I was born in Beijing, the capital city of China. Beijing is the top three largest city in China with the population of 21.5M. I spent my whole 17 years in Beijing, which is the fastest growth period in China. I saw all the changes around my home. It was hard to say I feel happy or unhappy because I was happy to see our life was being better day by day, but the quality of air and water was getting worse and there were so many people at everywhere. As a result, I decided to pack my belongings and was ready to leave. My parents have their own job and business, so I have to do everything by myself, which is very hard but interesting as an eighteen years old young man.
I used travel visa to come to the US. My first step was Seattle because my aunt settled in Seattle 20 years ago. I tried hard to blend in America culture. I walked around in Seattle every day and tried to talk as many people as I can to improve my English skill. I was a sad story to talk that how did I communicate with others at the first several weeks because all my English skill that I had learned in high school is bullshit. I stuck on Queen Ann hill for 6 hours because I don’t know how to ask which route I could take all the way back to West Seattle. Three weeks later, I decided to change this sad situation. I need to find an institute to learn English. I switched the visa to student visa and I passed the entry exam in Kennedy High School because math saved my life. Then I started to study in a real high school in the US as an exchange student.
Few month later, my English is getting better and better. I changed my mind again because there was a university entry exam in China, and every high school student needs to take that exam to receive an offer from a university. This is the most important experience as a Chinese student. So, I quitted school from Seattle and jumped back into people. Actually, I did very well in university entry exam and I receive from a good university in Beijing. I used one night to plan my next four years of life. Then I decided to refuse the offer and come back to the US. Before I came to the US, I spent 2 months to pass the TOEFL exam but I failed in coupe point. However, I decided to not keep study in my room but go travel. I spent 8 months to travel around China. My lesson is that spend your whole year of 18 to do any crazy things you want to do is totally worth because you will not find another year to do or able to do that in your whole life. I slow traveled in several cities and towns. I played music with a band in Xiamen, I got my dive license in Sanya, and I stay with local people in a month in Hangzhou. These experiences are my best treasure in my life.
When I traveled, I applied for some university in the US and finally, I chose the University of Montana just because this was a location I never heard of. So, I came here and jumped into English Language Institute to learn English again because I thought I have to let my English better to respect my next four years. Now I am a senior student and I am ready to move to next step of life. I love Missoula because it’s beautiful, quiet and sexy.
Wow, Bohan! I really liked your post. I could tell that you worked really hard on telling your story, and it was an interesting journey to read about. I liked the integration of pictures in your blog to break up the text. I also really appreciated explanations of everything in your blog post to help me learn what things were. For example, I had no idea what the TOEFL exam was. I also liked that you gave advice to the reader, and kept the reader in mind during the whole story. It was a story about your journey, but was very relatable.
Hi, Bohan. Very good job. Interesting!!!
I like your post, thank you Bohan. Very good experiences.