My name is Duolin, I am 15 years old, I come from Hunan Province in China. I’m a high school student now. Our school is a large campus with a beautiful environment and excellent greening. Osmanthus fragrans and camphor trees almost surround every teaching building. The sports facilities in the school are also very complete. There are about 20 table tennis tables on the square. Every time we have a break, we can go to play table tennis there in pairs with our friends. Others like basketball courts, football fields, volleyball courts, etc. are also available. At the same time, the school also attaches great importance to our all-round development. In addition to learning, we are also given many elective courses such as watercolor painting, drama, and dance performances. There’re also many colorful activities as well such as art festivals and sports festivals, so that we can develop our personal interests in an all-round way.

There are four family members in my family, including me, my mother, my father, and my aunt. My aunt has lived with us since my childhood and helps my mother cook ever since. My aunt’s meals are very light and healthy, and I have developed a good habit of eating healthy meals as a result. My father is a political teacher in the university, but he is also very interested in mathematics and physics. In his spare time, he often studies advanced mathematics in college, and his notes are filled with his thoughts. His love for learning makes me deeply admire him. My mother, a librarian, has been the most influential person in my life. She has supported me in developing various hobbies, especially sports since I’m young. Every Saturday morning, I engage in orienteering and every Sunday morning, I spend an hour practicing rope skipping. This is one of the reasons why I have rarely fallen ill since childhood. Besides, piano has also become my passion. Practicing for a while at home after school in the evening is always a time for me to relax and relieve stress.

Beyond my hobbies, I believe my most notable trait is my deep love for nature and my genuine compassion for the small animals around me. The good ecology in my hometown makes the path surrounded by thick green trees. I often go on adventures with my uncle’s dogs in the mountains, chasing and playing in the grass together. Every day’s adventure journey becomes the best way for me to embrace nature. I have another well-known skill, which is “incubating eggs”: I have personally used an incubator to hatch chickens, ducks, and geese, and used a camera to record their entire incubation process every day, witnessing their hatching moments. Although I have experienced it many times, I still feel a sense of awe and wonder at the strength and greatness of life each time. The chickens hatched by me were also invited by our biology teacher to perform in the school during the lesson on birds. Due to our family’s renowned compassion, whenever there are animals in the community that need treatment, our neighbors will send them to our home. Once, a turtledove that had fallen because of heavy rain was injured and brought to our home. We treated the wound on its foot and patiently guided it to eat grapes and small yellow rice from our hands. With the company of our family, the little turtle dove became more and more familiar with us. His original downy feathers grew into thick feathers and he was able to fly briefly in our home. Finally, we successfully released him and saved a precious life. It is also because of this hobby that I always attach great importance to environmental protection. I once gave a pre-class speech on environmental pollution in a Chinese class, went with friends to pick up garbage in greenbelts in various parks, and also did a research-based study on the attraction of colors to birds. I conducted experiments and surveys to call on people to better protect birds.

To this end, my career plan for the future is to be a teacher and biologist. I hope that I can sincerely teach more people to understand and learn to protect nature, while also having my own time to stay in the laboratory and discuss research issues with other biologists. I joined this student exchange project to go out of China and see the bigger world. My mother has supported me to go out since I was a child and even sent me to various faraway countries such as Australia, Britain, Finland, and Iceland. I was very resistant at first. Leaving home alone and flying to such a far place with other unfamiliar companions and dealing with jet lag always made me feel very homesick, and I would secretly cry under the covers at night. But slowly I began to adapt to going out. I learned to take care of myself without the company of my family, actively participate in group activities, and was able to open up and make like-minded travel friends. I also saw a broader world: enjoying the spectacular natural beauty such as the black sand beach and the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, experiencing the survival education at the Youth Development Center in Finland, as well as truly seeing the harmonious coexistence between foreigners and nature after I saw the birds and squirrels freely wandering in the park. At the same time, I gradually began to understand my mother’s ulterior motive in sending me out.

My initial aspirations for this trip to the United States are to fully immerse myself in the lives of American children, make some close friends abroad to celebrate my 16th birthday with, experience the grandeur and beauty of foreign holidays like Halloween and Christmas, and gain insights into a culture vastly different from our own. Secondly, I hope to improve my abilities in various aspects, such as communication skills with others, the ability to manage personal life reasonably, and the courage to show myself and explore my potential. In the long run, I also hope that I can adapt to living abroad far from home in advance, prepare for studying abroad later, and plan my lives well in the year, so that I can have a clearer direction for my studies and accumulate greater motivation for learning in the two years after returning.