It's the little things that count

As the semester wraps up, I still have two Chinese tests and a little homework, one Economics presentation and paper, and one Finance presentation and paper until I have completed my Spring semester of my junior year. It’s crazy to think about, but in reality, it has been a long semester. All of my friends in the states have already been out of school for a few weeks now, but because we didn’t start classes until a month after them and we had two full weeks of vacation, we’ve had to make the semester longer than normal. There are some people heading back next week for internships, but for me, I wanted to stay. (And now my sister is even coming-you guys have no idea how excited I am for that!) 

Today, on my way to internship, I was walking between metro lines and noticed the escalators were both closed. This is common occurrence and I’m not sure why it happens so often, anyways, we all had to take the stairs. I noticed an older lady is holding up people because she has a bag that she is incapable of lifting down three flights of stairs (she has a rolling one that she’s ever so slowly having fall down each individual stair). I go up to her and politely tell her in Chinese that I can help her and she tells me, “Oh thank you young lady!” She still holds onto the bag as I lift it down. When we get to the bottom, she goes back to rolling it and says some Chinese which I’m not sure what it meant, but I carry on knowing that this lady was extremely grateful. It’s not like I was the only one around that could help, I was the only one who made the effort to help. As I continue towards the metro, a Chinese man looks at me and gives me the thumbs up. Today, just made me realize that despite the whole difference in language and culture, you can still impact people’s lives for the better, even if they are just small acts of kindness.

Since it’s been blowing up on Facebook and since he is from Minnesota, I wanted to write a little about Zach Sobiech. (at this point in time, if you haven’t watched the 20 minute video on him, go do that!) I watched his video this morning and found out about his death on May 20, 2013 which just happens to be the Chinese “I love you” Day because the pronunciation of 5.20 (wu er ling) sounds similar to 我爱你 (wo ai ni) which means I love you. I found this to be incredibly ironic, and it makes his story that much more meaningful (although it is already such an emotional story). It makes me realize how precious life is so go out there and start making the legacy that you want to leave behind. “You don’t have to find out you are dying to start living.” –Zach Sobiech