Where does someone's drive come from?
The odd thing about me writing to you now is that I absolutely hated English in high school. It was honestly the bane of my existence, the one class that I genuinely struggled with. I did a very poor job at articulating my thoughts the way I wanted them to come out.
After high school I wound up majoring in math in university because of my distain for writing and English class. It turned out math and English were alike. It didn't matter if it was math or English, even if you tried and got the answer right in math or wrote down your opinion in English, you could still simply be wrong; if you missed writing down a step in your work for math or had the wrong opinion of a piece in English, I found they were ultimately the same, frustrating. So, I turned into a history major. This was probably one of the best things I could have done as I met some very influential people through this department.
One that truly stands out is Dr. Luke Kwong. He was a professor at the school who focused on Asian history. He was an extremely hard marker and I was simply content with doing alright in his class.
High school I feel had not fully prepared me for what I was getting myself into. So, as I put the same effort into the university classes as I had in high school I struggled with my grades. In high school I had been on the honour roll and in university I was beginning to accept becoming a "C+".
I found the class I took with Dr. Kwong was extremely interesting. The Asian culture is so incredibly different and extremely thought provoking. I walked away with a "C" in the class and signed up for another class specifically focusing on China with him. After the first class of that semester I stopped by his office to pick up my final exam from the class I had finished the semester before. He looked at my test and handed it to me saying, very seriously, "You may want to reconsider taking this class before add/drop period is over."
I was literally at a loss for words. Everyone had been telling me that "C's get degrees" and getting a "C" in university was good. I was reserved to accept this and to keep going at life the way I was until this professor basically told me, "No, you're not good enough for my class," because that is what I heard when he simply told me to reconsider the class.
I took my exam from him and left that day, completely changed. That night I did reconsider taking the class. I looked at the other classes being offered in the history department; but, none of them seemed quite as interesting as the one I was in. I thought about how I reacted to his warning and became resolved to show him wrong, to show him I was not one of those students who was simply fine with just getting by.
By my third and fourth year I had finally reached the Dean's List, the university honour roll. I continued with my history degree and have found myself here. Upon my friend's encouragement I sent Dr. Kwong a message this last year. That life changing semester, where he questioned my choice to take his class was actually his last at the school. I never got to thank him at convocation as I was able to thank Dr. Chris Burton. Students hadn't liked Dr. Kwong, he was too tough a marker, and the school let him go for whatever reason. In my message I explained what the brief interaction in his office had done for me and I thanked him for not making his classes easy.
I was pleasantly surprised to get a response back from him stating that he most definitely remembered me and acknowledged my improvement from the first semester to the second semester's class. In the email he stated that I was "one of the dare-devils who stayed on despite my warning!"
The point of the story isn't to brag about my university career, in fact the first two years were extremely terrible. What I want people to understand is that people need to be challenged, but more importantly people need to find a way to rise to the challenge.
There are an unlimited amount of obstacles one will face in life, we never know what will happen and shouldn't expect to plan out our lives. If my plans had turned out the way I thought then I would either be a math teacher or a pathologist; but, I've found myself doing something I never thought that I would be.
People can do the bare minimum to get by, many often do. I know I did in the first part of my university career; but, people need to find the fire within to overcome challenges.
Whether this drive is developed internally or externally is not important, as long as it is found. In my almost 24 years on this world I discovered that people won't necessarily know what they want to do in life and will flounder; but, this doesn't mean they shouldn't find the drive within them to do the best they can regardless of not knowing if what they are doing is what they want to be doing.
