申請Cal的作文

About one hundred children with glistening, sweat-glazed faces looked up at me eagerly as I held open a pop-up book, something favorite to them. The 104186;F weather did not deter them from enthusiastically shouting out, “Pink! Blue! Hippo!” as answers to my questions. These eager responses were a highlight of the two days I spent volunteering at a children’s library in XX, a small rundown town in China with 600,000 people.There was a little girl, in the front row, with big pigtails tied with matching pink elastics and decorated with a Hello Kitty face appliqué. “Monkey!” was the only word I heard from her, yet I could see the excitement about meeting me flicker in her eyes.She helped me remember. I was just like her, eight years ago. Looking back, these two worlds of rural China and suburban American may be decades apart, but they are fused within me.XX is a suburb of XX (China), my childhood home; XX is a suburb of XX (US), my adopted city. As I ride my apple-red bike down the streets of American suburbia, the leaves are so tender that the sun shines through them like a screen. As I strolled through my Chinese hometown, half-naked boys played around in lotus ponds that still remembered when carps once swam. I come from both of these worlds, each of which defines me.When I was in China, some of the students from the same reading class shyly came up to me and asked if they could have my address so they could practice their English with me. I gladly agreed. They may not know much about this “Ame-ree-ca”, but they do know it is a place of dreams. I do not want the United States to be a place of dreams for them; I want it to be a reality. To this day, I still receive updates from that little girl who screamed, “Monkey!” Her name is Hui Yin, and America is no longer a dream for her. It is a goal.On the day of the ancient Dragon Boat Festival, I quietly celebrate by taking a glutinous, rice tamale, Zong Zi, to school for lunch. My friends always look at the odd triangular-shaped object wrapped in bamboo leaf with cocked eyebrows. They always question me; I love their questions. Whenever I answer, there is a sense of fulfillment because I feel that I am carrying out my duty as an international citizen.Slowly, as I learn about American cultures and customs and share my own, I have come to appreciate this gift of being a citizen of two worlds; I love being a mediator for both countries.Someday I will be sitting in the United Nations General Assembly. To the left of me I hear whispers in Afrikaans and to the right I pick up the rapid fire of Tagalog. I want to bring the ability to understand languages and ideas that are specific to other cultures. Viewing issues with concern for a country’s culture and identity is something that is sorely lacking in today’s international policy. The challenges of juggling a double cultural background are immense; the intricacy of balancing Eastern and Western cultures is enormous; the complexity of resolving world conflict seems insurmountable; however, the solution lies in the simple ideas of learning and accepting. I have learned and accepted.