Education Is a Power to Change Fate

I grew up in a small city-Yulin, Guangxi Province, which is in the south of China. Guangxi is also one of the poorest provinces. I still remember the scenes of people struggling in poverty when I was a child.

As the economy boomed in China, my family was also able to benefit from the growth. This is due in part to them creating their own business for which they, fortunately, were successful at. The economic situation in my family was improving.

My parents attributed their own success to their education—they were the only university graduates in their hometowns! While they were successful because of having gone to university, their neighbors and friends from their hometowns, most of whom had only finished middle school, were still struggling in poverty. Therefore, they kept teaching me to study hard and achieve a high educational level. I remember back to my first day of primary school and I was seven years old. Before I walked into school, they told me, “Son, if you want to see more about the world, study hard and achieve a high educational level. Trust me, education is the power to change fate.”

In the same year, my parents took me to a small remote village near Yulin. However, the dirt road to the village was really bad—it was bumpy and twisted. In the end we had to walk to the village because there was no way for cars to go ahead. The village, which my parents took me to, was really small, and there were only a few dozen people there. In this village, there is a school called Hope School. This school only had a small house which was also the only classroom. I think there was no electricity in this school because the classroom was so dark. Inside the classroom, only one teacher and seven students were taking class. The teacher taught every course and every grade. We were told that the amount of the tuition was less than fifty RMB, the Chinese money, a semester, which was about $5. However, even though the tuition was not that much, some students still could not pay it.

Even in this terrible situation, the students were still studying very hard. The expression in their eyes impressed me very much. They were full of desire for knowledge and education. However, this scene also shocked me. I found that what my parents taught me was totally correct. We left all our money to help them. The students and villagers expressed their appreciation many times. We only sent them money, but their appreciation let me feel as if we had sent them the whole world. It may be right–the school meant the whole world to all of the villagers.

This is what I believe, and I also want to share with others. I believe that education is a power to change fate.