Nov.17 is a national entrance exam(In Japan, it's Center entrance exam for universities) for universities in Korea. At KNU this morning, I saw many students with a textbook in one hand walking around to come to take the exams. Entrance exams means a year of hard studies. It also reminded me of my memories about studying. There were years in my life that I can say to anyone, "I did study hard!" It was when I was a second grader and a senior in highchool. In the summer of my second grade year, my family moved to a surburban town in N.J.,U.S.. due to my father's transfer. I was soon enrolled in a public school in town. Ofcourse, I had not known any English at all. But year went by and a shocking incident happens. On the last day of scool, only my report card had no next year's classroom was written. Later my parents were told by my teacher that " My English level was not high enough to be kept up in the class so I should stay back a year." This was a great shock to little me. It was when I tried my best to adjust to my new environment and I started making new friends,too. Few days later, my mother said to me, "You think you can study English all summer long if I asked your teacher to give you English workbooks to do?? You think you can really try hard?" My reply, "I will try really hard". When I look back, I must have been a kid who just hated to be a loser. Anyways, it was summer to remember! Studying every day from morning to night, hardly no time to play. It was a very stressful summer for me and I got a 10yen bald on my head by the thime summer was over. At that time, there were no English-Japanese dictionaries for children. So what happens if I don't know English word? I first look it up in the English-Japanese dictionary, then I look up in the Kanji dictionary because I'm too young to be able to read hard Kanji. After I look up my Kanji, I look up in the Japanese dictionary to find out what the Kanji means.This was repeated over and over whenever I stumble upon a word I don't know. Thanks to this process, I have achieved many things such as being able to use the dictionaries very fast, fun of doing a research, the memory never to forget,once I had alot of difficulties trying to find out the meaning, and being able to read and understand hard Kanji at an early age. I guess all my hardships of the summer came to a happy result. I was able to go up a grade with my fellow classmates on the first day of the new school year. Then, I lived in U.S. until I was 15years old with my family. This experience gave me alot of confidence and taught me if there's a will, there's a way.Then 10years later, when I was a senior in highschool getting ready for my university entrance exams and my family was again living in U.S.. due to my father's transfer. As a child, I was always moving around, in and out of schools because of my father's transfer. I begged my father to for just once! let me finish the school I'm enrolled in. I stayed back in Japan by myself. The start of my senior was not a very good start. Right after I was seperated from my family, I was hospitalized for appendix. After that I was studying really hard or my exams. To tell you the truth, there was a big disadvantages for me brcause it had been almost 3 years since my return from U.S. has passed and I couldn't try to enroll myself in universities with admissions for returnee students from overseas. There was no chance that I could do well as everyone else who were raised in Japan to study. So my only choices were to take the recommendation entrance exams and a normal entrance exams like everyone else. But I did study hard that year and luckily or not, I was able to enroll myself in a university in Tokyo area. At that times, it was nothing but unbearing and hard and stressful days. But when I look back, maybe it's that experience that keeps me who I am today and that it always reminds me "It's too early to give up! Just give it a little more push!" towards my life. So, I guess I should give it a try, right?!