‘Ling Ling Ling Ling Ling…,’ the alarm clock rings. I wake up.

From a young age, I have been fascinated by the intersection of healthcare and technology, and psychology emerged as the perfect field to combine these interests. Since primary school, science and information and communication technology have been my favourite subjects. With a degree in science and information and communication technology, I am determined to make a positive impact on people’s lives.

In Form 1, the COVID pandemic happened. I was stuck in the house for months. During those Zoom lesson times, without teachers next to me, I recognised the need to be self-disciplined to ensure that I improved in a non-ideal environment. I have learned to respect other people’s boundaries. The experience taught me that respecting others’ boundaries is vital for mutual trust and freedom. It also marked my transition into becoming a more self-disciplined and responsible secondary school student.

In the next year, the world had reopened Face-to-face lessons resumed. Once back at school, I joined the Chinese debate team, and school life became busier than ever. I had to learn how to manage my time and be responsible for it. Every two weeks, I participated in a Chinese debate competition; the week before the competition date was challenging in terms of my ability to prepare for the debate topic. With a fully packed schedule, I began using online calendars and reminders to remove the stress of always needing to remember and remind myself to do something.

A year later, finally, the COVID pandemic ended. I took off my mask. Seeing my schoolmates’ faces, I felt fresh again. That was when I started to look at people’s facial expressions. It was fun. Paying attention to people’s micro-expressions revealed information that I had never known before in a conversation, and it did not end there. I started to learn how to read people’s body language and, as I began to connect physicality with behavior and intentions, I knew that I had become interested in psychology. By continuously learning from them, I have improved my social skills. This new awareness transformed my interactions. It was no longer just about hearing what people said, but about understanding how they felt. I realized that communication is a full-body conversation, and I had finally learned to listen with my eyes as well as my ears.

In senior grade, I was the external vice-chairperson of my chamber, Chamber Da Vinci. Being part of leadership, I quickly learned, is not about command, but about communication. That was when I knew that opinions were important for improvement and decision-making. When leading the whole chamber, which was around 200 students, letting them know that they were being respected was important to do before anything else. By giving them a voice, the improvements were obvious, and we worked together to solve each problem one by one. In the meantime, I also learned how to correctly express my opinions accurately, persuading others, learning how to communicate my ideas persuasively, and ensuring that my intentions were not misunderstood. We won the chamber shield. The mission to ensure every member, from the most outspoken to the quietest, felt their perspective was being valued was a great success.

After that, I participated in music more than ever. In the second year of joining the HKCC Chamber Youth and school choirs, which included A-Singers and Chamber Boys, I mastered my emotions and learned how to express them correctly and optimally. This was not merely about hitting the right notes, but about understanding the story behind each piece. I learned to engrave my own feelings of joy, longing, and even sadness into the music, impressing personal experience into artistic expression. Music became a language I used to express emotions too complex for words alone.

In Form 6, I am in the final stretch of my secondary school journey, putting my full effort into preparing for the HKDSE. I had to correct every mistake I made in my papers. Finally, after many parents and teachers saying “mistakes are the key to success,” I understood. Through practicing past papers and talking with teachers, I realised that accepting and correcting my mistakes really did make a big difference. Next year, I will be 18. I have grown a lot. Stepping into adulthood at 18, I do so not as a finished product, but as a lifelong learner, equipped with the tools to face future challenges long after the HKDSE is a memory.

Now, I am an adult and will also be a university student, wishing to improve more than ever before. “Continuous improvement, striving for perfection.” That is my goal. This is also the reason why I applied to university. It is going to be a journey without a final destination, but one I am willing to take. I am ready to begin.