The Journey of Chris – Embracing Challenges, Friendship, and Knowledge for a Better World

Chris is a Han Chiang High School student who graduated in 2002, but his heart still misses Han Chiang High School. During Han Chiang High School’s big flood in 2018, Chris stepped up to the cause and gathered many Thai students and friends to donate RM2,000 to our beloved flooded school. Since leaving, Chris managed to accomplish many impressive achievements through hard work. Over the next few years, Chris will be pursuing his PhD, but before leaving, he visited Han Chiang High School to say his goodbyes while reliving his memories and seeing what has changed.

Given the rare opportunity, an interview was held with Chris to learn about his experiences as a foreigner and the challenges and achievements that made Chris who he is today. Language, as we all know, is the key to communication, but a new language isn’t easy to grasp. As a foreigner from Thailand, Chris struggled to learn Chinese at first. Nevertheless, Chris gave his all to pick up Chinese through frequent studying and completing Chinese exercises. In the end, Chris’ hard work paid off, as he can speak Chinese fluently. Therefore, Chris can easily communicate with foreigners from various countries. Besides that, Chris used his Chinese knowledge to pass the Chulalongkorn University entrance exam.

With language comes friendship. If there’s anything Chris values from his years in Han Chiang High School, it’s knowing his schoolmates, some of whom today are his lifelong friends. This strong bonding was apparent, especially when Chris asked them to contribute to his flood donation during the big Han Chiang High School flood. Since Chris departed from Han Chiang High School, he has revisited Penang a few times to relive and enjoy Penang’s famous hawker food, culture and shopping.

Chris was set on gathering funds to donate to help Han Chiang High School with the flood, as it has a special place in his heart. Although Chris faced some difficulties, such as being unable to contact his friends because they had gone a long time without contact, he still tried to find a way to help. Chris found a small group of friends to spread the word and eventually contacted enough people to gather RM2,000 of funds. After Chris dropped out of Han Chiang High School, he continued his high school education in Bangkok. Other than that, he used his knowledge gained from Han Chiang High School to excel in university.

Many people helped Chris in his journey to success, especially his parents and teacher, to which he expressed gratitude. Chris’ parents sent him to Han Chiang High School in the first place and gave him affirmation and encouragement during the hard times to become the best version of himself. Despite Chris’ teacher being strict, she taught him a lot of useful knowledge and played a big part in his good academics. Moreover, she motivated Chris to work hard even after failure.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life, so Chris has faced many difficulties ever since dropping out, and most importantly adapted based on the struggle to solve it and thrive. Chris’ main problem is putting too much pressure on himself. For instance, there was once Chris got below 50 on a science test. The devastation caused Chris to stop eating and almost get sick. Chris was obsessed with getting good scores, as he wanted to make his parents proud. Nonetheless, Chris had good friends who encouraged him to stay positive and try harder next time.

As a result of Chris’ success currently, he sees himself graduating from his PhD study and hopes to come back to Chulalongkorn University as a lecturer in 5 years. Chris wants to teach more challenging modules, such as pronunciation or linguistic theory and wishes for his knowledge to benefit the country.

Last but not least, Chris gave some helpful advice to all Han Chiang High School students. Life nowadays is more challenging for young students with lots of technology which they have to grasp. Students must learn to use technology appropriately and effectively to further enhance their capabilities, and absorb good knowledge. In particular, students need to use their judgement to differentiate good and bad. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be beneficial.

Greatness is not easy to achieve without consistency and hard work, yet Chris has done it. Chris has many amazing qualities that are worth all students to learn and pick up. That way, students can become a contributing member of society.