Michael Joo (11th grade)

When I first opened this book, I perceived this book as a typical novel, which doesn’t require contemplation, yet after finishing the book, it left me with numerous values and inquiries. Great Expectations is a novel written by Charles Dickens. Pip, the main character of this novel, is an ambitious person and encounters countless obstacles in his life. He has several life stages - innocence, failure and maturity. When he was innocent, he didn’t understand the distinct social hierarchy. However, after Miss Havisham’s rejection to marrying Estella, his innocence is lost, and his ambition begins to grow. In the second step of his life, his determination towards a higher social status climaxes. A stranger gives Pip a great expectation, and Pip spends all of his money to pursue it, without considering the repercussions. Lastly in the third step of his life, Pip realizes his mistakes and reflects upon himself, already corrupted and with astronomical debt. I confess that I have many similarities with Pip. Like Pip, I know that I am ambitious. Reflecting on it, I think ambition always starts with the same reason as Pip.

“…as Joe and Biddy became more at their cheerful ease again, I become quite gloomy. Dissatisfied with my fortune, of course, I could not be, but it is possible that I may have been, without quite knowing dissatisfied with myself.” 

This is one of the quotes that stimulated Pip’s ambition: his abhorrence of himself and the desire of reputation.

My ambition also started similarly. My family or friends who were talking about my shortcomings have always stimulated me to achieve more, gain recognition and no longer hear these words again. I wanted to show them my potential and aptness. I’m sure everyone has ambitions, which can be both an impulse towards success, but also a driving force to failure. As for myself, I regard my ambition as a diving force to failure. I regard it as an ardent desire for rank, fame or power. For instance, I always have to get a reward in any extracurricular activities that I participate in. Whenever I register for an activity, I start only with the feelings of great excitement and anticipation. However, as the competition approaches, my ambition to get a reward and to do better than others, which is settled deep inside my heart, starts to grow. And after competitions where I failed to get a reward, my conflicting emotions start to flush out of my mouth. This kind of ambition not only impeded my growth but also gave a negative influence on my surroundings. For example, Pip’s life completely collapsed. But with me perceiving this issue earlier than Pip, I know that if I don’t solve this egocentric problem now, it can and will only get worse. Thus, in order to diminish this problem, I began contemplating my perception of extracurricular activities and also stopped having the mindset of wanting to be better than others. I began reconsidering the reason why I attend competitions.

Is it for brightening my resume, or is it for my personal growth? After reflecting, I realized that every time I attend a competition, no matter what the result, I always have learned something precious through it. The result of the competitions gave just a momentary happiness, but the process and experiences were lifelong lessons. Some examples of how I grew are seen in the progress in my English proficiency, the significance of teamwork to me and a trivial but a closer step towards achieving my vision. And this is now the reason why I participate in competitions. I want to develop myself through it. I would not let my ambition outweigh my reasons for participating in competitions, since it just drives me away from my original purpose of participating. Once my ambition takes over my reason for participating, I won’t have the opportunity to learn through it but be overwhelmed with greed.

While reading this book, I learned that people shouldn’t live base on their ambition. When we think that ambition is controlling us, we should struggle to escape from it or seek support from others to break away from it. Because excessive ambition will eventually lead to an irreversible tragedy. As closure, I would like to share a quote that captures my lesson from this book with everyone.

“Ambition is not itself an evil: nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honorable ways”

– Francesco Guicciardini. 

Please remember that we all could have ambition, but we should never let ambition have authority over us.

The Right Mirror
11th grade

We are now Juniors, but we were all once in CSL like you guys. In the process of training in Wanbang, we were able to see our true selves through many mirrors. 

The Mirror of Responsibility
CSL was the time we were introduced to new mirrors we had never seen before when we were in Korea. The most important mirror we learned to appreciate was the mirror of responsibility. 
Everyone has a responsibility to be a servant leader in our community. At first, we were really shocked to see students clean the classroom, only because they loved their peers and felt the responsibility to provide them a clean environment to study. These acts of students became the mirror of responsibility that everybody in the class soon could see their reflections on. One by one, students began carrying out their responsibility and soon we were all one step closer to being servant leaders in our classroom.

The Mirror of Study 
There were many times that we thought we had studied really hard, but our scores remained the same or our passion to study didn’t last really long. Do you know why? It is because we were pretending to study, in other words, we were studying for high scores - even studying just to score higher than a certain person. However, through PBL, campaign fairs, and Solomon Project, we were able to look into another mirror, the mirror of study, to help us realize that we should study not for college or comparisons but to improve ourselves and to complete our duty as students. Through studies, we also acquired new knowledge and was able to expand our understandings about our own passion or dream. 

Mirror in Relationship
For young teenagers, there are so many times that we choose to use how others view us as the mirror that defines ourselves. However, in that mirror, our flaws are always badly exaggerated. Focusing on the mirror of others, we even started to deny our positive qualities and lost confidence in our daily lives. Finally, with the help of caring teachers, friends and genuine room leaders, we realized that we had been looking into the wrong mirror. In the end, we learned that the true mirror we need to see ourselves in is through the mirror of the perfect love. People’s words are worth considering, but they are not everything.
We can see that the training we are completing here at Wanbang all strengthens this “mirror of the perfect love”. Our dear friends and dorm family, we hope that you will explore many more different kinds of mirrors like the mirror of responsibility and the mirror of study, but most of all the mirror of the perfect love. 

True Happiness in an Unlucky Life
 

We can’t avoid slumps in our lives. However, for some people, the difficulties can be more frequent than others, and usually we call them ‘unlucky people’. The book Holes is a story about an unlucky boy—Stanley Yelnats, who was innocent but falsely charged for stealing sneakers and forced to join Green Lake camp— a detention center where they made the delinquents dig holes in a desert. Because of Stanley’s bad luck, many poor and unfair situations happen at the camp, but at the end of the story Stanley finds happiness. 

Many things happen in this book and most of the situations Stanley faces are unfair, but they are also critical. The scene that left the deepest impression on me was when Stanley taught Zero, his illiterate friend at Green Lake Camp, how to write the alphabet and when Zero helped Stanley dig a hole. At first, Zero was a boy who only knew how to speak, but one day when Stanley was reading his mother’s letter, Zero approached Stanley and asked if he could teach him to read. Stanley refused at first since he was so tired and the time Stanley would have to teach Zero was his only break time to recover and recharge his energy to dig holes the next day. Zero’s request was too heavy for him. When Stanley tried to refuse Zero’s request, Zero came out with a new suggestion: Zero would help Stanley dig holes and Stanley would teach Zero the alphabet. Stanley accepted Zero’s deal. Despite receiving resentment from others, they continued to help and comfort each other. From this moment, I found that helping each other and having cooperation can help us overcome “unluckiness”. This life lesson can be applied to my life. For example, we have study groups in Wanbang which are small groups where students gather together and share what they learn. We not only can learn what we’ve lost during the class but we also share our knowledge. We understand that this is a way to overcome the limitation of knowledge by a single person. Therefore, cooperating habits can make us both proud and pleased and help us overcome “unluckiness” or other negative factors.

I was also deeply impressed when Stanley was finally freed from Green Lake camp. In my view, he was able to be freed because of his justice. Throughout the whole story, Stanley always did the right thing no matter how risky it was for him. He was a boy who risked himself to help others and finally received the reward of his actions. Justice brought good luck to the unlucky Stanley. We can find many moments in the story that show Stanley’s justice. He risked himself to find lost Zero, he always said the truth and patiently waited until others realized the truth, even when they teased him. If I was in his situation, it would be really hard for me to be truthful and just, especially if I had to risk something. However, the honest and kind Stanley was able to boldly dedicate himself to his values and cope with his difficulties. He is a consistent boy and his kindness brought everyone happiness and gave a positive influence. I decided to be honest and just consistently like Stanley, even when it has a risk.  

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. This book was my first English book that I completed in middle school, and it captivated my attention with many interesting and fun scenes. Not only was the book interesting, but it also taught me an important life lesson. I am often pessimistic about my life, especially when I’m unjustly misunderstood by other people, or unluckily fail to do something I really put an effort on doing. However, after I read Holes, I found that a mindset like Stanley can help us find true happiness even in an unlucky life through cooperation and being just. These kinds of happiness aren’t easy to find, but as long as we find them and remember them, we can be positive and happy. 

After reading ‘The Hobbit’
Celine Myoung(10th grade)
 

Looking back, I noticed that the last time I dreamed of going on an adventure was more than 10 years ago. So, when I picked up this book, I knew I had to read it though in order to see what kind of adventures I had forgotten to dream for so many years. At first, I didn’t really expect to learn any new lessons from this book since I had already seen the movie version. My guess, however, was completely wrong. While I read this book, I learned thousands of new things, things I had been ignoring and pushing out of my life.

In the beginning of the book, Bilbo Baggins, the main character, was very unambitious and preferred his comfortable life at home. To be honest, I, myself, have also felt the same thing as Bilbo. Since I was young, I secured myself in a state which I was familiar with. I locked up my school life, habits, current situation, etc. and I never dared to do something new because I was afraid of failing and losing. I could whole-heartedly understand Bilbo when he refused to leave his home to go on an adventure, because I sympathized with his comfort of being stable and safe. However, it was not when Bilbo was safe and sound in his own hobbit-house that he was able learn something, but it was when he was out on the adventure and when he was in the middle of dangers that he was able to grow. When I read this part, I learned that in order to reach or achieve something, I must not be afraid. Also, when I take a step out of my comfort zone, I gain the opportunity to become a better person. So from now on, I made a decision to not to be too comfortable or satisfied, but instead to be ambitious and have courage throughout my life.
 

Also, in the book, Bilbo becomes afraid and anxious when Gandalf tells Bilbo that he would be leaving their expedition a while. Gandalf was the only mighty one among them that had the ability to save them from various dangers. I also had a similar experience with Bilbo. When I was young, I had numerous troubles with my classmates. My mom helped me to deal with these problems, and thanks to her, I was able to work the whole thing out. But suddenly one day, my mom declared that she would not help me anymore, since I had already grown up and should learn how to make relationships independently. That’s when I started to be nervous and fearful. I had a hard time socializing and making relationship with friends for a while. I blamed my mom for abandoning me in the difficult times and doubted if she even cared for me. But through this book, I could make sense of why she left me on my own - she wanted me to get through the difficulties without her protection and help. Similarly, I believe that the reason why Bilbo could gain so many valuable lessons and new traits during his adventure was because Gandalf left their expedition for a while. Now, I am very grateful to my mom in that she let me face the difficulties on my own. I believe that’s how I could become better at making relationships. I decided to be thankful whenever I face difficulties without protection or guardians to help me because it can be a great opportunity for me to learn and develop. Even now, I am facing thousands of new challenges every day. Since I know that these challenges and hard times will be stepping stones to success, I am determined to accept them and deal with them with my full effort.

Lastly, this book made me think about the true definition of "friendship”. Before I read this book, I always thought that friends must be loyal to each other and never anger one another. However, this book told me that this isn’t always the case. For instance, when Thorin was obsessed with the treasures he regained, Bilbo was worried about him. And although Thorin longed to find the Arkenstone in the piles of his treasures, Bilbo didn’t give it to him, and instead handed it to Bard in order to help them both. When Thorin found out about the Arkenstone, he was furious and thought Bilbo was a traitor, but Bilbo gave up the stone because he was whole-heartedly concerned about Thorin. Sometimes, these kinds of things happen in my life as well. Until I read this book, I thought my “friends” were not really my friends because they were not on my side. Looking back, I feel embarrassed and grateful to them for stopping me from improper actions. I realized that my friends here in Wanbang School are my true friends. I decided that if they try to help me, I will be thankful to them, although their help might not look like they are being loyal to me.

The book, ‘The Hobbit’, is filled with many great lessons. Through this book, I learned that I shouldn’t be afraid of trying something new, true development happens when I face difficulties on my own, and that real friends act according to the best decisions that fit one another. I think I could accept these lessons sincerely because I could understand and connect with the characters in the book. I decided that I should not stay miserable thinking that I am not good enough, but always try to overcome just like the characters in this book did.

Don’t limit yourself, but believe in yourself.

大家好！

I’m Kyu Choi from Harbin Wanbang international school, who was the CEO of the company ARES. Throughout the competition, each team has shared its blood, tears, and sweat together. Especially as a foreigner, I was deeply honored to see the efforts of prospective leaders of China.

Before I begin my actual speech, I would like to introduce an interesting tale. Do you know how a trainer tame elephants? Do elephants not have the power to unbind themselves from a chain?

Indeed, they do. However, the reason why they can’t break the restraint is because they don’t try anymore.

Since their youth period, elephants are bound to a shackle. They try their best to break the chain; however, it doesn’t work, and they would say, “Man, I can never break this thing.”

After this moment, they give up. And the elephants never try again.

Some of you might feel confused, thinking, “Why this dude is talking about elephants in a business competition?” But what I feel like is, these elephants are just like us.

When we were young, we didn’t really care about what others say. Everyone has once dreamed of something great, and we believed that we could achieve it. However, as the time passed, we met obstacles, we met critics, and we reduced our dreams to nothing. We compromised. We limited ourselves.

A famous businesswoman, Mary Kay Ash has once said, “You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.”

We should never limit ourselves. What we believe is something we can achieve.

But, I’m here to tell you that mere belief is not the key. What we really need to hold is the earnest belief and vivid vision, because we all have purposes and missions to complete. And I tell you that after I realized I can do anything through my earnest belief, my life changed dramatically. Opportunities came to me: the opportunity to study, opportunity to learn in China, opportunity to be here. I observed so many miracles in my life. And today, I genuinely believe that one day a student from this competition will change the world; and I wish, all of you do, too.

As we close the conference, I would like to invite you to take my offer. My offer is that all of you should not limit yourselves. Then, your leadership, relationship, and even your life will then be drastically changed.

Thank you!