Remediation Essay Sample

When I started my project, I was very lost on how to best tell my story. However, as I looked at the self-summary I had written, it became more and more clear that my heritage is a very important part of my identity. There have been many conflicts in my life because of my strong cultural identity as a Chinese person, and I tried very hard to express these conflicts and how I overcame them with my project.
I think the thing that stands out the most about my self-summary-- before I even began to consider what to do for my project-- is the conflict that I had between my potential career and my family. I knew that this conflict would have to be a central theme of my project, because I have always wanted to be a good child, but I also want to follow my dreams. In my self-summary, I wrote: “When I reached age to choose my life career to study, my father believes lawyers have brighter future, thereby insisting me to choose a law degree to study. However, being a lawyer is like the least thing I would like to do in my list. “Sitting behind a desk dealing with piles of case files is absolutely not my type”, I told myself. Instead, I love sports since a very young age. I play all kinds of sports[] I was even granted with a national athlete certificate due to my good performance in national badminton matches. When I knew this school provides a major of sports management, I was so excited and cheered up loudly ‘I finally found something I would like to do in my whole life.’ I want to study this major so eagerly but when I express my decision to me parents, I received a strong disagreement as my father said: ‘This is such an childish and idiotic idea, you will regret it immediately.’ They ignore my super enthusiasm towards sports and the sport management, arguing my opinion is just an impulsive decision which will be faded within a few days.” I knew that this conflict was something that I needed to show with my project, so I put it in the video. I chose sad music because I felt that this exchange was a very sad one in my life. I did not want to disappoint my parents but I thought it was important to follow my own dreams and not become an extension of their lives. I am constantly torn between being a good Chinese child and being my own person.
I chose to make a video because I feel that the visual medium has a lot to offer that words cannot. I know there is an English saying that a picture is worth one thousand words, but when words and pictures are combined they are worth even more together. I wanted to combine pictures of my family with the words I have written about my family to paint a better picture for everyone about my story.
There is also another very important moment in my story, and that is when I am talking to my father and we have a sudden understanding. In my self-summary, I wrote: “I was arguing with my father why I choose sports related major, a situation just as many other tries. However, this time I said ‘different people have different concept and I want to make a decision for my own life’ [] I grasped the opportunity and talked all the way in the next 10 minutes on how I set goals for me life and I also depicted my short-term and long-term plans followed by how to achieve these goals in details. Afterwards, when I said ‘living without an aim is like sailing without a compass,’ I saw a flash in my father’s eyes. On that very moment, I suddenly realized all my father had done were for my best interest only.” I chose to illustrate this moment in my video because it is a very important one in my life. First, my father came to see things from my point of view and he then allowed me to start chasing my dreams. But at this time, I also started to see things from my father’s point of view. He was not trying to hold me back or hold me down, he just wanted me to be successful in my life.
When I first started to plan this project, I thought it would go differently. I thought maybe I would talk more about the events in my life, or the people in it; but when I began to plan it, I realized that what I really wanted to investigate was the relationship I had with my father. I chose some music that makes me think of my childhood, because it is music that my father always used to play when I was a child. I know that despite all our differences, I love my father very much and I want to work towards a better relationship with him. When we had this breakthrough with my father, I became a different person and so did he. With this project I wanted to show that a change had happened.
With this project, the peer response helped me a lot. I had some technical problems when I was first trying to do the project, but I got some help and I was able to finish everything that I needed to finish. Although there were some surprises, I was really happy to do this project, since it gave me some time to reflect on some things that were very important events in my life. Illustrating them and adding media to them gave me a different point of view than just writing them down.