I initiated the idea of writing this article at the end of my UHB2206, the first class I take in USP after I entered the university. The sky was grey as I looked through the French windows, under which I could faintly recognized the company emblems on the hulls of the ships near the harbor. Our Indian teacher Aeron keeps making efforts to strike more thoughts in the classroom, making jokes in the middle constantly. I could hear my classmates making impressive arguments in my ears as well, sometimes they burst into laughter and the sound can even rock down the roof.

  All right, it’s time to focus. Well, I am here, on the highest floor of ADM. Few hours ago, I still had no idea about what to do in front of the whole group of talkative and thoughtful people. When they presented their opinions freely, I couldn’t help but shutting up my mouth and smiled when everyone did. To be honest, the feeling of being an outsider was terrible. But what could I do? Even before I came up with a thought and tried to organize it, someone else had already been there pouring out words like there was a flow in his/her mouth. My two Chinese fellows seemed to adjust well and got themselves totally involved in the group, which made me more self-contemptuous. It seemed that if I stayed in silence for one more minute, no one in the class would know there was a person there. All these bad imaginations emerged simultaneously, making me so worried that I eventually decided to say something. Even though it might be filled with grammar and pronunciation mistakes, or get out off the topic like worse, I would speak.

  A complicated mood got onto me when I raised my voice. There came the comments from some of my friends, “the locals won’t take your words seriously since you are a Chinese English learner.” (No offense, it’s barely a quotation and I indeed change my mind above it after several seconds.) On the other hand, I recalled what my mother always said to me, “how could you know the result if you don’t give it a try?” So I began to speak, in a slow way to make my language clearer. I secretly observed other people’s reaction out the corner of my eyes. Things turned to be magical as I found the girl sat next to me was nodding her head. And when Aeron concluded my speech, he’d almost catch all the points in my mind. The sense of existence got back to me. I saw the surrounding people smiling, and I smiled together with them, but this time was truly from my heart.

  It doesn’t matter if my story gets any of you boring, as this is just a miniature of my early university life, and may possess quite a few common pieces with other freshmen (women). But the experience really drives me to think about how to behave in this new environment. As for me, the key is “Being Confident”. We are born to be a part of the society, and will probably play an important part in the future. No one can predict your prospect or even make comments on it, since the person who climbs the peak of the life is no one but yourself.