Yay!!! I graduated!  After all these years I finally finished school, and I’ll start working beginning of July (although I plan to go back to grad school after couple years).  Looking back, I’ve grown up a lot and learned a lot of things in college, of which several things I’ve shared here.  God really guided me by the hand for these four years and I am forever grateful (and sadly I still need to improve a lot).

Although I’m excited about the next stage in my life, I would like to share one more thing I learned in college, and also thank a person who completely changed my college life.  Without him I might not be as successful as I am now (though it is God who did all the great work; we are just his servants).

Who is this person I’m talking about?  Joseph Tsang.

If Joe is reading this article he is probably utterly confused now, as we barely have any contact for the past 4-5 years (well, in fact I rarely contacted anyone from HOC for the past 4-5 years, for various reasons).  But here’s how the (very long) story goes:

When I got into Berkeley I’m actually very depressed, because in high school I met a lot of smart people from school or the various math/science competitions I participated in, and they all got into “better” universities like MIT, cal tech, Princeton, STANFORD (of course now I think Stanford sucks, but not back then) and it seems like I’m one of the few stuck with a public school.  I feel sad that all the work I put into math in high school is not recognized.  Of course, now I think Berkeley better (if not equal) to all them (in terms of electrical engineering), but I’ll get into this later.  In summary, when I get into Berkeley I’m a depressed and angry person.  However, when school started, I remembered something Joe said:

It was back when I was a freshman/sophomore (?) in high school, where during one winter break somehow Joe decided to invite some people to sleep over at his apartment/dorm at Riverside for 3 days.  So me, Jordan, Bryan, and Oswald (I’m not sure if John is there too..) went over.  For three days we exercise, do Bible study, and play big-2 (with push-ups/sit-ups gambling).  It is a very fun time.  During those 3 days, I remember somehow we get into a conversation about UC Riverside.  Joe commented that he seen a lot of people complain about Riverside, how that it is a bad school, and a lot of people wish to transfer out.  “However,” Joe said, “those people complain about UC Riverside being bad, but I look at their grades and they’re not getting straight A’s.  If you can’t even get straight A’s at a ‘bad’ school, why are you complaining?  Complaints are only valid if you’re getting straight A’s”

Being an angry man, I want to prove those private universities “wrong”.  I don’t want people to think that I’m just some “spoiled kid who can’t get what he wants”, I want my complaints to be valid.  Thus, I max out on my units for the whole freshman year, and basically studied endlessly.  As the result, I performed really well (I did get my straight A’s, almost at least) and God presented me a lot of opportunities.  But that’s the story for another day (otherwise this will be insanely long).

At the end of first year in college, my dad urges me to apply for transfer to MIT (since that seems like what I wanted all these years).  I refused, because I finally understood the wisdom in Joe’s words (Or God’s words through Joe).  A lot of times, people complain about their environment,  they complain about bad teachers, bad education systems, not enough money for resources, etc.  However, they rarely stop to ask them whether they are making the best of their situation.

Yes, they may be right, the teachers may not be as caring as they should, the education system probably has some flaws, and they are definitely not rich.  However, these are not valid excuses for not working hard.  It would be good to have good teachers, it would be good to have a perfect education system, and it would be good to be rich, but these are PRIVILEGES, not RIGHTS.  You can never control your environment, but you can always decide how hard you work.  God decides your environment, and it is your job to make the best out of it.  You can only complain if you have done the best that you can (get straight A’s, in Joe’s words), but still haven’t reach your full potential.

So, why should I go to MIT?  Yes, it may have a better name, and it may be better overall than Berkeley.  But, at least in Electrical Engineering, MIT offers the same resources that Berkeley can, and I have already reached my full potential here.  For me, Berkeley is the best school to be in.  God will never put you in the perfect environment, but he will always put you in a place where you can reach your full potential.

As a final note, I think nowadays the difference between universities are becoming smaller and smaller, with the power of internet.  Seriously, now there are so many resources on the internet, you just need to be willing to go look for them and use them.  With bunch of webcasts and online lecture notes, you can take MIT/berkely courses yourself even if you’re in some community college.  Of course, there’s still differences in like equipments, staffs, and students (after all it is harder to learn without good study groups or office hours), but at least it is available.

In conclusion, thank you, Joe, and may we all work hard to get the best out of our situation, be it studying, preaching Gospel, or helping other people.  May God bless us.