#memoryforlife

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I last posted. Literally, I had my best summer ever in my life. During the past two months, I went to Harvard summer school, went on a college visit alone in California and attended a training camp in Shanghai. Rich experience, huh? Before I went to Boston, what I expected for the summer would be the nerd life-studying all the time. But there in Harvard, I met the best professor and the nicest people I’ve ever known.

I chose 2 courses- political communication and writings on social and ethical issues. Actually, political communication is not really like what I expected. I thought it would be a class full of high school students, however, in my class only 3 out of 24 students is in high school. Most of them are undergrad, grad and even college professors. I was really inspired when I saw retired man keep learning in my class. I have 70-80 pages of readings to do every day, which is a lot to me who has been studying science in Chinese public high school. The other course is more interesting. It feels like a seminar more than a class. Every day before class, we need to read several ethical cases. The next day in class, we will discuss the case and express our opinions on it. Fun but still can’t compare with local kids in writing.

I have to say in this summer, I met a bunch of kids having the same interests and same dream, who become my closest friends. We hang out all the time, study together till midnight and share our little secrets. We went to a beach in Boston, even though not really nice beach but did have fun with all my besties. I still remember the time when we stayed all night up writing papers before due in science center. Believe it or not, some students even brought their blankets to the classroom to sleep. God, that’s crazy! There was a book once super popular in China, talking about how Harvard undergrads study till 4 am in the library… But from what I’ve learned, Widener Library closed at 10 pm on weekdays. I totally have no idea where this 4am story came from.

What Harvard summer school brought me are only those nice people and beautiful memories, but also a new perspective of seeing myself. I was asked what my passion is when I was in junior year. I’ve thought about the question the whole year and did not find an answer. During my 2 months in Harvard, I found out that dancing has become a part of my life. I used to hate it a lot, considering it as something I was forced to do by my mom. All my memories of dancing are those hard time doing gymnastic pieces to keep my body flexible. In the summer, I first find myself immersed in dancing on a dance party. Without any limitation of dancing rules, I moved my body along with the music and enjoyed so much. Then, it was the dance practice with my friends in ball room, where I was first confident about my talent. I performed a solo Xinjiang dancing on talent show, one of the biggest events in Harvard summer school. I still remember the screams, the applause and all the compliments. I even got flowers from a boy I used to have a crush on after the show! Amazing！I feel like I’ve become a more outgoing and more independent person. I have a different way of seeing the world and finally accept who I really am, instead of living in the limited figure other people created for me. I can be myself, a crazy social girl with a passion in dancing and communication, instead of being the figure other people created for me, a nice kid obeying every order from parents or teachers and getting perfect score all the time. I know that’s not me so clearly now.

I will never forget the summer I spent in Harvard, and I will never forget all of you wonderful people I met in Harvard. See you guys in one year!