We're Not Dreamers If We Dont' Have Any

    "Mom still worries about you, bro." That's what my sister told me on the phone three days ago. Two weeks ago, I took the first mid-term exam in my first semester in United States. The result was fair, but there is still something that I got to improve. That's the purpose why we have mid-term and final every semester. I wasn't surprised about the response that my mom made after hearing about my exam result. At the meantime, I felt sorry about making my parents worry about my school work even I'm 27.

    One of the exams turned out 86/100. Pretty satisfied though, but my self confidence wasn't longer exist after knowing that there are twenty more students got 90+ which is a great shock to me. I suddenly realized that what my mom worried has her reason. After graduating from junior high school, I didn't go to any senior high school, like most of my classmates did. Instead, I went to a technical college, which is not a kind of school for preparation of going to regular universities. However, I was still holding my dream studying in the university to fulfill my goal. The attitude that my family member held wasn't positive to my ambition. While preparing for transfer exam in my forth year in the technical college, they just kept telling me that going to the university is not the only option for my career. But I knew that what I was doing wasn't just to change the picture of me on their minds, but to compensate what I have lost in my earlier school life.

    In contrast, my younger sister does a better job in studying than I do. She attended a better university and got the bachelor degree at the age of 22 (I wasn't that smooth; I graduated on 23.).  As the eldest child in my family, I felt ashamed that I couldn't be a good role model for my sister. She spent only one year preparing the application for graduate program in the United States. In comparison, I spent two times of she did in preparing the same thing. As the result, she was admitted a year earlier than me. During the time taking TOEFL and GMAT and preparing all the annoying paper work, I was still fed up with the negative expectation from my mom, which is very discouraging. She wanted me to accept the fact that my sister is more brilliant in studying and told me not to try so hard. I eventually accepted by Boston University in the year 2009, at my age of 26.

    I always firmly believe that what I'm doing is right. Sometimes I just need to ignore some disturbing sound of what I hear and transfer it into an encouraging energy. I love my parents and my sister who is still fighting for her graduate degree in Johns Hopkins University. We always cheer each other up in every stage of our lives. Every one in the world is a dreamer, but the one who succeed is the one who make his/her dream come true.