Looking back on my high school vacations, the only memory I have is watching movies like a couch potato. While my friends spent fruitful vacations of learning, I refused to make myself a better person. I could not feel the need to improve myself. Instead, enjoying a cozy, lazy life seemed more suitable for me. Now I regret wasting my valuable time that will never come back again. I started to wonder how I can recover my lost time and learned two lessons.
Understanding why I wasted my high school vacations helped me find a solution. 
On the first exam I took in high school, I studied the same way I did in middle school and thought I would probably get a good grade. However, there were lots of talented students in my high school. Many of them were smarter than me. So, unfortunately, I failed in getting a good grade. After several failures, I realized that whenever I did something, there was always someone who was better at it than me. To protect myself, I set a limit on what I attempted and stopped trying new things. Limiting myself prevented failures and troubles. However, I was not satisfied with my life. A steady life without challenge did not seem to be meaningful. I need challenges and achievements to define who I am. From this experience, I learned my first lesson; I must work hard to love myself.
Realizing I must work hard, I could not ignore the regretful time I had wasted. I wondered how I could recover and feel as if I had never wasted my time. The more I wondered, the more I realized the second lesson; time flies, never to return. I cannot bring back the time that has already passed. All I can do is my best from now on. Since time in college is equally or more important than the time in high school, there was no need to regret the past. Ironically, ignoring the past and focusing the present solves the problem; my lost time becomes meaningful by making myself avoid the same mistake.
Through these two lessons, I started to set up my own goals. I love learning biology and philosophy. Though the two subjects are quite different, they both answer the same question, “How are our thoughts made?” I realized that this was the question I was enthusiastic about. So, I set my goal to become a scientist to answer that question, instead of simply getting good grades. After becoming aware of what I loved, I could enjoy studying. With higher grades, I could finally be confident and passionate about studying. Now I am enjoying my life of heading toward my dream.
Even though this is my personal story, this can be an issue for all Postechians. Since POSTECH is full of talented students who have been the best in their high schools, they may experience their limits at POSTECH. Some of them may doubt their potential, surrender, and refuse to confront challenges. But we should not evaluate our potential and value by comparing ourselves with others. We are all talented; our work is not about being better than our fellows. It is about achieving our goals. 
If you are having a hard time in POSTECH, I recommend you take a step back and trace your memory of being excellent at something. Find out what you desire, not what others want. If you have potential and goals, you are ready to start a race toward reaching that goal. In the movie Nymphomaniac, there is a line that inspired me: If you have wings, why not fly? The line teaches us a lesson; if we have the potential to achieve our goals, why not challenge ourselves?