Four Years in A Row

                                                                        "My dad's investment in education was a result of                                                                              his strong belief in possibility relative to time."

"It's not impossible, it's just not time to make it possible" has been jotted down in my life diary as a motto of mine. All it takes is time, during which initiatives, passion, commitment, and tireless efforts have to be taken and made. In the other words, being optimistic is a key. Thinking positively, constructing a clear vision of what you want to happen, and projecting what will befall you along the way down the road will diminish impossibilities and create more possibilities.

Back when I was a country boy living roughly 25 kilometers away from the provincial town in a small business village where I spent 15 years before moving to Phnom Penh in 2009, I never ever imagined I would have a chance to leave Cambodia for the pursuit of education abroad. However, there was a person who had a vision for me; he is my dad. He believed that one day I would go abroad, thus, when I was in grade 10, at around 16 year of age, my dad decided to send me to study in the provincial town of Battambong with my female, 15-day-older cousin. Her name is Leangkhim, but I prefer calling her Sreymom; I don't know why when I try to call her Khim or Leangkhim, my tongue can't be twisted to utter that beautiful word. Over there, I lived with my aunt and uncle, Sreymom's parents. I lived there for about 3 months. Over the course of some three months, I gained substantial knowledge through enrolling in some of the most famous teacher's courses of maths and physics. 

It was the first time in forever I lived out of my parents' sight, and it was also the beginning of my belief  in the same thing as my dad did. I started to realized that my dad's investment in education was a result of his strong belief in possibility relative to time. It is similar to planting a tree. It will takes 5 or 10 years, for some trees it may exceed a decade, to fruit. Hence, what that belief taught me was I had to be patient and to sharpen my knowledge, waiting for the opportunity to come.

At the end of my 11th grade, I came to Phnom Penh during vacation to study. I spent most of the time of the day taking math, physics, chemistry special classes at Chey Thavy private school, located in an area proximity to Bak Touk High School. It was quite a famous school in Phnom Penh, whose name spread all over the country. When school time started again, I returned to Kampong Cham, and came back before the national exam started. It was an intensive study, I would call it.

As a result, after 5 years, my effort paid off. I was awarded scholarships abroad 4 academic years consecutively, commencing from my third year in college.  At the conclusion of my junior year (3rd year), I was granted a scholarship to go on an exchange program in Japan. Four months after returning to Cambodia which was in the beginning of my senior year (4th year), I won another scholarship to go on another exchange program in Japan. A year later, in my last year at college (5th year) I got another opportunity to be a short term exchange international student in the United States of America. I returned to Cambodia in mid-May 2014 to receive my engineer's degree from the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC). Amazingly, I won another scholarship to go to grad school in Japan only a few weeks after my return to Cambodia. At the moment, I am preparing to set off to Tokyo, Japan in late March or early April 2015. This marked my 4-years-in-a-row scholarship awarding in my undergraduate life. Compared to others, this may mean nothing, but to me it means more than anything I could say. I, at the moment of writing, still could not believe I could break this record of mine. I, when in high school, would imagine I would one day sit in a classroom equipped with high-tech learning materials, taught by highly specialized professors, and the like. AND ultimately I could achieve my dream, and it is beyond my expectation.

Therefore, keep your belief in the right thing you are doing. One day it will happen, and maybe beyond your expectation. Stay true to yourself, and wait for great things to occur.