Ru Chao

Student

I’m passionate about jogging and doing Pilates. I have accomplished 6 half marathons and taken Pilates class once a week since I was a high school student. Jogging is a kind of exercise that requires one to do alone. It trains one’s persistence and the ability to get alone with oneself. While jogging, I can temporarily get away from daily worries and even come up with some good ideas or solutions to the problem happening in my life. On the other hand, Pilates brings me serenity and energy. Its flows build up core muscles and the tempo train a more stable breath. To sum up, jogging trains my patience and persistence. Pilates, respectively, trains my core muscles. Both exercises bring huge positive effects to my mindset, allowing me to be calm and optimistic when tackling with problems. People don't know I'm good at I am quite good at taking care of dogs. I have kept a puppy for almost 12 years. The puppy grew from 3 months to 12 years old. We have developed companionship and strong emotional bond. Unfortunately, it was diagnosed with skin disease when it was 9 years old, causing it to feel itchy every moment. It scratches hard and sometimes even starts to bleed. The vet told us that the disease could not be cured but relieved. Since then, I spent even much time accompanying it and observe its needs carefully. The experience of keeping a puppy has cultivated my caring and love for animals especially dogs. Now I’m a volunteer at a dog shelter. I dedicated my time and efforts to the dogs living in shelter every weekend. I hope that one day there will be no stray dogs and cats on the streets, and people consider carefully when they are going to keep pets because keeping pets is also keeping promise to oneself.

“The value of communication is to communicate without persuading” Last year in 2019, Taiwan became the first Asia country legalizing same sex marriage. I was really proud of being a Taiwanese. However, I know that some interest groups and some people weren’t satisfied with it. Legalizing same sex marriage is just an example of an issue that has two extreme oppositions, which made me think of a question: How do we fill up the gap derived from different values? I think the answer might be to communicate without persuading. I hope that all the people communicate and listen to each other sincerely one day. I hope that people ponder deeply before spreading information and expressing opinions. And then human being might leave great imprints one day, making the world better than this moment.

Couple years ago when I was still a junior high student, I got a chance to watched TED talk because an assignment from my English teacher. At that time, TED talks are more like materials to practice English listening than inspiration. The moment I realized the core value of TED talks and experienced the inspiring moment happened in my college time. In my freshman year, I participated the TEDx event held by our school’s alumni. One of the speeches inspired me enormously. The speaker Shin Yu, Dai delivered a speech about the experience she had gone through in Syria. Before the speech, once Syria was mentioned, the pictures of kids starving and people are homeless come up in my mind immediately. However, the speaker said:" Let's just stop our sympathy. They are not Syrian refugees but Syrian. They are ordinary humans just like you and me." She said that most of the people in Syria are capable of owning a decent job. They just lacked of chances and opportunities to utilize their ability. After this speech, I realized that we shouldn't choose a stance or an angle when seeking for truth. Instead, we should keep an open mind and get rid of the superiority complex when facing the people who live different lives from us.

I am quite good at taking care of dogs. I have kept a puppy for almost 12 years. The puppy grew from 3 months to 12 years old. We have developed companionship and strong emotional bond. Unfortunately, it was diagnosed with skin disease when it was 9 years old, causing it to feel itchy every moment. It scratches hard and sometimes even starts to bleed. The vet told us that the disease could not be cured but relieved. Since then, I spent even much time accompanying it and observe its needs carefully. The experience of keeping a puppy has cultivated my caring and love for animals especially dogs. Now I’m a volunteer at a dog shelter. I dedicated my time and efforts to the dogs living in shelter every weekend. I hope that one day there will be no stray dogs and cats on the streets, and people consider carefully when they are going to keep pets because keeping pets is also keeping promise to oneself.