My work has been extremely demanding in the past month, and I'm applying for postgraduate study at Harvard University, which is taking up a consuming amount of time.
It is during times like this, I guess, that one truly learns the love of others. In the past few weeks, I have been moved so many times, by the kindness and patience of friends, professors, and colleagues. They let me know that no matter how bad things turn out (such as making a mistake on the birth date, causing the record be rejected by the schools), in the end, everything will be okay. They let me know that the small things that I did in the past, out of whim or pure curiosity, will pay off in an unexpected way. They let me know that I'm not without support and I'm not alone. They let me to gain the courage and confidence I did not possess. And they let me know what kind of person they think I am and therefore I could be.
I feel like during this process, I have grown, and I have learned.
I cannot be too grateful to my dear friends at the NGO in Bangladesh, who went through every trouble to send out a recommendation letter; I cannot be too grateful to my respected professor from UBC, who has the strongest faith in me, and committed so much time to help me in my humble pursuit; I cannot be too grateful to my friend and my coach from South Korea, who, contrary to his usual style, helped with my application materials with such meticulousness and precision; and of course, I cannot be too grateful to my close friends at BFSU, Harvard, Columbia, and Juilliard, whose advice I seek and whose support I count on.
No, it's not about Harvard. It's about my belief that love and beauty could save the world. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty". My desired study is in traditional Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. If you read Fujiwara Norinaga's teachings on calligraphy, Saiyosho, you'll find calligraphy is not just writing, not just an art, it's life, and how to live a life beautifully.
No. 39 Never write anything when you are tired.
No. 43 In your practice, do not give a thought to wealth or poverty... proceed carefully along the WAY of calligraphy.
-- translated by Gary DeCoker
by Shao Yan, Chinese contemporary calligrapher
by Ogawa Gaboku, Japanese contemporary calligrapher
![[Picture+2.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4uq1IQFyeX4krDHaoxPgQ6gTw-jbJ3eTPbhM4q-nVvDnT29HWWDipfBTGdwzfY8wrs-ii4GfxJf0FfYeyK-JT136p8gyOP3UcJR4lyge8PZp48jHX9RB7IH-jj5YW1KW0BETQgmnBEEg/s1600/Picture+2.jpg)
yi (righteousness) by different Chinese calligraphers across 1200 years
