I was born in a mid-class in China. Fortunately, I was born in the time China had liberated the capitalism in 1988, which is exactly the day and the hour the leader Chen announced this reform. Later, my grandfather named me Keping Wang, what mean a king came from the wind can bring the world peace. In China, every family can only have one child. The traditional view is that male is much more important than a female. In this case, there are six female infants, who had been killed, before me. I am technically the seventh child of my parents. That also means my parents are much older than regular parents. My mother was 30 years old, and my father was 29 years old. They had already had wonderful careers, which my father was a vice-president of a computer company, and my mother was a fashion designer of the Calvin Klein. I had been taking care of by my parents when I was a kid. I had more opportunities and materiel goods than all the young friends around me. It made me have an innate superiority, which usually make me being less-mindful and arrogant inadvertently. Even though I cannot remember most detail during the time, but I learned a lot of basic skill, like playing piano, playing mouth organ, drawing, painting, dancing, and the only one I had insist later in my life, photography.

My parents divorced when I was only eight, so I have little memory about those days with both my mother and my father. I lived with my grandfather and my grandmother in my father’s side after the divorce. It is a very different path to grow up upon the time in China. Most families see divorce as a western liberalism‘s evil produce. I had been treated as a weirdo in my elemental school after people knew my parents had divorced. However, the innate superiority had always support me, but also cause me to keep a certain distance from my young friends. My grandfather was a philosophy and politics professor before he became a mayor. My grandmother was a biology professor. In the tough time in my elemental school, I learned a lot from them. I learned the way to think like a dialectical materialism; I learned the way to analyze human’s psychology activities from animal behavior, and later I went to the best middle school, which it required a series of difficult exams.

The experience I had in my elemental school, on one hand, strengthen the belief that I am better than most people; on the other hand, further the distant from other people. I also believe, my spirituality was completed in that time, and my faith, a never ending search of life, was found.

Later, in my middle school, I had taken course that involved religions studies. China is a philosopher’s country, so the courses of religion content a very deep conception. Even though to a 12 years old boy the controversial idea of different religions, and understand that the religions are all tools for socialization are tough, I enjoyed study those brilliant ideas. Later, I took those courses deliberate Buddhism, Islam (in China), and Taoism in my high school. The study of religions was an exciting experience for me. Apparently, it also strengthened my faith. I saw the fact that how things change, from outside to inside; I saw how society evolved, from cruelty to civilization; I had the main conception that later also is the leading idea of my faith – to see things under their condition; to consider a person’s mind from his or her status; to review our history in the dialectical point.

My life moves in zigzags and by roundabout ways, but the explorer, me, never tired of moving on with his heavy load. My grandfather, as well as my mental instructor, died when I was fifteen. It was the time that I was about to go into high school. Every Chinese male in my city have to serve in the army for a month before he went to high school. I faced the first challenge choice in my life. A man always has to choose one way or another. I do not know what if I chose to stay in the army what my life will be like. In turn, I lived in the house my grandfather left to me and worked part time in a photo studio. The experience was tough. Tougher than I thought it would be. But it also strengthens my faith. When Fate is about to place a great responsibility on a great man, it always first frustrates his spirit and will, exhausts his muscles and bones, exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks so as to stimulate his spirit, toughen his nature and enhance his abilities.

My high school was a grey memory. It was busy, but not fulfilling. I learned so many knowledge from book to book, but I never had time to think. In a trice, the graduation had come. I was confused about my future. On one hand, I was tired of learning, after 3 years heavy learning; on the other hand, I did not have enough money to go to a good college. In this circumstance, I chose to go back to army. From my grandfather’s house’s balcony, I can see a carambola tree. My grandfather used to stand there and told me, “The carembola tree only fruit once a year. The tree has beautiful leaves; but while it is fruiting, those leaves have all gone. The beautiful things will always be there for you, only if it is rare.” Unlike most people would think, I saw the experience in army like the fruit of carembola. I have to leave all my leaves to enjoy the rare beauty in my life.

Although I had an optimistic attitude when I went to the army, but it soon became a tiring and brutal experience for me in any perspective. However, it strengthened my body and spirituality, and told me how to follow the discipline. To remember it now, it was bitter sweet. The good part of army is that I am extremely good at strategy and group leading. Soon, I got off from heavy loading and shooting training and went to military school for a further position’s training. In the military school, I learn many things that people would never be able to know from a regular education system, say computer hacking or using satellite navigation system. Also, not like those people who cannot finish their high school or come to the army as soon as they finished their middle school, I had an excellence academic performance in my high school. I finish the school in only a month, which is supposed to finish in a year, with the top grade in my class. After the graduation, I had been promoted to the captain. I had my own team and assist the city police to deal with criminals. In one mission, I made mistake, which I kept shooting while the suspects had already surrendered. Two suspects were killed. This incident ended my career of strategy agency. I was sent to the military train base to be an instructor. After this, I determine to retire from army. Today, when I think about it, I believe it was an interesting coincidence of my life journey. Both before I went to a new place to study knowledge, the high school and the university, I encounter the choice to stay in army. Eventually, the fate and I made the choice together for the future. From then, I knew that the purpose of life is not to pursue all the desire I have, or to fight with the misery of life; but to encounter the unknown incidents in my future and follow the path of my destiny to do what I want. The fate will never show its face to us, but we can always live with it; and move on in our life. Nothing is unpredictable, because anything is unwritten – we, as a very tiny individual power, change the history and each other’s life gradually.

A retired military person is harder to get in a college. I, fortunately, had a perfect grade in military school as well as became a famous student writer in high school. These two reasons helped me to go to the university. It was very different experience from either the high school or the army. At the first, I could not get use to my new life. My social contact was also a challenge. After one year’s military life, I had been isolated from the regular society. I felt it is very hard to carry my conception amount those people newly graduated from high school. Rather than like those people enjoying the new easy study in college, I chose to start doing a part-time job and focus my social circle to those older generation. I found a job in a media studio majorly produces magazine layout and publish fine arts books. I was hired as a writer, but soon I showed my photography talent. So later, I actually had two positions in the studio – a critical writer for the fine arts and the portrait photographer for the artists. Thus, I barely have time to deal with my school work, and my grade was going down gradually every month. I faced a new choice in my life again, to stay in college or to drop the school and dedicate in my career. When I was facing the hard choice, a new opportunity came silently. A client I met was the vice-president of China media program department. He asked me if I want to try the script director in Channel 7 of economic. It is a job that most people will not be able to get before they get at least a master degree or being very experienced. A script director for me means that I do not need to finish another 2 or 3 years study after my graduation from the college to earn fifty thousand dollars a year. I, no doubt, accepted the job and dropped the college in the beginning of my sophomore year. After this, the arrogant inside me come together with my faith to a new stage of understanding and believe of life; which I believe I am the chosen one, who is going to finish the great destiny like those great men in the history.

The 9 month career in Channel 7 is the golden stage for me. I was not only the script director but also assigned for the commercial department for beauty competitions photography. I travel 31 different places all over China. The traveling broadened my eyes, and also let me see those things I did not see when I was younger. I saw the differences between culture to culture in China, and I realize a nation owns 56 different races can no longer hold its power of freedom of expression from its people. Satirically, script director is a job that sets up the whole story for the news. That means I was making fake news every single day. Most people in America may say it is such a wrong thing to do, but in China it is very understandable to keep the whole nation in a harmonious atmosphere. The crowded population can easily burst serious riot. However, I believe I was supposed to be one of the persons who were going to change the grey area of China – not only China, but also the world. One incident that changed my life exhaustively is that there was a small village located in Inner Mongolia province. For military and economic uses, of course, to be a news worker, I will only create a story that about the economic use, Chinese government dictated this whole village migrating to 500 miles away. I, on the other hand, had to make up an impressive story that how the entire village of people selfless gave up their earth and scarify for the great communist party and mother country. The fact is that no one in the village was willing to move. The military force came with us had to make them. I realize this time I was really lying to my people, and I shall do it no more. A month later, through one of my friends’, who is a vise officer of the USA in China, recommend, I came to Seton Hill and stared a new journey of study.

To be in a new country is also a challenged thing. In fact, it is much harder because I, the first time, became an alien – a person that does not content the dominate culture myth. Even though I already met hundred of different culture in China, I was always the host. This time, I became a guest. It was not as comfortable as to be guest to visit my friends. I need to learn a culture, go inside, not just stay out and be observant. The beginning of my American journey was curve. I tried to stimulate everything I saw from other American, and even tried to change my personality. Of course, at first, it helped me fuse into a new group of people, but I was never a member. I changed the outside I was, but I did not change any content of my own culture conception. The conflict between the face and the heart eventually broke up. Fortunately, friendly American people never let me feel being isolated during the hardship. And more important, my faith always supports me to stay at where I am. I strongly believe that there is one day I will smile and say, “Yes, I made the world better.” – Not by myself though, a man’s search can never be alone.