August 25, 2013

Today is the last day of summer 2013. Even though I didn't go anywhere this summer, but I still feel like my summer is pretty intense. I had SAT class for the first month following by SAT Chemistry class. My sister also came back this summer. I spent a lot of time with my family and friends. I really enjoy my summer even though it's full of studying and memorising vocabs, but I still managed to squeeze some time for fun.

August 14, 2013

Today I went to visit my teacher and her one year old daughter.  I am very close to my teacher. She is like my older sister to me. Every time when I wanted to talk to someone, no matter if it's about family or school issues, I would talk to her. However I have always wanted a little sister since I was little. So when my teacher told me that was pregnant, I told her that I wanted to be her daughter's sister and she agreed. She even let me name her daughter. I named her Aria, because it means melody and music. I believe that she is like a beautiful melody that we would always kept in our hearts.

August 13, 2013

These two weeks are the busiest weeks in my life. My sister had her second piano concert at the National Recital Hall at Taipei.  At the concert, I met a lot of long lost friends and families. It's like a meet with old friend. After the concert, my mother, father, my two childhood friends and my cousin, who all live in the States, and I went to eat dinner. We had a lot of fun. We talked about things we did ten years ago when we were just three little kids. We talked about how we used to prank our violin teacher. I started to think that I am old now.

August 1, 2013

I went to Tainan this weekend to attend my sister's concerts. Before my sister's concert on Sunday, my mom, my sister and I went shopping. It was really nice to spend afternoon with my family, especially my sister, who lives in Moscow and only comes back twice a week. At my sister's concert, we met a lot of my father and mother's old friends and families who we almost lost contact of. There was this lady I met. I couldn't remember who she was. After asking my mom, I remembered that she was the one who we went to Germany with us many years ago. Meeting with old friends and families brought out waves and waves of nostalgia.

July 13, 2013

Recently I had finished reading a book called The Five People You Meet in Heave by Mitch Albom. Even though this book is not the type of book I normally read, but I still like it a lot. It is about Eddie, who dies in the first chapter of book, going on a journey to meet five people who somehow changed his life without him noticing. This book teaches me forgiveness is letting go of unhappiness. Eddie had been blaming his father for ruining his life. He couldn't forgive his father even after his father's death. However his angriness led to his unhappiness in life. When you are angry at a person, you tend not to see the good side of that person. You would directly think about the bad side of his or hers actions. But when you let go of your angriness, you would realize that things are not always as negative or as bad as  you thought.

July 7, 2013

Today is one of the most memorable days of this year. First of all my childhood friends came back to Taiwan from California. The younger sister was my childhood best friend. My parents and her parents are friends too, so we have known each other even before kindergarten.  When I was in elementary school, I would go to her house every single day after school. We would do homework together than go out to play. We used to do everything together. We learned violin, tennis, claranet and many other things together. We were like twins. We even had family trips together. My family and her family went to Germany, USA and Canada together. However when I was in firth grade, her family moved to California. For the first year, we would skype every single week. Now five years have passed. I feel like I don't really know her anymore. Time can change people. Even though I met her last summer in California, but I feel like there is a distance between us this time we met.

July 4, 2013

Recently I have been thinking about what I want to study in college and what I want to do when I grow up. Unlike many parents, who would just tell their child that you need to be a doctor or you need to be a lawyer, my parents don't really interfere with my decision. Last night, I asked my dad that what does he want me to study in college. My dad said, "study whatever you like." Even though I feel really relaxed and glad that my parents won't force me to study things that I don't like, but I also I feel like they don't have expectations of me. And now, I have determined that I want to study forensic science on college. Since I was young, I have always been a fan of detective and crime novels and TV series. I want to be a crime scene investigator, and I hope that this dream would come true.

July 1, 2013

The day before yesterday was my sister's birthday.  However we didn't celebrate, because my sister is still in Moscow and won't be back till Wednesday. Unlike many other siblings, my sister and I have a very different relationship. When I was in elementary school, I never play with my sister. My playmates were my classmates and neighbors. My sister has always known what she wanted to be since elementary school and she has been working so hard to achieve her goal since then. When I was little, I used to dislike my sister a lot. I didn't understand why my friends get to play with their siblings but not me. My sister was always busy playing piano or going to piano lessons. She stopped playing with me shortly after I entered elementary school. Just a few years ago, I disliked my sister even more. Because I hated how my parents and my parents friends always talked about how good my sister is and how determined she is. I used to hate going out with my parents especially to weddings or dinners with friends, because I hated how my parents' friends look at me as a sidekick of my sister and that I should be like my sister. Few years have passed since my sister went to Moscow to achieve her goal. I realized that I can be myself too. Why do I always compare myself to her? It doesn't matter what other people said. My sister and I have gone on different paths, but it doesn't mean that we can't be successful at the same time. Lastly I would want to say Happy Birthday to my sister.

June 28, 2013

This week is the first week of Wimbledon, one of the biggest tournament for professional tennis players. As a tennis fan, it is one of my favorite tournaments. However, this year's Wimbledon is very disappointing with the early exits of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, two of my favorite players and former champions of this tournament. For me, tennis is not just a sport or an entertainment. There is more to that. We can actually learn many things from the players and the matches. For a professional tennis player, playing a match is not just about the skills. It is also about mentality. Players need to be able to keep their emotions to themselves especially at critical points during the match. This is one of the reasons why players with lower rankings tend to loose against players within the top ten. They loose not just because their skills are not as good but because they are not as psychologically fit as the top ten players. This does not only apply to lower ranking players. When players are facing players who have better records or career wins than them, they loose mentally. Just three weeks ago, Rafael Nadal won his eighth French Open title by defeating David Ferrer. After the match, David Ferrer said to the reporter, "Rafael, I think he's the best mentally I’ve ever seen in my career. He has everything." David Ferrer, who was ranked number 5 in the world, failed to capture many of the critical points during the match because he failed to over come his nerves. Playing a professional tennis match is not just about tennis skills, but also about which player is better fit mentally.