In this blog post, I’ll summarize my academic efforts and school activities during high school, examples of how I practiced consideration, sharing, and cooperation, as well as my motivation for applying and my career preparation experiences.
Writing About My Academic Experiences and Reflections
Consistent practice beats talent! I used to feel that I wasn’t very smart. Upon entering high school, I became even more acutely aware of this difference. Since I was a slower learner than my peers, the faster the class progressed, the longer it took me to understand the material. In particular, it took me a long time to fully grasp and move past applied math problems, classical literature and science passages, and English grammar questions.
I felt very frustrated watching myself fall behind because I couldn’t keep up with the lessons. I was also upset, wondering, “Why can others understand this easily, but I can’t?” However, I didn’t give up just because I felt upset. The method I chose was “repetition.” I believed it was more important to thoroughly understand one problem before moving on than to simply solve a large number of problems.
Specifically, I focused on reviewing my mistakes from practice exams. Every three months—or every two months if I included private practice exams—I meticulously reviewed the questions I got wrong. I created a notebook of mistakes by reviewing not only the questions I got wrong but also the ones I got right. I carefully examined each problem and wrote down in a large notebook what the question was asking for and what concepts I needed to know to solve it.
Even just organizing my wrong answers took between half a month and two weeks, but I believed it was important to truly understand the material before moving on, so I didn’t stop. After consistently reviewing my wrong answers for a year, the number of problems I understood increased, and I began to develop the ability to apply what I’d learned to new problems. As I gradually gained the ability to tackle a variety of problems, I started to find the studying itself enjoyable.
Major School Activities and Reflections
My interest in education stemmed from the realization that I was a slow learner. While I could keep up when the pace of class was “moderate,” I struggled to understand when it was “moderately fast” or faster. At first, I thought I was the only one, but looking back, I realized there were quite a few friends who shared similar concerns. Some didn’t attend cram schools, and others simply didn’t know how to study effectively.
Naturally, the debate club I was active in frequently addressed topics related to “education.” From a macro perspective, we debated issues regarding our academic pedigree-oriented society, such as “Why do we need to go to college?” and “Why do we need to attend a prestigious university?” From a micro perspective, we discussed specific educational issues, including classroom teaching methods and why systems like Germany’s—where a single homeroom teacher guides students over an extended period—aren’t easily adopted in our reality.
Through repeated debates, I learned how to organize my thoughts and articulate them clearly, and as I frequently expressed my opinions, my own perspective became more defined. Furthermore, by encountering diverse viewpoints during these debates, I was able to identify my own biases and deepen my thinking. My critical thinking skills grew through comparison and debate, which served as a major motivator in my career choices.
Realizing the value of group life through club activities was another important achievement. While preparing for festivals and planning external competitions and school events together, I gained a firsthand understanding of why cooperation between upperclassmen and underclassmen is essential. Previously, I believed that success could be achieved by excelling on my own, but experiencing the synergy that comes from working together made me more outgoing and helped me become less shy—leading to positive changes in my personality. The club served as a valuable catalyst for this personal growth.
Writing About Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections
The “Sharing Art Supplies Campaign” began with a chance encounter at a stationery store. While I was at the store buying art supplies, I saw a classmate selecting only yellow and black paint. When I asked why, he honestly told me that his parents had said they didn’t have any money that morning. Hearing that, I felt ashamed of my own prejudice—the assumption that art supplies were naturally provided by parents.
To spare my classmate’s pride, I suggested we share the paints and jokingly asked him to help me with math in return. That’s how our small friendship began, and in our second year, when we became student council officers, we proposed the “Sharing Campaign” to the entire student body. The idea was to collectively purchase items that only required one per group of six students, appoint a team leader to manage them, and pass them down to younger students.
At first, students found it a hassle, but they came to trust us after seeing our determination. To promote the campaign, we visited each class to explain how it would work and had them elect team leaders to manage the supplies. We refined the program by exchanging feedback with the team leaders along the way. As a result, our school was recognized as one with virtually no costs for school supplies. It was an experience that taught me how even a small initiative can bring about change.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
For the third question, I will provide more detailed information on the campaign process. We planned the campaign in five stages. First, “Seeking Advice from Teachers to Plan Perfectly”; next, “Explaining the Campaign to Student Leaders and Teachers”; then, “Promoting It to Students”; followed by “Implementation”; and finally, “Review.” We put a great deal of effort into each stage.
During the “Seeking Advice from Teachers to Perfect the Plan” stage, we were deeply discouraged. This was because several flaws were revealed in a plan we had believed to be perfect, and the teachers gave us candid advice regarding the management of students’ funds. Through that process, we clearly realized the gaps in our thinking, and our plan improved accordingly. This experience of recognizing our shortcomings led us to resolve to study more diligently so that we could become well-rounded individuals with both knowledge and action.
During the campaign explanation and promotion phase, we pondered how to convey this still-unfamiliar movement to students in an appealing and accessible way. We put in a lot of legwork by visiting each class in person to explain the campaign and answer questions, and we were so busy during that process that I even lost 8 kg. At times, I found myself wondering, “Why did I even start this?” but I never let up, remembering the people who were actually being helped by these small efforts.
During the implementation and review phases, my concerns were immediately confirmed in reality. I worried about whether students would form groups and manage supplies together as requested, or whether team leaders would fulfill their roles effectively, but there were no major issues in the early stages of implementation. With the exception of one team leader—who was replaced after expressing difficulty—the system of assigning one team leader per grade went almost entirely smoothly. The joy and emotion I felt when the entire student body participated in this small initiative were immense.
Through this experience, I realized that even small actions must be put into practice to yield results, and that—contrary to the common belief that “the world is a harsh place”—there are definitely people who are moving toward doing good. This conviction led me to major in education and inspired me to set a strong goal: to become someone who can positively influence people’s hearts and actions.
Although I spent that year juggling my studies and sacrificing sleep to carry out these activities, it was a deeply meaningful and rewarding experience that gave me the confidence to believe in my own abilities. Moving forward, I aim to contribute to improving people’s lives by drawing on my academic abilities and sense of community.
