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Red - Challenges

Blue - Positive Events

Yellow - Mix

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Although this event was trivial, this event taught me how to deal with physical pain, and how to deal with scary situations such as encountering a wasp’s nest. I didn’t have any skills or strategies in particular besides the memorization when I was learning how to deal with future wasp encounters, but this was an event that marked the beginning of encountering scary, difficult challenges and situations. The wasp was just a physical example of the future challenges I would soon face, and this event taught me how to not be intimidated by them by facing the challenges.

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Moving to Canada from Germany was both an exciting and nerve wracking experience, as it opened a new door to a new environment with new places with new cultures. It was both a positive event because of the opportunity to live and experience the lifestyle that Canada has to offer, and a challenging one because of the language barrier - because I only knew Mandarin, Japanese and a little German before coming to Canada - and the cultural differences that I had to overcome.

To overcome the challenge of having to learn English while being in second grade, my strategies were to read lots of books, have conversations with my classmates to learn english conversationally, and to stop speaking my native language with my parents at home. I already knew that learning English would be easier if I started earlier, so I started learning English right away. To learn reading and writing, I also picked up on vocabulary and grammar with the help of my parents by having them read books to me out loud.

Learning English taught me how to be resilient by having to learn English in a short amount of time. Starting with second grade, without even having to take ESL I have learned how to speak English fluently at about the same level of a Grade 3 student by the end of my second grade. Speaking with people who have diverse backgrounds with different ways of speaking English was another factor in making me resilient. There were students who also had the same language barrier as me, and their thick accents and ways of speaking became so confusing at times it made me work harder in trying to understand them.

Learning English also taught me how I can persevere at times as well. However, the perseverance was only there because I was forced to learn English anyway.

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The nostalgia of visiting my Father's childhood home was emotionally refreshing for me and visiting and understanding the type of environment he grew up in led me to understand how that shaped who he is now.

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Getting lost while visiting Japan (2013)

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Getting lost while visiting Japan (2013)

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Similar to the first event of learning English, I was forced to persevere when getting lost in Japan because of the language barrier I had when I was travelling in Japan. Although I spoke Japanese fluently, due to different dialects I encountered many instances where I would misunderstand people. One incident was when I got lost in the subways due to similar train station names.

My strategy here was to use visuals (such) as gestures to help communicate my misunderstanding.

Although, because the incident where I got lost in the subways led me to walk back to our apartment, my strategy was to not repeat the same incident I began studying conversational Japanese between different dialects and slang. To further improve my Japanese I also decided to have more frequent conversations in Japanese with not only my parents but with peers in Japan.
Although there were no significant skills or strategies I used during this event the incident itself in a way was what motivated me to persevere in learning Japanese because it reminded me how I can be not as fluent as I think I am.

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Learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube (starting from 2014)

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Learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube (starting from 2014)

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Learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube was only a matter 0f memorizing algorithms - algorithms are a set of predetermined moves a person memorizes that when combined with others, could allow a person to solve a Rubik’s cube. This is only an oversimplification of how to solve a Rubik’s cube, but most of the work in learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube does lie more in pure memorization rather than critical thinking. To memorize algorithms, my strategy was to continuously execute algorithms to train my muscle memory. In other words, to practice over and over until it becomes second nature from my hands to execute the algorithms, rather than having to remember the moves from my head.

Learning how to solve the Rubik’s cube made me learn how to accomplish something seemingly impossible (that is solving a Rubik’s cube) became second nature to me with just a bit of practice. My resilience to continuously learn new algorithms and memorize them despite hours of practice made me realize how dedicated I can be, and I often use that as an example to remind how determined I can be sometimes as well.

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Overnight Graduation Trip (Grade 7/2019)

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Overnight Graduation Trip (Grade 7/2019)

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Although I already forgot most of what happened here, it was a time for bonding with my middle school classmates. I learned soft skills such as how to socialize and connect with students during this event.

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Fulfilling my promise to my parents to get over 95% in at least two courses (2020)

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Fulfilling my promise to my parents to get over 95% in at least two courses (2020)

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*Not actual report card
My success in being able to fulfill my promise by getting over 95% in at least two courses reminded me what the hard work I had put in over the year was worth.
This would later motivate me to put in lots of effort in my academics knowing that it truly reflects on my grades.

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Distanced learning during pandemic (2021)

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Distanced learning during pandemic (2021)

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Learning virtually became a challenge at times when a teacher isn't physically present in the same room with you at all times, but it was only a challenge in the beginning after I started to get used to the environment. Learning only became difficult when you come across a problem/question when your class is learning asynchronously (meaning students learning or working on their own, with the teacher not actively teaching).
My strategy was to ask all questions and try to discuss any problem/confusion I had with class material before logging off from the class. This was because after logging off, it would prove difficult for a student to come in contact with the teacher again before the class next day.

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Finishing a large assignment in Computer Science (2022)

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Finishing a large assignment in Computer Science (2022)

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My strategy in finishing my Computer Science assignment last semester was to organize my time which would lead me to have a brutal schedule as I would frequently take many hours off of sleep to work on my assignment. Although it was unhealthy, I was able to manage my time to get the assignment handed in on time. The skills that I learned from this event were being able to tolerate sleep deprivation more than before by training my brain to get used to the effects of sleep deprivation, and being able to estimate how much sleep I need so that I can still maintain a healthy mindset for the next day so that I can still work effectively and efficiently. Learning how to balance my time for sleep and learning how to balance my time across subjects so that I had time to work on my Computer Science assignment were all factors that contributed to managing to get the assignment done on time.
This event also taught me how I can be resilient by working hard despite the effects of sleep deprivation.

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Preparing a website and presenting for my English Assignment (2022)

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Preparing a website and presenting for my English Assignment (2022)

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Similar to the Computer Science Assignment, I was forced to cut sleep to prepare for the website due to tight deadlines. The only difference was that I was forced to create and prepare a presentation in a matter of days. Cutting sleep wasn't enough, so to counter this I used every tool in creating a presentation to finish by that time. Presentation templates (Google Slides) and websites for website creation (Google Sites) are an example, and for my research, I used databases rather than google searches to find information.
During the presentation, I used the soft skills I acquired naturally when presenting my website in an engaging manner rather than presenting by using a memorized script so that I would have more time in preparing my presentation rather than spending a lot of time in creating and memorizing a script.
This event taught me how to use various online tools to create websites and presentations, and knowing how underprepared and uninformed of how to use them effectively when I was using them further encouraged me to learn how to use those tools so that I can be prepared in case of another tight deadline such as this one.
Similar to the last event, this event also taught me how I can be resilient by working hard despite the pressure of tight deadlines.