Have Self-Esteem and Have a Challenge
Have Self-Esteem and Have a Challenge
  • Do Hyeon-seok (MSE 13)
  • 승인 2017.02.10 19:44
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The one thing I regret the most in my four years of university life is that I did not experience various things. Our university provides many opportunities to experience various programs such as internship and exchange student program. Thanks to POSTECH accepting only a relatively small number of freshmen every year, almost all students can experience these programs easily. However, I did not. There are many reasons, but I think the biggest reason was the lack of self-esteem.
At the beginning of the university life, I had doubts about my skills and did not trust myself. I consistently observed other friends who experienced lack of self-esteem. Especially, in an environment surrounded by excellent friends, it was difficult to have high self-esteem that I would do well. There were good outcomes sometimes, but friends with low self-esteem often reasoned the outcomes with luck or other factors rather than praising their own efforts. For example, when their grades were good, they often told themselves, "I was lucky," and "Other students failed the exam," rather than saying, "I did a lot of hard work this time." This may be true, or it may be an expression of humility. However, whenever they say that, it will be settled in their minds and it will eventually crash their self-esteem. In the worst cases this can even cause depression.
This low self-esteem makes it hard to challenge oneself to explore new areas. As mentioned above, our school provides many opportunities for students to have various experiences. I did not take advantage of those opportunities. Before even entering POSTECH, I had a kind of fear that told me, “I will not be able to do this,” or “Can I belong to this group?” Such fear and not believing in myself resulted in low self-esteem. Eventually, I came to have a tendency of giving up before I even started a challenging, because of this fear. A new challenge means experience. We all know that experiences are important. If this fear persisted, it would eventually spread to fear of change, and I would have become a person who cannot challenge anything.
However, through my efforts to raise my self-esteem, I have been able to be a different person. There was a sentence that helped me to improve my self-esteem. "You are doing well enough and deserve to be praised." External situations or luck may come in sometimes. However, the fact that you did well is unchanged. There is a saying, "Fortune is also ability." Fortune arises from various elements such as personality, efforts, etc. which are determined by oneself. Therefore, be proud of yourself for the good results you get.