Shengliver’s Note: Shutian, a 2016 YYHS graduate, shares with us his adventure. Life is a miracle only if you become master of your own fate and captain of your own soul.

We cannot appreciate some time-honoured maxims until we have gained years in age. Today, the saying, “Life is a miracle”, means a lot more to me than it did when I first heard it.

This was a pet phrase adopted by my high school English teacher, Shengliver, who began his daily lesson with it. To be honest, I thought it was a cliche with which the old guy was attempting to cheer us adolescents up in the high-pressure environment, as there seemed to be no such thing as “life” or “a miracle” in my eyes then.

Our top priority in high school was to grab grades. Our personal lives gave way to lessons and homework. Teachers and parents alike worshipped grades. From the adults’ perspective, if your grades were good, you would be good in every aspect. If your grades were lousy, you would be deemed worthless. Therefore, almost all our waking hours were spent cramming for the big exam called National Matriculation Test (NMT).

Miracles never happened in exams. If you got it right, you were awarded a point. No angel would fly down to your exam room to deliver an answer. Therefore, the way I saw it, Shengliver, as with my archaic father, was always resorting to some fake, big, hollow ideas to “motivate” us.

After I finished high school in the summer of 2016, I never met Shengliver the teacher physically again. I put his pet phrase aside and stepped into Fudan University, the envy of a lot of Chinese parents and students. High school is totally different from uni, where I became an ordinary student among the constellation of talents. I got countless B’s and C’s in exams. The lustre I basked in in high school was nowhere to be found at Fudan. Everyone else around me seemed to be more shining, more mature and more confident. Lost in the Ivory Jungle, for a time, I could not see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

In times of confusion, I remembered Shengliver’s pet phrase, Life is a miracle. “Is life a miracle?” I asked myself in bed one night. It dawned on me that no god will descend and help you to become the best student in university overnight or to erase all your problems if you take your fate lying down, leaving yourself at the mercy of circumstance. Life can be a miracle, only if you take the initiative.

As a sophomore, I made a crazy choice. I decided to join the PLA. No one understood it. For one thing, the odds were that I would not be physically fit for military service. I was heavy. I was a little bit myopic. I even had trouble completing one pull-up. For another, my university is Fudan, one of the most prestigious in China. Why should I waste 2 years in the barracks? Deluged with questions from family and friends, I even doubted the wisdom of my own choice. However, once the decision was made and the application submitted, I pushed the apprehension out of mind.

No one would believe it, but I sailed through all the physical tests. The day I was enlisted, my classmates, my friends and my university counsellor offered their congratulations. My parents and grandparents were proud of me. I trained hard in the army and eventually got opportunities to go to Beijing to participate in a country-level military contest representing my unit. During my service, my uni counsellor even took the trouble to pay a visit to me.

I served with distinction. When I was discharged two years later, I won a medal for my excellent performance. Beyond the medal, I ended up with a near perfect body. I could run 3 km within 12 mins. I could complete 20 pull-ups at one go. I became more confident than ever before.

After university was resumed, I made my second crazy choice. I abandoned my former major and transferred to School of Mathematics. Fudan has the best mathematics discipline in China. It is the toughest as well. I am no math whiz, and I had spent 2 years in the army. How could I keep up? Or would I drop out? I had no idea, to be honest. Again, Shengliver is right. Life is a miracle. Not only did I graduate from university and but also earned my bachelor’s degree in mathematics last year, with a fairly good GPA.

After getting my bachelor’s, I had to decide whether to study further or to join the corporate world next. I applied for some PhD programs and some research master’s programs, but failed. Then, I made my third “insane” choice, as some guys believed. I was to take a gap year and land a job before I chose whether or not to pursue a higher degree. I started to submit my CV to tons of companies from around China to see if they were interested. Sometimes the position I applied for was hardly relevant to what I studied at uni, but I still dared to give it a try. Over ten attempts later, I got an offer from a Chinese electric car company. I was to be their vehicular energy engineer, which went way beyond my expectations. I accepted it more than gladly. The salary was not high enough, compared to my Fudan peers’. I started to seriously consider the need to pursue a higher degree one day. Meanwhile, I realised that abstract academic research probably is not my colour and that I am happier to work on something tangible in industry.

Having applied for a lot of coursework master’s programs but to no avail, I called it quits after I was offered the position by the car manufacturer.

Believe it or not, two months after I went on board, my company decided to dispatch some staff to Europe to study car development innovation there. I applied and got the opportunity, which brought me the privilege of driving around Ireland and UK during the 4 months there. Hence, I was able to visit a lot of off-the-beaten-track scenic spots, where no package tours would take you. At the same time, my salary doubled, and, better still, the company covered the trips.

Last month, I received an offer from The University of Melbourne. I have decided to continue my life journey down under in Australia after the gap year. Melbourne will be the next stop.

Life is a miracle. Shengliver is right.