My pivotal moment
My parents and I were watching the monitor seriously. It’s the admission’s result of the best high school in Thailand. My hand was shivering. I tried to control it and dragged the pointer on the screen to a button, and clicked it.
“You are rejected”
This message was on the website. At that time, everything in my world seemed to stop. I was shocked for a while. “I am the cleverest student in my school. Everyone thinks I can enter this school. But, why I can’t? Why?” I asked my self repeatedly. I tried to speak with my parents. I tried to cry. But I didn’t even have power to do that. I knew that my parents were very disappointed in me. They didn’t say anything. Then they went out of my room, leaving me alone.
After that, my friend called to me. She was one of my friends who expected that I would enroll to this school. I tried to tell my result to her, but she had known already. However, she didn’t call me for soothing me or scorning me. She had said something – that changed all my life so far.
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In my childhood, I was told by many people that I was a “genius boy.” I almost had perfect scores in mathematics test. I was the top in many classes. When my friends didn’t understand the material that teachers taught, they would ask me.
However, I was sure that I wasn’t genius or gifted and I wasn’t smart since my birth. I just learned everything faster than my friends from my best teacher – my elder brother. He always taught me many subjects at home, especially mathematics and science that I love most. He often gave mathematical problems to me. If I couldn’t solve it, he would be disappointed and sometimes he would say that I was stupid. But, for my innocent, I didn’t understand his curse at all. I just knew that I loved mathematics and science very much.
But when I was told by people that I was genius many times, sometimes I thought that I might be really like they said. When I graduated grade six, I applied for the famous secondary school named “Suankularb Wittayalai School.” My friends were hardworking on the test. I didn’t prepare anything, but I could enter this school easily. It increased my self-confidence more and more.
The pivotal event in my life was coming, when I graduated grade nine. I applied for the best high school in Thailand – “Triam Udom Suksa.” Everyone expected that I could enter this school. I didn’t prepare for the test again. Before the day of the test, I was playing computer game certainly.
But when the result was showed that I couldn’t enter this school, I lose all of my confidence. After I knew the result, my friend called to me. I avowed to her that I was very stupid than her think. But she told me, “No. Kie, you aren’t stupid. Not at all. You are a clever boy. But, you know, you are just lack of something – a diligence. You are lazy! I have never seen you reading books or intending to listen to teacher. If you are still like this, you will not succeed in your life certainly. Even the test of thousands of people, you can’t do it. Not mention to university, you cannot enter it absolutely!”
I didn’t know that it is a compliment or a curse. But after that, my thought was completely changed. I had never thought that I was clever again. In the school, I studied very intently. I reviewed lessons and read books everyday. I was very hardworking. I was not a boy who always played and didn’t have plan in his life any more.
In grade eleventh, I knew the news about the Computer Olympiad camp: people who were selected to be the representative of Thailand would get a scholarship to study aboard. Of course, I didn’t wait. I applied for this camp quickly. This was the most challenge time in my life. However, I had learned the lesson from applying to the high school. So, I must not make any mistake again. I studied hard and hard. After the class, I always practice. I found the problem on internet to solve every day.
Finally, I was selected to be a representative of Thailand to join the International Olympiad in Informatics 2005 at Poland. I got a silver medal from that. So, I got a scholarship from Thai government to study computer science at the United States of America.
In the welcome-back-to-Thailand day, I had to speak about my success in front of thousands of people that joined this camp but weren’t selected. I recalled my friend’s sentences in the admission’s result day, which changed my life so far.
“As my experience, I have to say frankly that I am not cleverer than you. Perhaps I am the most stupid boy in this camp. But, you know, I am sure that I have something more than you. It is neither secret thing nor any special trick. It’s just a ‘diligence’”
Create Date : 27 สิงหาคม 2550 | | |
Last Update : 27 สิงหาคม 2550 15:45:24 น. |
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My influenced person
Staring at a professor in front of the blackboard, I wondered what he was doing. His hand was moving quickly, writing some kind of table. Then he mused for a while and put his hand over his mouth like The Thinker. Now, on the blackboard was an 8x8 table. The top-left corner and the bottom-right corner were cut. “Can you guys put dominoes to fulfill this table?”, he asked. Instantly, a student raised his hand and said, “Yes. Professor. It’s not hard. Let me do.” “Wow! Come up.” A few minutes passed. “Hmm… Professor. I’m sorry. I make a little mistake.” The professor hit his shoulder gently, “Anyone else?” There was only silence. Everyone was writing something in his paper. But it seemed no one could solve it. Then the professor colored the table with black and white color like chessboard, and mumbled, “One domino covers only one black cell and one white cell…” “30 black cells and 32 white cells… Oh! Not equal!”, a student shouted. Everyone in the room was quiet and amaze with this for a while.
It’s the first class that I met him, Jittat Fakcharoenpon, a professor in the Computer Olympiad Camp of Thailand. He looked like a college student rather than a professor. He wore simple blue-white T-shirt with blue jeans. I thought most computer professors are like nerds that wear thick glasses, speak clumsily, and always carry big textbooks. But he was completely different.
At that time, I wasn’t interested in this kind of this problem much. I went to the Computer Olympiad Camp because I though it would have much time to playing computer game or surfing the internet. But when the first class came, I felt that I was wrong. Jittat said that this camp was about computer programming only. There were no game or internet. At that time, I wanted to go home very much. But then, I thought it’s not very bad to listen to it for one class, and then I would decide.
But when I was listening to him, I was impressed increasingly. It is not only because of his humorous, but also because of his teaching. He always asked questions to student. They were quite simple questions and were around us, but unbelievable profound. Then he gave students a chance to solve them. After that, he always gave the answers that were often unexpected and make everyone surprise.
I felt I fell in love with the world of logic. I loved to solve problem. I loved to ask questions about everything around me. When I go to somewhere, I always think which path is the shortest and the most timesaving? Which algorithm should I use to find that path? How can I prove? When I arrange books in my room, I will think which sort algorithm should I use? Quicksort? Bubble sort? When I put my stuffs in package, I always think how can I use the volume most efficiently? Should I put the bigger one or the smaller one firstly? Surely, it was much more fun than computer game and the internet. I decided to stay in the camp until finished.
Professor Jittat had brought me to the world that I had never seen: the world of reasons and the curiosity of mankind. From this camp, I found the thing that I want to do most. After the camp, I read books every day. I tried hard to get the scholarship from Thai government to study in computer science. And now, I am walking in the same path as him.
At the last day of the camp, the professor brought us to see a baseball game whose rule is a loser has to go out. I thought maybe he wanted to relieve our stress from studying in the camp. But, as usual, when he saw the list of twenty-three teams attending to this competition, he asked us, “Do you guys know how many match do they compete to find the winner?” Yes. This is the professor who can question everywhere, every time.
Create Date : 27 สิงหาคม 2550 | | |
Last Update : 27 สิงหาคม 2550 15:27:39 น. |
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Create Date : 23 มีนาคม 2549 | | |
Last Update : 23 มีนาคม 2549 23:56:15 น. |
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