What Happened after High School

a few weeks ago i was sitting in front

of my desk

thinking about what this speech should

be about

i was trying to find a connection

between you guys and i

and i thought oh we do have something in

common we’re all student

at ica ones so today i wanted to share

the story about my life

after graduating from ica let me start

with the introduction of myself

my name is grace huang and i’m ica

alumni from class of 2014.

i came to icic when i was in the 9th

grade i now have graduated from

university with a bachelor degree in

business management

and another one in restaurant management

when i first came to ica i was a really

shy girl who could barely speak english

and then i graduated as an 18 year old

who is very confident

and excited to explore the world this is

what icf meant to me

a place that showed you everything is

possible

i was a good student a straight a

student

i participated in different school

events activities and sport

making sure i was enough to apply to

multiple universities in my senior year

like most of you guys will be doing this

semester we try to show the best side of

ourselves

on our applications in order to get into

our dream schools

and which i did i was accepted into one

of the top universities in the world

university of british columbia in

vancouver canada

a science major as i wanted to become a

marine biologist one day

and on top of that i also got full

scholarship

by the national science council of

taiwan

which will cover my four-year tuitions

and also my living expenses

it just seems like there’s a bright

future right in front of me

and then it went downhill as the

semester started

i was very excited and very motivated

however

i soon realized i could barely keep up

with the curriculum

i was really afraid to ask questions

because i didn’t want to look stupid in

front of all my classmates

i always told myself just go home and

google the answer online

it’ll be easier and save yourself from

embarrassment

i started to lose confidence was i good

enough to be in this school

was marine biology the right thing for

me

all this negative thoughts have brought

me to a dark place

i lost motivation to get out in the

morning and go to classes

i lost motivation to socialize with

people

i lost interest in the subject i was

studying

was marine biology the right thing for

me or

was university the right thing for me

at the end of the semester even though i

didn’t fail any classes

my grades were at the age of failing

imagine this

you’re a straight a student in high

school and then you become a straight b

student in freshman year that was a big

disappointment for myself so i didn’t

know what to do

i think what got me into that situation

is

because of my pride i was too proud of

myself

in order to admit to the fact that i’m

not good enough for this school

and i think the correct word is maybe

arrogant

so at the end of the year i found out

that my grades were not high enough for

me to even change my major

i decided it is time to find help it

took me the whole year

to admit to the fact that i was

overwhelmed and terrified by the whole

situation

so i decided i need to go see my

university counselor

after explaining the whole situation she

told me

it is actually pretty normal for

freshmen to feel this way

and what she suggested me to do is to

take a gap year

for those who don’t know a gap year is

when students

take a year off or semester off in order

to learn through experience

there’s many things you can learn during

a gap year you can learn a new language

you can work you can travel it is

usually taken

after high school and before university

started however

some university kids take it during

university in order to rethink about the

path they wanted to pursue

so i decided i wanted to take a gap year

but

what should i do one thing i enjoyed the

most during my freshman year was cooking

for my roommate

it was just some easy home cooking or

baking cookies during my spare time

it’s a way to escape from the

stress from school and what my roommate

told me was that

why don’t you just take a cooking class

i think

now i think about that maybe it’s for

her own benefit

but at that time i thought it was a

great idea

it’s a nice skill to have and i thought

it would be coming handy when i’m

looking for a husband

so i decided i want to start my culinary

journey

but before i get into all that there’s

one more thing

this decision was not free it had a cost

i had to decide if i wanted to give on

my full scholarship

since i’m no longer a student at the

university i had a counselor who was

assigned to me

and her job was to keep me on track

during my academic year

in order to get my scholarship i told

her about the decision about going to

culinary school

hoping she will be understanding and

being supportive

however her response was shocking and

unexpected to me

what she said was you are going to

choose a culinary school

over one of the top university in the

world are you

out of your mind throwing yourself your

future away like this

i could not face your parents and i’m

very very ashamed of you

like in my mind i was thinking was that

the social expectation in asian society

that for individuals or organizations

does society as a whole about what

people should do

in asian society parents always have

high expectations for their kids

to become a doctor or lawyer in the

future

jobs like working in the kitchen

sometimes is

assumed as a low-end job and are for

those who never have a proper education

i think this is her thinking but it is

the 21st century

people should be free to do whatever

they like to do

because it really will limit people’s

creativity

so to me the scholarship represents more

than just money

it also represented my pride and at that

time i thought

it is time to put my pride aside and

then start it from zero again

so i decided to give out my scholarship

and have a whole new journey at this

culinary school

and to this day i still believe that

going to this culinary school

is one of the best decisions i have ever

made my school was

right next to the biggest farmer’s

market in vancouver so

the ingredients we used are the freshest

week we found

even though the hours were long i was

loving every second of it

our instructors teach us not only knife

skills

but also the correct way and respectful

way to treat each ingredient

we have a restaurant inside the school

for real customers

so students come up with the menu and

work under the guidance

of our instructors during the weekend

i will volunteer to work at hotels and

restaurants

in order to gain more experience

i finally feel like i fit into a group a

group

of people who share the same passion as

me

at the end of the semester i wanted to

invite my father to come to my

graduation

because i want to show him what i have

achieved during this year

at first he thought this coronary thing

was just a face

and i would go back to university

afterward

however when the headmaster called my

name and asked me up to the stage

he also announced that i have graduated

with the highest score

in my year i could hear my father

cheering from the audience see

he was so proud and i knew at that

moment he was ready to give me his full

support

so within three months after i graduated

i

moved to paris and enrolled into a whole

new university

during these three years i achieved so

much

i was working at one of the top hotels

in paris as an intern i also did an

exchange program in bangkok thailand

to learn about thai cuisine and i did an

internship back in taiwan

working closely with farmers to learn

more about local ingredients

during these three years i used all the

opportunities i could found

and then i graduated with a dual degree

and now i have just quit my job not long

ago

because i wanted to start my own

business which is all about fresh

ingredients

and handmade product i wanted to share a

quote with you

as ernest hemingway famously wrote in

his book

if you are lucky enough to have lived in

paris as a young man

then whenever you go for the rest of

your life it stays with you

for paris is a movable feast and

i was truly the lucky one if i haven’t

made

all those hard decisions i will never

have a chance to move to paris and have

all this amazing experience

like he says paris really stays with you

which is why i want to bring this

parisian lifestyle

back into my business i want to share

not only

delicious product but also a fun and

relaxing way of

living after graduating from high school

life might be more difficult than what

you think it will be

you think 12 years of education is

enough for you to figure out what you

wanted to do

or who you wanted to become but

sometimes

you just need a little bit more time and

space to figure that out

high school sometimes feel like it’s

about fulfilling others expectations

either from your parents or from

teachers

but university is the time when you

really need to take responsibility for

yourself

and make decisions for yourself

because of my decision to go to culinary

school instead of a university

people has called me all sorts of names

they went even

crazier when i told them going to start

it from zero again

in paris they’ll always have something

to say

but the most important thing is how to

turn this negative energy

into something positive to me the

turbulence in life

is about people’s criticism against my

own decision

it took me extra two years to figure out

the way

the path i wanted to pursue but i think

that’s okay

to me it’s worth it because now i know

my worth

and i’m honest to myself about my

strengths and my weaknesses

now the most important thing is i only

live out to my own expectation now

and to me that is the indication of a

mature and very successful person

thank you guys