Who am I?
Now, finally there’s a question that I can answer without any hesitation. And the answer is: I have no idea.
Well, for the most part, I would like to think that I am not that different from any other 18-year-old guy. There are things I enjoy and things I hate. I spent the first 10 years of my life in Beijing,China; and I’ll soon be completing the second ten years here in New York. I remember that before I came here, I told my mom that I don’t want to leave China and that I will never enjoy living in the US; “wait ‘till you complete your next ten years”, she responded, “then see if you’ll have the same answer”.
And as amazing as it might seem, I think my mom was right.
My first few years here were extremely boring. I came here in the middle of 5th grade, and I wasn’t able to hold a proper conversation with anyone at school. I was a bit intimidated by everything in this strange new environment. But still, I liked it; because if I was still in China there would already of tons of assignments everyday waiting for me. Here I hardly have any homework.
It wasn’t until the second year that I began to try speak in English. Now that I think of it my English must have been horrible back then; but all the kids in my class were very friendly, so it was a smooth transition for me.
Over the next few years, I became interested in tennis. I guess I was fairly talented at it, so I was always a little bit ahead of everyone. Ever since then, tennis has been “my thing”. I was upset that junior high schools in NYC don’t have sports teams, but once I started high school, I went to apply for the team on the very first day.
I’ve been on my school’s varsity team ever since then. While I was on the team, we’ve beaten some of the best tennis teams in the city, including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Townsend Harris and more. We’re also the first school to defeat Benjamin Cardozo at their home game ever since their courts were built.
During my junior year in high school, I became interested in photography. I was lucky that the photography teacher at my school was actually a professional photographer. In that class, I slowly started to master the fundamentals of taking pictures. Over time, I would try to add in a little bit of “me” into every picture I take.
I do not believe in any specific type of religion, because science has always been able to offer a better explaination. But I do believe that, there is some sort of a supreme being out there that’s way more intelligent and more powerful than we are; simply because of how complicated this universe is.
Coming back to the topic of “Who am I”, personally I think it is impossible for us to have an accurate view of ourselves. Plus, I remember this very interesting idea from my favorite anime. The idea is complicated, but I will try to use myself as an example to explain.
The idea is that, whenever I am interacting with someone, there’s the Andy in my own mind, and the Andy in the other person’s mind. It is when these two Andys come together, that’s the true Andy at that particular moment.
I know, some of you right now are probably like “WTF o.O……”
At last, I would like to share with you some of my favorite pictures that I took over this past year.
Enjoy, and take care.
