The Challenge Overcome: Reflect on a particularly challenging academic obstacle you faced.

What was the challenge, and why was it difficult? Describe the process you went through to
overcome it and how you felt afterwards.

My middle school math teacher grabbed my ears, twisted 360 degrees forward and 360 degrees
backward, twice. My ears were immediately flushing and burning. I attempted to hold back my
tears and did not tell anybody what happened, even my parents. Such trauma had long become a
scar in my mind. Six years later, I walked behind my mentor toward my first class, as a rookie
high school math teacher assistant. Even though my mentor kept telling me to relax, extreme
nervousness and tension surged in a flash, and my legs were both shaking. Memories of the past
were still fresh in my head. Luckily, my first tutoring was quite successful. When the student
asked about Limit, I could confidently write out the steps to a solution, along with rules and
tricks for such a problem. The first time I heard him say "Thank you so much", tears welled up in
my eyes. I was not afraid of the dreadful scar on my heart anymore. Every time I am facing
problems, I think of this experience and how I handled it on my own. With this experience, I
took one step out of my comfort zone with courage. Not only did I overcome this math trauma,
but also I am in love with math now: I always learn math by myself in my free time and attended
some math competitions to test my mastery of math knowledge.

First Day Jitters: Describe your first day at a significant educational institution (elementary
school, high school, college). What were your feelings as you stepped through the doors? What
stood out to you about the environment, the people, and the overall atmosphere?

I still remember my first day of school in high school. Walking on the road myself as a
fourteen-year-old boy was not easy. When I left my parents, my tears went down, loneliness and
insecurity filled my heart. Being alone in a new environment without knowing anyone. I told
myself I needed to get stronger, proving to everyone that the decision of sending me to study
abroad was correct and that I was capable of continuing along that path on my own. Surprisingly,
When school started, everything became a solid whole. On the first day of school, I met several
people who all smiled at me and talked to me as if we had been friends for a long time. I
gradually began to come out of my protective shell and talk to classmates and teachers; they
were interested in my culture and background, and I was happy and comfortable telling them
who I was. Surprisingly, the more I talked about my cultural background, the more relaxed and
curious they became about me. My classmates seemed to enjoy spending time with me, and I
made a lot of lifelong friends. The openness and warmth of everyone at school played a huge
role in transforming my initial fear and anxiety into excitement and eagerness to embrace this
new chapter. It was clear from the start that this would be a place where I could grow, learn, and
form lasting bonds.

A Lesson Beyond the Classroom: Recall a time when you learned something invaluable that
wasn’t part of the standard curriculum. This could be a life lesson, a practical skill, or an insight
about yourself or the world. How did this experience come about, and why has it stayed with
you?

When I was in lower school, as I heard the door open, I took out the chess board from the closet
and arranged all the chess pieces, waiting for my father to play chess with me after work. This
was the special “alone time” that my father and I treasured. He guided my thought process and
provided feedback after I considered whether this step was solved correctly or whether there
would be better alternatives. Because of this, I have deepened my love of playing chess,
especially the process of solving the puzzles during the game.
My interest in playing chess has not only added more vibrant color to my life but also cultivated
my patience when approaching challenges. Through this, I have brought my talent for solving
problems into academia, especially in the fields my major is data science. In the world of
statistics and data science, a lot of difficulties will appear, and debugging them is a common pain
for students to suffer. Many students will be driven crazy by challenges, and some of them will
even give up. From my perspective, I enjoy resolving these difficulties: it was chess that
provided a sturdy and tough mentality: instead of complaining about any of the setbacks, I will
separate them into small steps, and patiently work through each one. Problem-solving with
patience is extremely crucial in the complex world of probability and data science.

Expanding
The Challenge Overcome: Reflect on a particularly challenging academic obstacle you faced.
What was the challenge, and why was it difficult? Describe the process you went through to
overcome it and how you felt afterwards.

“How could you still not understand this math problem even though I explained it so many
times?” My middle school math teacher grabbed my ears, twisted 360 degrees forward and 360
degrees backward, twice. My ears were immediately flushing and burning. I failed to hold back
my tears, and did not tell anybody what happened, even my parents. Such trauma had long
become a scar in my mind, and sometimes I could still clearly see what was happening in my
nightmare.

That was a Friday afternoon. The entire class was having math office hours. Mrs. Luci was
sitting in the middle of class, staring at everyone, and yelled: “If you want to ask me questions,
come to my office. I do not want to waste my time here.” Her shadow disappeared as soon as she
walked out of the classroom.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one wanted to be the first target, neither did I, even though
I had questions about the math homework related to limits. After a while, two or three of my
classmates acted as the brave souls, walking out from their seats and going to Mrs. Luci’s office.
I felt a pang of relief mixed with a tinge of guilt for not being as courageous. I watched intently
at the window, waiting for them to come back and seeking out any changes in their facial
expressions. To my surprise, they walked back calmly and started to work on their homework. I
could not discern anything from their faces. Inspired by their success, I summoned the courage to
join them. As I approached, my heart pounded, and my palms sweated. I tried to focus on my
problem.

As I walked into the office, the room was so quiet. No one was talking, except for the sound of
tapping on the keyboard. I tried to stand next to Mrs. Luci, finding a perfect timing to ask, “Hi
Mrs. Luci, I have questions about No. 7. I do not know what to do. Can you please give me some
advice?” One minute later, she stopped tapping her keyboard and looked at the problem I was
asking about. She said, “What method do you think we should use here?” “L'Hôpital's Rule?” I
murmured, not confident in what I just said. “Okay, what is the limit of the denominator?” I
looked closely at the problem, my heart beating so fast, and my brain felt empty. I tried to solve
it in my mind, but I failed. “This is such an easy problem. What is the limit of cos 3x?” she
started to get angry, her voice rising. At that moment, I couldn't think of anything. I was standing
there, unable to answer the question. Suddenly, she grabbed my ears, twisting them 360 degrees
forward and backward, twice. “We went over this in class! How dare you not remember?” She
grabbed my pen, wrote down the steps on a piece of paper, and said, “Copy this 5 times on your
own and you can remember” I left the classroom, and tears streamed down my face
uncontrollably. Such trauma had long become a scar in my mind.

Six years later, I walked behind my mentor toward my first class, as a rookie high school math
teacher assistant. Even though my mentor kept telling me to relax, extreme nervousness and
tension surged in a flash, and my legs were both shaking. Memories of the past were still fresh.

No one was talking in the classroom. I greeted them haltingly: “Hi guys. I am... your new math
teacher…” Yet no one was talking. After so many years, my scar suddenly ached at this moment.
I started to doubt myself whether I could be a good math teacher assistant.

Suddenly, my mentor tapped me on the shoulder. He pointed at the student raising his hand, “Go!
You can do it.” The student was asking me a question about Limit: “To find the limit of sin3x/x
when x is approaching 0”. I realized it was one of my strongest topics. The roles were reversed. I
should teach him and I have the ability to do so. I wrote out the steps to a solution on a piece of
paper quickly, and told him some rules and tricks: Multiply the top and bottom of the expression
by 3, and substitute a letter for 3x. Although he had not totally comprehended at this point,
instead of being strict with students physically, I encouraged him and explained again and again,
until the student was satisfied with his work. “Thank you so much.” At the first time when I
heard this, tears welled up in my eyes. I was not afraid of the dreadful scar on my heart any
more.
Every time I am facing problems, I think of this experience and how I handled it on my own.
Overcoming a trauma or a difficulty is hard, but what I developed is bravery and growth as a
person. With this experience, I took one step out of my comfort zone with courage. Not only did
I overcome this math trauma, but also I am in love with math now: I always learn math by
myself and attended some math competitions to test my mastery of math knowledge. In addition,
my responsibility and caring for people as a teacher have also become essential. I have kept
teaching classmates with their math, planning to continue tutoring more students later in my life.
In fact, seeing people’s smiles after helping them could make me cheerful. Finally, the power of
my interest also gave me strengths. If I had not offered help with a problem, I would not have
been able to conquer my fear.