The first thing that went through my mind when I first arrived at the airport by myself in South Carolina was «now my life is starting to have a 180 degree change.» After I arrived at school, I became so shy. I found out that I was the only Chinese student and the only international student in the school. On the first day of school, I could hardly make any friends because my English was very poor.

It was a military school, therefore it was something different from other regular middle schools. There were many differences. First, my school was run on a rank system like the real army. I was a new student so I received the lowest rank. The lower rank students have to give respect to the officers. Sometimes they would make the lower ranks do something that was against the school rules. For example, they would make you do homework for them, clean their rooms, and some other personal things.

The second major difference was that I had to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and eat breakfast with the whole school. I have never been to a school that required students to wake up so early and required people to eat all the meals. Third, the food there was also different from other schools’ food, most of the time students ate the left over food from the last meal. In that school, I ate the worst food in my life. The food there was cold, usually there was not enough for everybody (the higher rank cadets always get more food), and the kitchen staffs cooked the same food for every two or three days. Fourth, every Friday night was called the clean-up night. The lower ranks had to clean up the dormitory, including the bathroom. Therefore, Friday usually was the busiest and most tiring night. Fifth, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the students had to spend one hour for drill with the rifle under the sun. About every two or three weeks, there was a parade held by the whole school.

By the second week of schooling, I was already used to the 180-degree change. Since I was the only non-American in the school some cadets were very interested in me. They began to know more about me. But some cadets ignored me just because I could not speak perfect English and I am Chinese. Although some of them ignored me, I was still trying to help them when they had any problems and to meet more people in school because the more friends I made the more English I had to speak. The more English I spoke the faster my English improved.

I like sports, therefore I joined the basketball and track teams. When I was in the basketball team some teammates never passed me the ball during the first three weeks of the season. Later, they started to figure out that I was a good player, but some teammates still did not talk to me or some even hated me just because I am Chinese and I was one of the starters in the team. For the first year of school, I did not find any difficulty in academics. I even studied math courses two level higher than the cadets who were the same age as I was. During the eighth grade and ninth grade, I received a gold star, which was for students who had excellent grades in academics.
I studied military school for three years. After three years of military life, I learned a lot. I learned how to advise people, how to be organized, and how to be disciplined. Among those three years, the first year I would describe as suffering because I did not know what military life was like. People were picking on me. After I knew the system, I found it kind of fun, because I knew how to receive a higher rank and I got more power.

Receiving a higher rank is based on cadets' grades and conduct. Since I had a high reputation from all the teachers, I received a rank called the Sergeant First class in tenth grade. Sergeant First class was the highest rank cadets could get in tenth grade. My job was to work as an officer assistant and discuss the ways to organize our dormitory. I was in charge to half of the dormitory. During the clean- up night, I had to organize people to clean up the dormitory and inspect what they had done. If it did not pass my standard they would need to clean the dormitory again.
For the last year of my staying at military school I was in tenth grade. I also got a gold star award that year. That was the third one I earned. My friends thought I worked very hard for it, but I thought I did not. I thought the reason I got the award was because the classes were very easy. Then I decided to go to another harder school which was in Pennsylvania. Then I started a completely new life at George School. I studied there for my junior and senior years.
For my senior year I volunteered to do a service project. I spent two hours per week talking to people who were hyperactive, disabled and handicapped.

George School is a Quaker school, here I began to become a Quaker. I also joined the basketball and track team there. I was the captain of the basketball team! Because of that position I started to make more friends than I had in military school. I was very proud of that. Before I came to the United States to study I thought it was hard for me to make friends because I could hardly speak any English and now I could speak it fluently and that was my goal for studying in the United States.

Even though I have already fulfilled by goal, I decided to earn a degree in the States. I am planning to major in business. Since I heard Indiana University has a great business program, I applied and they accepted me with a scholarship as long as I could keep 3.0 GPA or above.
The beginning of college life was wonderful. I got 4 A's and one B- in the first semester mid- term. Unfortunately, my roommate suddenly committed suicide in November. Then I began to suffer from depression. I just did not want to do anything. I could not sleep. I felt tired, sometimes I even felt scared. Then my grades started to decline, which made my average GPA 2.5 in first year at IU. At first, I mistakenly thought Indiana University advisers would give me advice, tell me more about what had happened, comfort me, and do what they have to do to calm me. Disappointingly, school faculty did not do a single thing about his death, and they took away my scholarship because I no longer received a 3.0 or above GPA average. It is almost a year now, I am totally recovered and I will prove 2.5 GPA average is not what I deserved.