Best Childhood Memory

One of my happiest memories was when I went to a church retreat for the first time in my life.

It was in summer of 2005, when I was in third grade. When I heard of the church retreat, I was filled with excitement and anxiety at the same time because  it was the first time I would be apart from my parents for a few days. Besides, I started to live in China that year, so everything was very new to me, which made me even more worried.

Despite the worries, things turned out to be very good. I had fun and made lots of friends during the retreat. By spending several nights without my parents, I think I also had some feeling of achievement. More importantly, I decided to be more obedient and caring to my family because I learned a lot from the worship services. My new resolution lasted for like three days, however :(

Although I returned to my normal life style soon after I came back home, the memories I made in the retreat still remains as some of my best memories.

Same Situations, Different Perceptions

          What comes into your mind when you see a very messy room or when you hear noises while studying? These are two of the situations on which my family does not agree. Even though my family and I share many characteristics due to innate and acquired factors, my perception and that of my family are sometimes totally different in such situations mentioned above.

          Different perceptions on a messy room often resulted in quarrels among my family. Since I was young, I was the type of person who did not care much about whether or not my room was clean or messy; what I cared more about was to take rest after school and to finish my homework in time. When I had time even after doing all those, I would then start to clean up my messy room. I was not influenced by the untidiness when I was doing something I regarded to be more important. However, my family, more specifically my sister and aunt, did not perceive the messy room as I did; they could not start doing anything unless they cleaned up their rooms. Therefore, when I came to America and had to share a room with them (I have experiences sharing rooms with each of them), we could not stand each other and sometimes quarreled. Back then, I did not understand why they would stubbornly ask me to clean up the room when I was very busy doing all my homework, but now I am a little better at being considerate to them; I do understand their perceptions are different and I needed to clean up the room for them.

          Although I do not care about a messy room, I am sensitive at noise while I am studying. I cannot concentrate on reading or studying something when there is a music going on or noise from outside. I do not think I am able to multitask at all. On the other hand, my youngest sister, who is 9 years old, likes to do many things at once. She likes to listen to music and role play when she studies, and she often wants me to join her. I would love to join when I am not busy, but most of the time I cannot. So, she gets disappointed when I say no to her, and she does not understand me. I will keep trying to explain, and I hope she will understand me some time.

          As you can see from my examples, many people perceive the same situations and experiences differently, and those differences may cause disputes among them. Thus, we should be more considerate to others and understand that there may be different perceptions among people.

Imagining to Be a Psychologist...

                  

                 If I were to major in Psychology and get a job in the field, which is what I want to do in real life, I would choose to be either a counseling psychologist or a developmental psychologist because I am very interested in how people's childhood affects their lives. I personally believe that any people's childhood have a great impact on their lives. The second reason why I would like to be a counseling/developmental psychologist is because I love kids and helping others. It would be great if I could help people and deal with children at the same time! I think clinical psychologist is an interesting job too because it seems more professional and admirable than other jobs. 

                I think my life as a psychologist would be relaxing and fruitful every day. I would have my own office and be sitting on my chair dealing with children and giving them good advice. I would have lunch with my co-workers happily. I would go back home just on time when it is supposed to be and not have to work overtime at night. I would see my patients getting better and I would feel accomplished so much.

                As a psychologist, I would perform experiments mainly through surveys and sometimes through experimental methods, because these seem easy to perform and very reliable to me. Although I am not as interested in drug studies as I am in counseling/developmental studies, I would really like to try single- or double-blind studies. Those seem really fun to try!

                I hope people to remember their childhood as best memories ever in their lives; I don't want them to have any wounded hearts as remembering their childhood. I also hope that people will find their lives easier after talking to me. 

                (By the way, I thought the picture up there was really cute. XD It is also meaningful because  psychology is a study of mental processes; the picture shows how our logic relates to our behaviors is just like how the cogwheels engage to each other.)