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Final Episode: After all, It paid me off

May 15th, 2004 (Right after Graduation Ceremony)

Written at my apartment,

Hi all,

Prior to studying in the United States, I was not sure how my life was going to be. I was afraid of everything when I came here at that time. I faced with many difficulties of being alone, communicating with other people, and even managing the pressure from cultural shocks. In all my life, I have never thought I could get through all of these challenges. But, today, I, myself, found that anything I can do if I have fearless, and try to do it.

All that said, so far, I feel like I am at "home" when I finally got back to my small studio apartment in Nashville. In my little piece of the world, I could finally relax. Everything finally goes smoothly. You know where to be and how to get there. You know the language and you know the people. You know the streets and you know the neighborhoods. After all, it is a rewarding feeling-but it is one that takes time to develop. After you make several mistakes like trying to tote several heavy bags, alone, in a foreign country, you quickly find out the do's and don'ts. And this training is not easily forgotten.

My graduation ceremony was held today on which I had waited for almost two years. There were a lot of going on behind the scenes that challenged me to come through this day. Although my school is so much disorganized, the one thing I learned from this school was that it taught me how to "fight", how to "solve" problems, and how to "survive" in the real world. In fact, I realized that no one can help you like you were still in your home. You have to do everything by yourself all the time. This whole experience of studying abroad has truly opened my eyes in ways that you would have to be there in order to understand. You have known idea how people are actually thinking in this world until you have seen them with your own two eyes. Even though their methods are very different from what I am used to, studying abroad trained me how to "think out of the box". And today, after all, everything paid me off. I finally got the diploma of Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with 4.0 GPA, and two honor societies: Phi Kappa Phi, and Beta Gamma Sigma. Most importantly, I was chosen to be honored as the best student of the year 2004 from the president of Tennessee State University which is one of the most worthiness in my life. I believe that Graduation is the grand finale to a lot of hard work, but it is also the start of new era in the grand adventure of my life. That is why people generally call this day “the Commencement Day”.

When I looked back what I have done in the past, I am really proud of myself and never regret anything I did. I started from the difficulties finding money to pay very expensive tuition fee here in first semester until I got the graduate assistant with no need to pay tuition fee anymore, and had some extra money to pay my meal and rental. I started without knowing anybody, but I had the bunch of friends and societies, especially, Felicia, Carmelita, Mario and Phyllece that I am going to miss them when I leave.

After graduation, I still do not know where I will be, maybe in my family business, maybe in other companies, but wherever I am, or on the way to, I will do my best. This diary will be the last episode of my journey in United States in which I have nothing to say beyond this anymore. I completed all of my commitments. I would like to say thank all of you guys who have always follow up reading my diary for almost 2 years. For my friends who are still in U.S, and other foreign countries, I hope you are doing well and good luck no matter what you are doing. For the ones who are still in Bangkok, you are going to see me soon, and I 'm also looking forward to seeing you guys as well.

Best Regards

Tui

Create Date : 27 พฤศจิกายน 2549

Last Update : 5 ธันวาคม 2549 0:53:38 น.

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