I have always been given a lot of freedom throughout my life. As my parents’ only child, they have always wanted me to pursue my dreams. They have tried very hard to make sure that I didn’t have any external factors refraining me from pursuing my dreams and exploring my interests. That being said, my weekends as a 10 year-old girl weren’t occupied by academic tutoring classes, but instead with extra-curriculars. Ballet, art, Taekwondo, calligraphy, piano etc. I made a lot of life-long, valuable friends through those experiences and improved my communication skills tremendously. As I grew older, my parents suggested that I should go to summer schools to get a feel of how college life is and what environments would suit me the best. I was thrilled to take classes in different colleges; it made me feel like a grown-up.
At the end of sophomore year in high school, I started to feel guilty about attending so many extra-curriculars. I realized that my end-of-year final exams scores weren’t as good as expected so I decided to quit all of my extracurriculars including art and ballet that I have been learning for over 8 years. I started to devote all my time into my academics and went to tutoring sessions after school almost every day. However, life doesn’t always go your way. Not only my grades didn’t improve as much as I expected, I realized that I wasn’t in a good mental state. Since all my attention was on my grades, tiny fluctuations caused me to have major mental breakdowns. I viewed myself as incompetent and was convinced that there was no way for me to get into a good university. I was too scared to get help from anyone so I stayed in that horrible spiral for another 6 months.
In order to help me with my college applications, I had an university counselor based in Hong Kong to help edit essays and give suggestions on extra-curriculars. After brainstorming, my counselor mentioned that I was lacking a lot of activities especially those relating to creativity and sports. I suddenly realized that it was time for me to get out of the spiral and how narrow-sighted I was to abruptly give up my extracurriculars at that time. Therefore, I started to become more involved in the school and seek for more community service opportunities. I was living a more balanced lifestyle by being able to allocate my time more efficiently. It has helped my academics in the long-run because being more involved pushed me to make a more organized study plan and ensure that I could get everything done on time. Procrastination was not in my dictionary anymore.
Ever since then, “balanced” has always been a keyword and a goal that I try to work towards in my life. Just like a bowl of water, if it is leaning towards one side, you would lose all the water. The same concept applies to my experience as well. I was too focused on academics and ignored all the other exciting aspects of life. As a result, nothing was achieved. It caused me to lose myself in the process and not being able to recognize who I truly am. Being “balanced” helped me to view the world with a broader perspective. For example, when working on a project for Chemistry in college, I am able to use my artistic skills from the extracurriculars to get inspiration. It also motivates me to challenge myself and be part of different organizations on campus. It is crucial to understand and develop your strengths and interests because they will in the future be invaluable treasures.
At the end of sophomore year in high school, I started to feel guilty about attending so many extra-curriculars. I realized that my end-of-year final exams scores weren’t as good as expected so I decided to quit all of my extracurriculars including art and ballet that I have been learning for over 8 years. I started to devote all my time into my academics and went to tutoring sessions after school almost every day. However, life doesn’t always go your way. Not only my grades didn’t improve as much as I expected, I realized that I wasn’t in a good mental state. Since all my attention was on my grades, tiny fluctuations caused me to have major mental breakdowns. I viewed myself as incompetent and was convinced that there was no way for me to get into a good university. I was too scared to get help from anyone so I stayed in that horrible spiral for another 6 months.
In order to help me with my college applications, I had an university counselor based in Hong Kong to help edit essays and give suggestions on extra-curriculars. After brainstorming, my counselor mentioned that I was lacking a lot of activities especially those relating to creativity and sports. I suddenly realized that it was time for me to get out of the spiral and how narrow-sighted I was to abruptly give up my extracurriculars at that time. Therefore, I started to become more involved in the school and seek for more community service opportunities. I was living a more balanced lifestyle by being able to allocate my time more efficiently. It has helped my academics in the long-run because being more involved pushed me to make a more organized study plan and ensure that I could get everything done on time. Procrastination was not in my dictionary anymore.
Ever since then, “balanced” has always been a keyword and a goal that I try to work towards in my life. Just like a bowl of water, if it is leaning towards one side, you would lose all the water. The same concept applies to my experience as well. I was too focused on academics and ignored all the other exciting aspects of life. As a result, nothing was achieved. It caused me to lose myself in the process and not being able to recognize who I truly am. Being “balanced” helped me to view the world with a broader perspective. For example, when working on a project for Chemistry in college, I am able to use my artistic skills from the extracurriculars to get inspiration. It also motivates me to challenge myself and be part of different organizations on campus. It is crucial to understand and develop your strengths and interests because they will in the future be invaluable treasures.