My dad, Jiang Du was living a normal life before making the decision to study abroad. He had no intentions of changing his lifestyle until my grandfather, who was a professor, came back from his exchange trip to Germany. After hearing the fascinating stories about foreign countries, Jiang was determined to go see and experience the Western culture himself.
Although English was taught in high school and college, Jiang needed to learn more. He started attending a class on the weekends, and after a few weeks, he quit his job so he could spend all his time and effort on learning English. The classes were very crowded so that he had to show up about half an hour earlier to get a seat, or else he would have had to sit on the floor.
It was very challenging for him, as English was Jiang’s second language and he had passed the age when he is able to learn new things quickly. In order to memorize the vocabulary better, he wrote them down over and over again. When he stacked up the scratch paper he had used, it looked like a dictionary. His actual dictionary looked like two dictionaries stacked together because he flipped through it so much that all the pages were crumpled up.
After getting an impressive score on his TOFEL test, Jiang received offers from several ideal schools. However, he had to make a tough decision because he could not afford most of the schools, so he went to a school that offered him a scholarship because a professor needed a foreign student to help with a research.
In addition to working for the professor, Jiang needed more part time jobs in order to pay for his education. He was able to get work at the library, but found it very overwhelming managing his time with everything on his plate. With two jobs and all the classwork that needed to be done, Jiang was exhausted at the end of each day. Once during his library hours, he was so tired that he had to sneak off and nap in the bathroom. Yet, he had to plan his expenses very carefully and save up his income to pay his bills. Even a large piece of pizza from the cafeteria was a luxury because the price was higher than other items.
Fortunately, hard work does pay off. Upon returning to China, Jiang’s experience helped him find a very good job and he had been on a successful journey since. He now works as a salesperson and earns a stable income that provides our family with a comfortable daily life. Jiang said that coming to America was the best thing that happened to him because it provided him with so many unique experiences and opportunities. As he shared his story with me, he reminded me to stay determined and keep trying my hardest, because eventually I will be able to breakthrough and reach success
