It was more than 20 years ago. The only thing I remember clearly is a picture from my textbook, the picture of a man working in a rice field wearing a bizarre straw hat. He was visibly tired, his clothes totally soaked and his hands covered in dirt. He was very different from all the people I was used to see every day, yet the smile on his face looked so familiar. I remember being fascinated and confused at the same time: "What is he doing? Why are his hands covered in dirt? " . Suddenly a word said by the teacher brought me back to the boring reality of my geography class. That word was "China". That man was from China, a mystical country that was thousands kilometers away from that dreaming child.

For the rest of my childhood, I kept imagining and dreaming about this place, wondering if I will ever have the chance to see it with my own eyes. I had to overcome many challenges, but 20 years later fate finally brought that dreaming kid to China. My love for Chinese language led me to Communication University of China, where I had the opportunity to discover and cultivate my passion for Chinese classical and modern literature. It's been almost four years since I arrived in Beijing, four years in which that child finally became an adult that is not only able to communicate, write and read in Chinese, but also capable of achieving great things.  From my personal experience I can confirm that passion and thirst of knowledge mixed together, are possibly the best mentors a student could ever wish for. It is thanks to these mentors that I learned to favor possibilities over probabilities, this is what makes the impossible become possible.

All my efforts have been recognized by the Confucius institute, which has offered me a scholarship for my master's degree. Now I'm ready to challenge myself once again, hoping that someday my knowledge and researches will play an important role to shape the next generation of Chinese learners.

Edited By: Yang Jiawen