JOSHUA JI

Joshua's Personal Statement: PLAN C (Change is a Chance – Bill Gates)

           London, Heathrow Airport, was the first airport that I have went through for realizing my first dream to become a creative director in the fashion industry. Chicago, O’Hare Airport, was the second airport that I realized that higher education is the most important part of one’s life for improving life quality. Washington Dulles International Airport, was the third airport that I came to realize how important it is to choose living area for lifestyles. JFK New York Airport, was the last airport that I had to come to finish my junior year at Pace University and realized what is life exactly.

           So far, as long as I have been studying business subjects, I feel lost what I have been doing because I really don’t like what I have been studying. It’s like an eating rotten foods by being pushed by others. People say that do what makes you happy, however, I don’t feel happy while studying in New York, so far. Even location here in New York City even does not help me learn more things than other places. Nothing is special in New York City other than prestigious living expenses.

          Busy life in New York City is understandable because everything in New York City is fast-paced. However, why people cannot wait for somebody else who really devote himself or herself for them is not understandable at all. Changing is the most important thing to have progressive relationship between two people. However, if somebody else does not change as a better person, it cannot be happened at all for a progressive relationship. New York City, is definitely an isolated place where I couldn’t find anyone to interact with. Especially, lower manhattan, where I live right now and study right now, is a place for the most individualistic people I have ever met in the world. They are selfish, self-centered, self-motivated so that they don’t listen to others at all.

            I thought that knowledge creation is getting better and improved by interactions between people. If one person only focuses on his or her own stuff, it is only going to be his or her knowledge which doesn’t help others at all. When people say that Life is Good, I realized it from a really good person in the cafeteria at Pace University who knows the two-faced taste of life; sweetness and bitterness. She used her phone from LG; Life is Good, however, she was very responsible for her family so that she had to work on weekends and she had to take care of all of things going on around her. This situation applied to me as well.

              The only difference is that I couldn’t find a job which I wanted. Choosing to study abroad in the states still makes me feel guilty of not taking care of my family. I didn’t know that how important person I am for my family. However, in New York City, where I have no family members, I felt that everything is still strange to me and I am still a new, strange, awkward person to everyone in New York City just because I am new here and I have nothing here at all. I want to believe that this hardship and isolated feeling in the process of studying in New York City will give me another lesson about how to find my happiness in the desert of happiness in New York City.

               People on the street of New York City look seamless but hopeless because they are obsessed with their busy life. They don’t even have a minute to talk about where is the nearest subway station. The problem in New York City is that people are easily getting lost on their way of how to find themselves because their dreams can be easily buried by the hugeness of the city’s atmosphere. So, I still feel regretful about choosing to study abroad in the states because the reality in everywhere is the same as where I was grown up in Seoul, South Korea. However, what I felt was that the value of studying in different areas is based on meeting new people who gave me new perspectives and supporting ideas.

             Still, there is a way of making Life is Good, however, some people do not even realize that life should be good. I do not want to make only profits by studying in the phd program of business in the future. What I really want by participating in the phd course in the business is to create knowledge by interacting with others so that my knowledge will help out more common people who could not have chances to get access to higher education. I hope to be a meaningful person for everyone who needs my help and my knowledge in the future. This small steps towards for the phd course and my sincere attitude will make me a better leader who gives more doors for everyone who needs my knowledge and my past experiences’ lessons.

Change is a chance. – Bill Gates