Li Bai the Tang Dynasty Poet's Encounter with an Old Woman's Iron Bar

I remembered one of the stories in Chinese class. Okay, I might be criticizing the way Chinese was taught back then but I'm not going to shy away from remembering life lessons. It's like a Chinese language teacher of mine said, "Was it true I was strict?" and then she followed up by saying, "Did you learn something?" The same was true for another Chinese language teacher who was mad at my quiz scores. Later, the other Chinese language teacher said, "Did you learn something" followed up by, "I'm glad you see Mandarin has its importance." I could only say "Yes." to the two Chinese language teachers. I feel that even wit that old system that I disliked--the two Chinese language teachers imparted special values.

One story was of Li Bai who, like Mencius, wasn't a bright start. Some of the best people today may share their embarrassing pasts. Such a story that I heard was that of Li Bai the scholar. It was said Li Bai didn't like to go to school but met an old lady with an iron bar. The old lady herself was grinding the iron bar to make a needle. Li Ban was astonished by the old lady. The old lady said, "If you persevere, the iron bar will become a needle."

The story of Li Bai inspired me later in life. There will be people who will cause trouble. Yet, I persisted to a certain extent. I may have not finished with honors but at least I finished on time with decent grades. I could say that the same can be true for me and mathematics. I didn't like math as a teenager. It was hard. Not too many people find math easy. Yet, I decided to keep grinding that iron bar. I may not have Latin honors but I did finish on time. I could say I did learn from Li Bai's story to a certain extent.

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