Hard work (Part 1 of 3)
Hello There!
If you are a teenager and work hard and never give up in high school,
you can change your fate. Below is the true story of my friend.
In the 80s, he moved from a third world country to Canada.
Knowing no more than twenty very basic English statements.
For examples, What is your name? How are you? I'm fine, thank
you. Where are you come from?..., And so on. And he only know
the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division math.
He spent two years at the school before attending high school.
For these two years, due to his poor English skills, he did not
know what was going on, especially in mathematics.
His hard work began in high school.
For all mathematics courses, his math teachers asked
students to do (a), (b), (c), and (d). After he did all (a), (b), (c), (d), and
he also did (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), ..., etc. for every math course he took.
He also did math exercises during the break time at his summer
jobs. Due to his hard work, he scored at least grade A on every
his mathematics courses. Also, he received a number of math awards
due to he scored the highest grades in a number of courses.
For his grade 13 English course, the only way he could ask for
help was to ask the librarian in his high school library due to at
that time, there were no teaching assistant tutors and no teacher
office hours. Again by his hard work, he scored at least grade A
for his grade 13 English course.
For all science courses, for the beginner courses, he did so so.
But, as his English proficiency has improved so much over time.
And again, by his efforts, he scored at least grade A on all of his
grade 13 science courses.
For all computer science courses, they are all super simple for
him. That is why he chose a major in computer science at
university.
For all piano courses, he loved them. So that is why
today, he would like to relearn how to play piano.
He did very well on all of his grade 13 courses. So that is why he
was accepted to the University of Toronto, one of the most
famous universities in the world.
Note that he spent five years at high school (from grade 9 to
grade 13) before attending university.
My conclusion is that getting great grade is not guaranteed. It is not handed to you. Great grade must be earned on your own by hard work.
Regards,
Jimmy Lam
1 January 2022