american classmates to study the US-China relations. I interviewed a lot of political men and talked with them.
After getting the information, I am trying to think for myself and not be directed by any kind of news media.
There are biases here and in other countries when it comes to the news.
So how about just going someplace to experience and think for ourselves. I think that is more real than any news.
My fellow classmates, we are about to journey on into the rest of our lives. We will only have two choices, to merely exist like chickens or to live and be who we are and who we want to be.
Congratulations to the class of 2018!
Annie was one of eight seniors to audition to be commencement speaker. The words of this column are those of her speech.