This series allows our community to connect with our alumni and learn the great work they are doing around the globe. The XLIS mission to enable confident, open-minded global citizens is evident in their lives.
Years you have studied at XLIS?
10 Years; 2015 to 2025.
What brought your family to XLIS/Xi’an?
My family is from Xi’an. In 2012, when I was 5, I went to live in the United States for around two and a half years for reasons of my father’s occupation. Upon returning, I decided that I wanted to pursue an education that aimed towards an international range. That is how my path intersected with XLIS.
Where are you located now?
San Diego, California in the US.
What are you doing now?
I am currently a first year undergraduate majoring in interdisciplinary computing and the arts at the University of California, San Diego.
What’s your fondest memory of XLIS?
Ten years is a long span – too long for me to choose a fondest memory from. Though, if I had to pick one that was most memorable to me, it would likely be the final days of my time at XLIS, when the realization slowly dawned that I would soon be leaving this place where I had spent a decade. For the first time, hesitance had taken the place of anticipation that came with summer break. Those last few days was when I began to recall all the little fragments that made up the whole experience, be it the people I met, the challenges we overcame, the joy we shared or the pain we endured. All of it returned to my head so suddenly that it was difficult to comprehend how all the days and nights I had wished would pass by sooner were now just an afterthought of my academic journey here. Time, as I learned, is no more generous to the reluctant than it is merciful for the eager. Saying goodbye was not my fondest memory. It was when all the fond memories came back to me.
Please share a story on how you are still making a difference today.
Hard to say. I try what I can to maintain a positive influence for those around me, but I do not know if my presence is significant enough to make a true difference in anyone. The only person that I know for certain I can change for the better is myself, and that is who I choose to focus on. My years at XLIS have helped me develop a degree of mental resilience to which externalities very rarely affect me. But that is not to say I can always remain unperturbed to compelling issues such as undesirable living conditions and the like. In the process of readapting to this foreign country, I will strive to fortify my mind and self beyond my comfort, and that will be all the difference. As for my friends and peers, I wish to share this mentality with them in the hopes that they could use it to overcome their own difficulties.
