How Science (Culture) Shaped Me

This blogpost assignment, How Science Shaped Me, I thought about it for a while. How science shaped me is that it did not shape me, because where I originally come from, Hong Kong in China, I did not have to study science (physics, chemistry and biology) and I picked literature for my high school life. Though I am very much interested in science and how living things and the Earth work. But the sad thing is that studying science required good mathematic skills, which I do not have and I am going to blame that I just don't have any math genes, ha. But I sometimes wonder if I did study math in high school and did study hard in high school, would I still decide to come to the United States. The main reason why I decided to come to US is because I wasted time and chances back in my home country and I wanted to start all over again. 

Soon enough when I was going to a community college in Chicago, I realized that I am passionate about film. Not just that was I enjoying watch different films, I was also interested in other things behind the film and stuffs. I decided to change my major from Mass Communication to Film studies. I myself enjoy watching films has a lot to do with my parents, especially my dad. When I was still little and still hang out with my dad, we watched a lot of films together and talked about them. That's how I approached films and had a small film library. 

In my first blogpost assignment, I first stated that I was mostly shaped by people around me like friends and teachers, society and environment, but after I read someone else's blogpost which mentioned that he and his brother were mostly influenced by his parents, I thought it over and wanted to change my mind. Not just that my dad and I both share same interest, watching films, I think I also inherited his gene of taking pictures and exploring IT stuffs. Although we rarely go out and take picture together, he loves showing me what pictures he takes and tells me how talented he is. Though I did not get to spend a lot of time with my dad, I still believe that my dad has a big impact on me. This is a point of fact. We did not just share opinions on his works, but also point of view on a lot of different things, things that were worth to talk about. 

Because I was inherited my dad's gene of watching films and photography, I am now a SCMC student and I am just loving this major and loving the way professors teach. Here I will have to explain why. Back in Hong Kong, I think we have the most boring teaching method and learning style. What I did in high school was that I had to remember everything from the textbooks and had to be able to memorize all of them, literally all of them. And pretty much there is really nothing else I can possibly do if I want to pursue a better grade. In short, it sucked and it's just culture. There is a metaphor saying that students in Hong Kong are just like roast ducks/dead ducks being stuffed by a lot of stuffs that we don't even know. The system just keep putting stuffs in and in and in. Sometimes it is not a matter of how good the stuffs being stuffed are, it's matter of how much stuffs are being stuffed. And I will have to say that I believe I have became a different person after I came to the United States, where I learned new, inspiring and challenging culture. When one is changed in good, people will notice and will be influenced in good as well.