I will never forget the day I opened the computer early morning to log into my email. I couldn’t believe it, I opened the email and read that I was accepted to UCSB, I was so excited and filled with joy and happiness. At that time in life, still young, I wasn’t very sure of what major to study, but I was interested in Public Relations so I chose a Communications major. Having a long and rich history, UCSB is a top ranked public school with many majors and classes to choose from. I strongly believed it will light up my passion. For the past months, UCSB was not only my first American school, my undergraduate college, but also my home. At UCSB I made a lot of friends and took many interesting courses. I joined an amateur tennis club and volunteered sometimes at the local hospital. With a busy schedule, I managed to mantain a high GPA and still keep track with a social life.

As an innovative, adventurous individual, I have always desired a career that requires innovation, educated risks, and foresight. I am thankful for UCSB choosing me and I am more than happy to of chosen UCSB, but because I am still young and exploring, I have thought seriously and for a long time that I wish to change my major to either Economics or East Asian Studies. At UCSB, with so many students, it is very difficult choosing classes at the beginning of each semester. Also the classes are not small and dynamic, many classes have an unrational rate of professors to students, this is therefore not a good chance to talk to the professors often and communicate with them.

In the summer of high school, I was lucky to go to Japan for a student exchange program. It was exciting engaging in a whole new culture and language. I was fascinated with Japan, such a small country on a big island in the sea but having a very strong and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Economics is truly all around us, present in almost every aspect of our lives. Studying economics gives us a general understanding of the world we live in and its inner working. My father also does Japanese Business trading and sometime with other East Asian countries, he is fluent in Japanese and will share with me his interesting experiences. I also began learning Japanese in the beginning of high school, now I am fluent in an intermidiate level.