C6-The most credited credit
Michelle Tsai
People say that there are three credits you have to get in your college life: academic performance, club activities, and love. So far how many credits have you get? How have you done on these aspects? Are you making some plans to achieve these goals? Do not feel stressed about my questions. I am going to share my experience with you, not for club, not for love, but for my studies. You might have this kind of thought: Oh man, I study all day long. I don’t want to know anything about studies! Well, just take a look because I have something uncommon and unique.
The story dates back to a long time ago. When I first entered NTU, I was a freshman full of hope, energy and curiosity. I had studied hard for approximately 10 years! I wanted to try as many new things as I could. I didn’t want to be a bookworm anymore. So I went to contests, speeches and exhibitions, attended clubs for dancing, badminton and volleyball, and joined NTU Toastmasters! I made lots of new friends, and also kept in touch with the old ones, spending much time hanging out and chatting with them.
While I had such a colorful extracurricular life, I started to lose interest in my studies. I entered department of atmospheric science because of the love for nature. But before learning about atmosphere, we have to take some courses like calculus and physics to get some basic knowledge. In fact, I wasn’t really good at mathematics and physics, and always needed to spend more time to comprehend the courses. Due to lack of interest, confidence and ability, I often nodded off in classes and avoided reviewing these subjects after school. So you must have guessed the terrible results: I got bad grades in these subjects, and even failed calculus! Now you must think of me as the worst student! That’s what my parents thought, too. They couldn’t believe that their perfect child who got good grades all the time did things like this! I was extremely frustrated as well. I felt disappointed about myself and thought that I would never achieve success in college life.
However, things changed magically when my sophomore year began. As you know, everybody decides to work hard at the beginning of the semester, right? I was no exception. But according to our life experience, making up one’s mind is easy while remaining committed is difficult. I made lots of efforts concentrating and focusing on studies, spending more time reviewing courses and doing homework. Furthermore, I had some friends to be my companions and supported one another on schoolwork. After one year’s hard work, my grades progressed significantly. I even received the academic award for 1st place last semester, which I had never dreamed of before! You may think as following now: hmm…..it seems that Michelle is still a good student. Or, wow, Michelle is more intelligent than I thought!
To sum up, in two short years, I have been flunked, but also got an academic award. I suppose few people here has the similar experience, right? But I am not showing off or being shameless when I talk about these experiences. These things are not important at all! Grades may have some kind of value and meaning, but to me, there’s something more special and valuable during the process. Indeed, I failed calculus. But after that I rethought about my attitude towards learning, and also realized the truth that some subjects are just not my cup of tea. On the contrary, I got good grades in my sophomore year. However, it only means that I met the requirements of these courses, but was I really interested in all of them? The answer is ‘no’ for some subjects. The most precious acquisition is that I found my interest in gender issues and feminism through some courses I took.
No matter high or low grades you get, what you should do is to reflect deeply on them. Credits are just credits. What I have really gained is the true meaning of learning. This is exactly the most credited credit in my college life.
TME
台大國際英語演講會 