My American Dream

When I first stood on the ground of OSU, I knew that i had already achieved my dream and it brought me back to the summer of 2007 when the dream started. My reason are as follow:

Firstly, Americans are so friendly! My first time in the US was for the summer program of Wellesley College and traveling. From the research I did before, I found that Wellesley College is a woman’s liberal arts college and what impressed me is Hillary Clinton got her bachelor’s degree from this college. So I first considered this school conservative, strict and rigorous; however, the staff of summer program warmly welcomed us and showed solicitude to us because we are the first Chinese group they had ever had. I attended a lot of stimulating classes and made many friends. We shared opinions about everything including our traditions, hobbies, dream jobs and even points we hold for our own countries. I felt that our relationship was so close even though we had only been together for a few days.

Secondly, colleges are beautiful and are full of fun in the US. During Wellesley College’s camp, I experienced the American college student’s lifestyle: go to classes, attend activities and have fun. I found that the school did have some interesting things to do, such as kayaking, canoeing, workshops, weekend trip and sight-seeing of the city.I tried to sail on the lake of the college and our sailing boat not surprisingly turned upside down, but that’s fine because I had so much fun! I intensively felt the freedom of being student in American schools. Besides college student life, we also went to visit some top universities with great reputation, such as MIT, Harvard and Georgetown. I walked around those universities with gorgeous buildings, beautiful campus, age-old traditions, long history and famous libraries. They were better than I thought!

Thirdly, there are so many touching stories in the US. The most impressive and unforgettable story of the trip was at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C..I clearly remember when I tried to get closer to the statue, I saw a mother holding her little son’s hand walking slowly towards me. I moved a little bit to make way for them. They came to the statue I wanted to see and stopped. The mother pointed at the statue and told her son “this is your grandfather”. Just a few words, a simple and short sentence suddenly shocked my heart. I don’t know how to describe that feeling, I don’t know if it is precise to say that I cherished a feeling of great reverence for both the veteran and the  inconspicuous two people standing next to me. But I’m quite sure what I see and what I feel is strong, uplifting and heart-warming.

When I was ready to return to China, I realized that I have an exact dream -- I wanted to study in this country someday! It’s true that I didn’t understand English well, I know a little about the United States and I even wasn’t aware of how hard would it be to study aboard. It sounded impossible for me at that time, but I was touched and encouraged so much by this country. Moreover, I wanted to explore a different side of the world. Since then, I had my own dream to fight for. 

The first thing I did after the trip was to persuade my parents to let me study abroad in the future. With their permission, I started to practice my oral English, and then went to TOEFL and SAT classes in my second high school year. It’s hard to prepare for the TOEFL, SAT at the same time especially when my high school teacher told me that there’s Chinese High School Graduation Test. Even though I felt busy exhausted everyday, I still had the faith that I can nail it and finally this belief led me to success. I understood that how much you reward depends on how much you pay.

Now I’m studying in Ohio State University, and I’m glad that my American dream comes true.

Photo:

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