A frog lives all its life in a shallow well, and all it shall ever see is the circular shaped piece of sky. When the stars shine bright like pixie dots at night, it will look up to the piece of sky and count the stars, never knowing that they are only the least bit of the vast night sky. It never thinks about jumping out of the well to observe the beauty of the outside world. But you can’t blame the frog--it never recognizes the bounded life it lives.
Growing up, I have read this story for times more than I can remember, from my grandparents, my kindergarten teachers. It always seemed like the old and dry Chinese folklore to me, but not until I realized how much I am like the frog myself—lost in every thought of future, and blinded by it. My life was once carefully planned by my parents, every step I took was safe and at my highest comfort. I never had a closer look at the stars right above my head.…show more content… At the age of twelve, however, when I stepped into a school known as the most competitive local middle school in Beijing, things had somehow changed. On the first day, I walked into the classroom nervously and saw the big blackboard with names and assigned seat. I found it easy look for my name among the 45 names made up by Chinese characters, for mine was particularly conspicuous--it was followed by a "wai" in brackets, meaning "international". I turned around and saw that my classmates were staring at me, so I gave an almost unnoticeable smile and walked to my seat