Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

I scrolled through Weibo before bed, and the screen was filled with news of snow in Hangzhou. Having been away from home for half a year, the homesickness is growing stronger. This is my first time traveling so far from home, and I'm experiencing that feeling firsthand.

2012, a landmark year in my life, is coming to an end, and it's time to summarize and look forward to the future.

2012 started with snow, and I remember feeling down about it for a long time. Everyone else went to find internships, while I stayed in my dorm. In early January, everyone finished their final exams and went home. That's when I made my wishes before going abroad, which were also my four wishes for 2012. My blog post from that time: http://blog.taojing.name/post/302/

The semester that followed was like a dream. The end of my university years felt like packing my bags before I went abroad. God gave me everything I wanted, and was also reminding me that it was time to let go of the past. These things have been with me for 21 years, accumulated step by step until now. There's nothing special about them; I just followed my feelings and my ideals.

In August, I left Hangzhou, where I had lived for 21 years. This time, I traveled to Washington, D.C., on the other side of the world. I am very grateful to my parents for giving me this opportunity to study abroad. In the past six months, I feel that I have experienced and grown a lot. Before, I lived in a small world, unable to see the outside world, and I could control and explain all phenomena. But after stepping out, I discovered that the world is not the world I imagined, and what was correct in my world is not entirely correct here.

Adaptation has been the key word for the past six months. I need to break free from my old self and rebuild a form I can accept. The more I experience, the more I understand. People aren't concerned with how things unfold, or whether things are optimal; they're concerned with the meaning of the outcome for themselves. Therefore, we don't need to care about the truth, or who is right and who is wrong; we only need to provide the world with a credible result. As for the underlying reasons, we just need to experience them to understand.

If the first half of 2012 was the peak of a platform, then the second half was its trough. Those six months were incredibly difficult, with a huge drop in fortune, changing environments, and language and cultural differences, which was a tremendous test of my mental strength. I'm very fortunate to have made it through; it's a painful memory. Without experiencing it, everything seems simple.

My biggest takeaway here is that everyone's a "hero." You don't see anything special normally, but when it really matters, they unleash all sorts of skills and their stats skyrocket. This is very different from China, where, although there are many similar geniuses, most don't have much skill when it really matters. Being in the same classroom as them is incredibly stressful.

Actually, this is a good thing. Looking back on junior high and high school, I was surrounded by people like this. Such an environment allows one to concentrate. How can you look up when you're on an uphill climb?

Once you've adapted to the situation, it's time to catch up with those ahead! Falling so far behind isn't easy to do. Take it one step at a time, just like before. Lock away the old ways and start chasing those amazing masters like a student without any baggage.

2013 will be a year of building momentum. I might not accomplish anything significant, but I'll accumulate a lot of energy to prepare for that moment of takeoff. Here are a few wishes:

1. Find a satisfactory summer internship in the next few months.

2. Successfully winning the award in April.

3. The product was successfully developed and… (encrypted)

Thank you to everyone who helped and quietly supported us! Your support is so important.

2012 began with snow and ended with snow, poetic.