2012

2012, is the year of Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, as well as the year for the end of the world in the Mayan calendar. But to me, it's the year when miracles happened in my life.

January 11th, I met him in China. We first met each other on CS blog about two years ago and then kept in touch privately for about one year before we met in person. We emailed each other everyday and not a day had missed; we talked about everything; we were honest with each other and we trusted each other completely. We stayed in contact this way before he came to China to see me.

The beginning of our time spent together was a little beyond our expectations. He was experiencing cultural shock and we were having a hard time getting along. But eventually we settled and compromised. We spent the most special 28 days of our lives together. It was priceless and unique for both of us.

February 8th, he left China. Since then we had been missing each other greatly. He told me he could come see me again half a year or a year later, but I knew that would be for a short time only, which would still be tough for both of us. At the same time, I was going to graduate from university in 5 months, I was just thinking about pursuing a Master's degree abroad or staying in China to find a job. After an in-depth consideration, I decided to further my study in the US.

April 28th, I took the ibt TOFEL for the first time and I scored 90. The result was higher than I thought, since I only spent one month preparing for this test and I was not in a good condition during my test. But I was very happy and content with this result.

Then I got busy with my Bachelor's graduation paper and in my spare time prepared for GMAT which was the next step to be enrolled in an American graduate school.

July 25th, I took my first GMAT but failed terribly. On my way home, I was thinking about how much effort and time I had put in studying for this test. I could not believe I got such a bad score. I was so sad, but he talked to me for a long time and told me to never give up since there was always another chance. When I got home, mother encouraged me and she insisted to keep me company on my next test day. I felt inspired and warm so I tried harder this time for the second war.

September 1st, I took my second GMAT. Before I entered the test center, mother held my hands and wished me good luck. I was feeling less nervous with her encouragement and thinking to myself that I should not let her down this time. The result came out as exciting and unexpected. With the joy of success and my mother's company, this long way back home was no longer too long for me, because I got one more step closer to my dreams.

At the end of October, I received the admission letter from my dream school, then I got down to my final step - Visa. This was a huge challenge for me as I heard that it wasn't easy to be approved of a US Visa. I tried to read all kinds of information online everyday so I could prepare for this interview sufficiently. Near the day of my interview, I was so nervous I could not sleep well or eat well.

November 16th, Visa interview. Everything went smoothly that day, despite that still quite a few people got rejected. The conversation was short and I got approved right away. All of a sudden, my anxiety turned into excitement. I was thinking to myself, "Finally! All my endeavors were worth it all this time!"

Now, I'm going to leave for this educational journey to America in about a week. He will pick me up at the airport and help me with my school life there. We have been waiting a long time for this day to come and finally it's coming soon. I'm looking forward to this brand new adventure that is waving at me.

2012, best of luck!