The Trials By Fire by Vu

The Trials By Fire by Vu - November 2015 Scholarship Essay

Learning is an arduous journey. It is a journey that is attached to our long life, only ever increasing in vastness and complexity as we grow older and older – the short years of education being a small, temporary and essential segment of it. As a high school senior who is still aging and maturing day by day, who is still anticipating the many wonderful things that life still has to behold after I graduate, it is sometimes obvious that education has somewhat amplified my enjoyment of day to day life; however, the one thing that I am most grateful about – being a Vietnamese student from the days of kindergarten until before I came to United States - has given me the extra perseverance and resilience that will be fundamental to this final year of high school, and many years to come in my life – hence “the trials by fire,” as I will explain below.
Not much international documentation would have described in great detail the education system that all Vietnamese students have to pass through at some point in their life, but most people will remark that my native country’s schooling is immensely strict and difficult. Even from the first grade, innocent schoolchildren must study concepts that would not be suitable for their age – things such as complicated mathematics and complex sentence structure and literature – jumping straight into more advanced studying, completely skipping the needed “education” that is moral disciple. As the students age, more brain-wrecking and mind-shattering fields of study are gradually added into the workload – chemistry, physics, trigonometry, geometry, and biology. They have completely no choice over their favored fields of studying and thus must juggle simultaneously around 11 different subjects at the same time, every single day – not mentioning the prodigious amount of homework that come along with it. Their schedules are almost restricted to a certain degree, giving barely enough space to take a breather and “chill out.” That is why, even from a young age, Vietnamese students are forced to develop a sense of self-management and self-discipline. They must learn to balance between their personal free time and total devotion to studying so as not to completely lose their sanity, learn to grasp the most important ideas of each subject so that they will not fall behind in their schedule and become stressed out, and even fail their tests. Studying is such an important segment in every Vietnamese’s life, which is why a desultory and superficial approach to studying could have just guaranteed an atrocious future for many inattentive, lackadaisical students.
When I - a fresh-off-the-boat high school senior who is looking forward for an amazing school year – arrived in the United States, I did not have much of an idea about how the education system works. Knowing that United States is one of the most advanced countries regarding knowledge and technological advancements, I expected a stressful and difficult year, with the cultural barriers and much opposition within the high school learning level. However, things turned out to be much different from what I had envisioned in the first place, with school and tests appeared to be more or less relaxing for me. No heaps of homework, no intense test nights, everything seemed perfect for me. Despite the fact that I managed to cope with American schooling and tests, I struggled at first to blend in with the student body and make friends, often thinking about returning back to my homeland, accepting the various lamentations that will assure. In the end, I suddenly remembered the years back in my country with all the strictness and the massive difficulty that I must pull through – yet I did not give in. I did not completely give up despite the hazardous obstacles that are presented to me. Hitherto, I had been passing the grueling and burdensome Vietnamese education, yet I did not toss in the towel. Given the confidence of the fact that everything will be fine in the end with the endurance and persistence I had unconsciously built over the years, I stood up. I overcame my inner self that had told me to give up, and I succeeded in doing so. That is why I am relishing my senior year, along with the many cronies I have made so far.
Sometimes, I do not appreciate education because of the knowledge that it brings, but because of the valuable “life lessons” that it secretly carries. Sometimes I hate that the intense studying over the years would be naught but useless in my future life, but considering the “trials of fire” that I have been going through and the invaluable benefits that it has brought into my life and my future, I am truly grateful of that part of education – the education to be a better human being. The “trials by fire” might have scorched my mind and scarred my soul, but it has built my heart to be much stronger than ever before.