Fresh Start

As I walked outside, I realized it was raining. I moved swiftly to my bike, hoping it wouldn't get bigger. But the clouds were impatient, as the rain inevitably started pouring down. I quickly put my phone and my wallet into my bag and returned to my dorm immediately. When I finally got to cover, I was so wet it was as if I had taken a shower, except fully dressed. I promised myself I would never leave my dorm without my umbrella again.

Many people who study literature typically interpret the rain as a metaphor for death or a symbolism of sadness and tragedy. But that day, I walked out of a life changing speech when it started raining. To me, it was it felt more refreshing than ever. It cleansed me, like Jesus's blood cleansed all sins. What happened in the past didn't matter anymore. All the failures, pitfalls, and confrontations were all behind me. This, was my fresh start. 

...

"You wanna be like Steve Jobs!? That's just pathetic." my friend told me. "No, what I mean is I want to change the world just like Steve Jobs, not be like him." I explained. "That's still pretty ambitious man. Good luck with that."

I've always had a dream of changing the world, revolutionizing the high-tech industry. But I wanted to do it in Taiwan, because I know it we have the potential to innovate, we just never tried. I read books and watched online speeches about entrepreneurship. I studied business and problem solving to educate myself. Everyday, I only thought about finding my core competencies and leveraging them. 

As I became increasingly motivated, I shared my ideas with my friends and family. Unfortunately, not many people understood my ambition and aspiration. They thought I was too naive and impossible to accomplish. I initially tried to neglect the negative responses, but it eventually became too overwhelming. As a result, I started doubting myself, and reflected on what I was saying. "Can I really do it? Am I being one of those crazy naive kids that just thinks I can change the world but can't really crap?" 

An internal conflict began, and I became really frustrated. On top of that, my self-conscious counter-part kicked in. "Are you stupid? What are you thinking?!" I thought. "There has been no point in your life, where you outperformed anyone! You've just been average. Really really average." But my ambition will soon be reignited.

On a regular Wednesday afternoon, I walked into our Thought Leaders' Workshop classroom, thinking it was going to be another boring speech where a random alumni blabbers about his or hers research that nobody cares about, and the only task that could benefit at that time was sleeping. But as this Stanford professor started her speech, her first question to us was, what is your passion? I immediately knew this wasn't going to be any ordinary speech.

She talked about developing passion, understanding one's self, leveraging your strengths and discerning your weaknesses. It was extremely insightful; I even turned off my tablet to pay full attention to what she was going to say. She covered many issues, such as social movements, civil disobedience, etc. But what really hit home was when she talked about being yourself. 

"Don't worry too much about people think about you. They're too busy minding they're own business." she stated. It suddenly made me think, "Wow, that makes a lot of sense!" I knew I needed to know more from this professor. After the speech ended, I approached her and shared with her my ambition of changing the world and making an impact on society. I wanted to heard what she thought about it.

"That's great!" she remarked, "I'm always glad to meet people like you with that ambition."

"But sometimes I feel like I'm the only person that has this ambition. I can't single-handedly change this world." I asked insecurely.

"I understand the powerlessness you feel. But if you think about the great people that changed the world, they were all by themselves too. If people want to make in impact, they just have to believe in themselves, and just go for it." she responded, "You could be that one person." 

You could be that one person...

Those six words echoed in my mind a million times per second as I walked into the pouring rain; I was determined once again. The temperature dropped as the rain came down and my body was cold, but my heart was burning. It was burning with that fire of passion that I once had. I didn't doubt myself anymore, because as I biked through the rain, I knew: "I will be that one person."