I made a lot of choices while I grew up.  When I was at a public school, I was very confused about my future.  I felt that I didn't have enough time and energy to pursue my dream. I was faced with tons of homework every day, and I felt as if I had fallen into an abyss. I couldn't do what I liked, and the only goal in life seemed to be working on the high school entrance examination, the college entrance examination and getting into a university. Thanks to my parents who realized that the public school system did not suit me, and I was transferred to an international school and given the right to choose my own life path. Being able to reflect on why I should attend university, I gradually became optimistic about my future. A year later at the international school, I was at a loss about what I would do in the future. Fortunately, the school organized various activities on campus to help us explore ourselves and tap our potential, so that I could came to understand who I was.  I am an imaginative girl.  Since childhood, I have had many fantastic ideas and some talent in the field of painting, so I decided on taking up art.

There are many reasons why I am interested in art and design. The first is my family background. As an art teacher and designer, my father loves art very much. When I was very young, he kept giving me artistic inspirations, encouraging me to create my own artworks, and stimulating my fancy ideas.  One day, when I was scribbling on the wall at home, he didn't get angry. Instead, he praised me and encouraged me to draw because he didn't want to restrict my ideas. When I was a bit older, he taught me some professional art knowledge, which improved my creativity and helped me lay a solid foundation. The second reason is my school. I was very fortunate to encounter very professional art teachers. The art double excellence program offered by our school has made me realize that design is very interesting, and I have been exposed to various forms of design. Whenever I complete my unique design, I feel happy with it and proud of myself. Thus, I become more and more confident in myself. Another factor is that I benefit from the city and the era I grew up in. I have access to a lot of artistic designs almost anywhere and anytime, such as busy streets, shopwindow displays, numerous art exhibitions, or searching the internet to find out what the latest artists are doing. Interesting designs keep inspiring me and motivating me to move forward. I wish I could also bring beauty to everyone's life just like those artists.

How time flies! My high school years will come to an end in just 2 months.  Looking back on these years at SHBS, I find it the most rewarding to be able to lay a solid foundation of painting and design by attending many courses related to art and design.  I remember that in my basic art class, our teachers taught us the skills of drawing, goufa and acrylic, and took us to campus so that we could practice sketches. They also instructed us on how to make some models, such as volcano models and house models, so as to improve our hands-on ability.  During my Grade 11 year, I began to challenge myself to do some more difficult design projects so that I could prepare for my portfolio.  A project could take as little as a week or as long as a month. These projects included logo design, product packaging design, book design and clothing design.  I had to keep refining my designs, make countless manuscripts, buy all kinds of materials, and think about how to make my work more creative. In addition, whenever the school needed to make posters for activities and hold art exhibitions, I would offer to make posters, and help teachers to arrange exhibitions, so that we could present students' works in the best way and make the whole school artistic. In our school, every time we have a large festival such as Christmas, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival,etc., the school will decorate the campus with festival ornaments to make everyone feel the warm atmosphere. For example, on Christmas day, I would attach some snow stickers to the windows, and make some models of Christmas trees in the school. I would also hang ribbons and balloons in the auditorium and canteen.  For me, the community I live in is like a big family, and I would love to do what I can to make it better.