What do you think courage means?

Lots of adventurous people try to get the top of Mount Everest; endless courageous pathfinders want to find out the secrets about Bermuda Triangle; millions of venturesome scientists explore the mysteries in the outer space even sacrifice their lives. When someone mentions courage, these pictures will appear in my brain. But what does courage actually mean? I think this word is explained by not only these people who are brave to explore the unknown world, but also those people who dare to give up something valuable to pursue what they really appreciate and to stand out to be the unique one.

Bill Gates’ experience which dropped out of Harvard and started his software business shows the exactly meaning of courage that gave up the valuable reputation of graduation from Harvard to seek what he wanted. Born in an affluent family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service, Bill Gates was supposed to be a prominent lawyer. So it was a great surprise to his family and friends when he decided quit Harvard to found his business of so-called “software”, which was considered as a kind of kitchen utensils by most people at that time. Standing in the contradictory side of the most people who were concerned about the material gains, Bill Gates shows his courage to be the unique one. However, Gates’ later success brought him fame and fortune that could not be seen on any graduate from his alma mater, yet all started with his courage.

The example of Giordano Bruno best proved that courage means giving up important things to inquire the truth which was disagreed by authority. Unlike other scientists who accepted geocentric theory but dominated this misconstrue in the 16th century, Giordano Bruno, under the influence of the cop, believed in heliocentric theory and decided to publicize the truth. This behavior is incredible to most in that society. Although suggested by his friends to give up his belief, Bruno was persisting on his idea even at the risk of deteriorating his personal safety. He was arrested for seven years because the numerous charges of blasphemy and heresy brought against to Bruno. Although Bruno was admonished to abandon his belief in the plurality of worlds during his length trial, he still held firm to it. The things what Bruno did needs unbelievable courage to pursue the truth by sacrificing his life.

With regards to my own experience, I’ve also found that when I make some different decision I need lots of courage. One year ago in high school, we were asked to sign up for the selective courses. While most of my friends chose geography and history because these classes gave out high grades, I hesitated to choose advanced math instead. I gave up the high grades, but after that semester I felt so lucky that I had truly made a huge progress in my math class, while my friends were laughing and sleeping in their easy classes.

In conclusion, from the examples above, we will know Bill Gates’ courage that built his own company instead of studying in Harvard, Bruno’s courage that ignored his life to persevere the truth, and my courage that gave up the good score to learn useful thing. As a result, I think courage means that when people choose to abandon something important and valuable in order to pursue the thing really means a lot to them but may be able to be agreed with others.

Hello~~my introduction

Hello, everyone. Welcome to my blogger! I would like to introduce myself first.
I am Luying Wang. I am from Hangzhou, China. My hometown is famous for the West Lake, which attracted millions of tourists all over the world to visit our city. Hangzhou is near Shanghai, and is the capital of Zhejiang Province. There are about ten students from Hangzhou coming to UIUC.

Now I am majoring in Economics and still not sure about which way to go in the future, but definitely I will figure this out soon. I am graduated from Hangzhou Xuejun High School. I know the name is a little strange and weird, but I am really proud of my school. Now I am enjoying the life in USA and UIUC. Because there are lots of friends here, we hang out during weekend, go to Chinese restaurant, and talk about our dream until midnight. Not only having fun here, but also I believe I will learn many knowledge from my classmates and professors so that I can make lots of progess.

I like playing badminton, Ping-Pong and will be glad to work out in the arc. If someone is also interested in, we can go there together. In the weekend, I will go to Union with my friends to play bowling and billiard which make lots of fun to us.

-Luying