Stubborn childhood: "Parents of poor students stay and talk later"
Yang Meng was born in an intellectual family in Changsha. His grandfather taught in colleges and universities before his retirement, and his parents were also college teachers. Due to the busy parents' work, Yang Meng has been put in foster care at his grandfather's house for a long time. Lack of parental supervision and supervision has made Meng Xiao develop a playful character, often running around in various streets. Later, her parents were transferred to a university in Guangzhou, and Yang Meng, who was five and a half years old, followed her south.
After going to Harvard, many people will ask Yang Meng's parents: "Is this child getting particularly good grades since childhood?" The parents' meeting will answer directly: "His grades have been poor since he was a child."
Yang Meng said, this is true. Since childhood, my grades in my class have been particularly "stable". There are 50 students in Class One, and his ranking has been rotating between the 35th and the 36th. "I am lazy, I don't do my homework, and my grades will be 36; Take time to look, the score will be 35. "
"In that age group with only scores, scores and rankings are almost the ID cards of students at school." Yang Meng recalled with a smile that if students with good grades were regarded as "naughty" because they made naughty mistakes, students with poor grades would be regarded as "nonsense" with bad nature and become the object of teachers' control.
Once, after attending a parent-teacher conference, Yang Meng's father came home and vomited that "poor parents were left to talk again". Little Yang Meng immediately retorted: "The teacher said that we are not poor students, but promising children."
Failure in the college entrance examination: "Fate gave me a slap in the face"
When she entered high school, Yang Meng was assigned to a sponsored class. In this class, the school didn't even put them in the same teaching building as other students. But this is the appetite of contract scientists, and we are happy together and cultivate deep feelings.
In the third year of senior high school, in order to "learn to prepare for war" and save travel time, Meng Yang and two other students rented a house outside the school, fantasizing about all kinds of colorful campus life after the "battle", but in reality, everyone talked late into the night every night and had classes the next day, which was exhausting. ...
Indulging in basketball, making friends and talking about high school life, fate did not hesitate to laugh at him: in that year's college entrance examination, he did not pass the undergraduate course line, and even did not save one line, only one line in the city.
"At that time, the biggest psychological pressure should be parents." Yang Meng said that the children of other college employees have successfully passed the national key points, but their own children have ...
Once again, parents broke their hearts for their children. Through various channels, they fought for four ways for Yang Meng: First, they went to the city to study in a junior college and strived to be promoted to a junior college two years later; Second, go abroad, go to New Zealand to study preparatory courses, and take an examination of local universities in the second year; Third, find ways to pay sponsorship fees to go to college and study non-popular majors; Fourth, repeat and re-enter the college entrance examination.
Yang Meng decided to repeat without hesitation. "Because something hasn't been found yet, I must find it back." Those things, in fact, he didn't know what they were.
"It's hard to repeat. Do you have confidence? " The family asked.
Yang Meng replied without thinking: "Reading is my own business, and I will be responsible for myself!" "
Looking back many years later, Yang Meng felt that "those things" should be the state and mentality of independence, self-discipline, responsibility and struggle as human beings.
Choose to repeat: there are always some things in life that are worth insisting on once.
"In the past, my parents chose the road for me." Yang Meng said that this is the first time in his life that he has made his own choice on major issues. "Once you make a choice, no one will be responsible for your behavior. From then on, everything depends on yourself. "
In the days when the students were sent to Japan to part ways, Yang Meng was filled with indescribable melancholy and heaviness. But when the drum of life strikes again, this sense of hesitation about the future soon disappears, and it is replaced by the concentration and happiness of burying one's head in reading.
Recalling the life of re-reading, Yang Meng was filled with gratitude. "This is the first time in my life to study hard. In the past, reading can only be said to be all kinds of pressures. Repetition is an active and spontaneous will. " Until now, it is hard for him to forget the happiness brought by reading and studying under the white halo of fluorescent lamp.
A year passed quickly in enrichment and busyness. It is another year of college entrance examination, and the results are released. Compared with the previous year, the total score increased by nearly 150 points, exceeding the investment line of key universities by 40 points. Yang Meng's achievements surprised everyone.
"If my future children ask me how long I have studied hard, I don't want to answer shyly that it's just a year of repetition. I prefer to tell them that it started in the year of re-reading. "
The transformation of Europe: the collapse of confidence in accumulating achievements.
Regarding the choice between universities and majors, Yang Meng puts majors first. He chose the Department of Architecture with great interest and was admitted to the School of Architecture of Shenzhen University.
"The Department of Architecture is notoriously busy and has heavy homework. Not only do you need to take more credits than other majors, but you also need to take five years as an undergraduate. It is more common to stay up late to draw pictures and make models. But in my opinion at that time, no matter how hard it is, it will not be like the third year of high school, especially during the repetition period. " Yang Meng said, "For a person like me who didn't even get an undergraduate course, it was suffering that made me find myself, and it was suffering that brought me unprecedented success."
Being interested in the major is really the magic that keeps everyone going. While students of other majors are relaxing and enjoying college life, Yang Meng and his classmates are engaged in design work all night. Even on holidays, when everyone else went home, he stayed in the classroom all night.
On a six-day holiday, Meng Yang wanted to go to the Sun Yat-sen Library to study, but she was a little hesitant, because she wanted a one-month pass to 60 yuan, but she only stayed for six days, so it was not worthwhile. But his mother is very supportive of his going. "I am very grateful to my mother." Yang Meng said that because she knows what is really precious and what money can't buy, that is her son's heart to learn.
Luck will never forget to care about those who work hard. Yang Meng got the chance to be an exchange student in Vienna. However, the year of being alone in Europe has also given him unprecedented new challenges-in this completely unfamiliar environment, he met his true self-a self that is "nothing" except his achievements.
I can't buy food, I can't cook, I can't even read a map, and I can't ask for directions. Everything can only be done behind everyone's back, it is difficult to act independently, and there is no independent opinion. The pride accumulated from my achievements was bitten to pieces by reality.
Changing yourself is the only way out. Yang Meng secretly went to learn shopping, cooking, English, various travel skills, orientation, hotel booking and route setting, and changed from a "minion" to a team leader, traveling around the country with classmates and friends, traveling east and staying west. He bravely found himself again.
"Life is strange, and we all pray that it will give us a stable life and don't test us. However, only when we encounter difficult choices can we face our true selves and define ourselves. " Just entering Europe changed life in Yang Meng.
Dream of Harvard: I want to live a hard but great life
After the exchange, Yang Meng returned to Shenzhen University and got the news that the college had the opportunity to recommend graduate students to the University of Southern California and had a high scholarship. But the golden opportunity came, and he immediately prepared an application document. In April of that year, he received the admission notice.
In learning, the United States and China are very different, and many classes are discussed. A large amount of homework is a major feature, especially reading. The defense is only given once a month in China and almost every week in southern Canada. Students are bombarded with homework and deadlines every day, and there is no extra rest time at all. The greeting for everyone to meet is: Did you sleep last night?
Although tired, the professional growth is real. Two teachers from Harvard in the college had the greatest influence on Yang Meng. "Their critical attitude towards design requirements makes me full of imagination about the design of Harvard, a temple-level school." Yang Meng said that this is a deep desire for higher-level design, just like a primitive thirst for knowledge, a passion to climb to the top of the world and see the whole world from a distance.
However, just when he was full of ambition to prepare materials, long-term lack of sleep and high-intensity study made his body in a sub-health state for a long time, and his body collapsed like a domino. In just one and a half months, his weight plummeted, his function was abnormal, and his energy could not be concentrated. The doctor asked him to give up his application for further study. "If you insist on going, it's gambling."
This alarm made Yang Meng start to reflect on the past. "Life is a long way. If you live morbidly by burning your life, even if you get the whole world, you lose your health. What else can you use to love yourself and the people you care about? "
Yang Meng began to turn to the flood of job hunting. In the United States, compared with going to school, work is a kind of cultivation that returns to a regular life. After more than a year of nursed back to health, he once again rekindled his desire to apply for Harvard graduate students after having a clearer understanding of his career and professional interests.
In the intense application process, there was another unexpected setback: Yang Meng was fired in the face of unemployment. But this time, faced with unemployment and the pressure of applying for a school, Yang Meng stopped panicking and complaining, but concentrated on how to deal with the current crisis. He began to mobilize all his friends, colleagues and teachers to help him find job opportunities. With his unremitting efforts and everyone's help,/kloc-0 got 7 interview opportunities every month, and finally, he was admitted to the famous Disney Dream Project.
On an ordinary working day, Yang Meng received the admission notice from Harvard University.
"In the future, I hope to live a hard but great life." Now, Meng Yang and 65,438+00 other China students studying at Harvard have compiled their own stories into a book. They hope to tell those young people who are looking for their dreams with their own experiences that life is long and you can start over at any time.