The Moment of Truth

In your life, people will sometimes ask you this: what's the one thing you can do well? While people might say singing, dancing, playing music, cooking, or other amazing skills, I always have a hard time answering. I'm an all-round average girl, incapable of doing something beyond borderline. But then again, I looked back at my education history and achievements, and realized there's actually one thing I can do better than anybody else: studying. 

It all started as early as my elementary school years. I got the 3rd and 2nd rank in my 1st year. The rest of my elementary years, however, was ordinary. I somehow got into a car accident, didn't socialize well, and was absolutely boring. I didn't achieve anything worth mentioning. It went all the way till the end of my junior high school. Fast forward to high school. I started to open up more to people, I met my clicks, I started to realize I was actually pretty good at explaining and speaking in public, and were more in love with English as a language and a tool. My academic achievements were pretty remarkable as well. I got the 2nd rank among all the social students in my 2nd year, and graduated in number 1. I was simply number 1. Shocking? For me, it was. 

Then I got into university, where I learned I had to gain some experience in organizations and make use of my public speaking skills. My English skills somehow got even better, I studied really well, and my GPA never fell below 3,5. I graduated with a cum laude: 3,75 GPA. It was around my 2nd year of university that I finally understood that there's after all, something I was good at - studying. Being a model student. Useless as it might sounds, it brought me a sense of relief that at least I wasn't a good-for-nothing girl. 

When I started to enter the working environment, I knew right away studying wasn't gonna take me far. But then I started teaching. Teaching English to be exact. And there I noticed my studying skills might actually be useful! And so far, they are. They help me prepare materials quicker, explaining theories better, and even help the student with their studying as well. At least I can tell them some tips which actually work. Then again, the institution I work for demanded for more. They wanted their employees to have a certain written proof that my English skills were good enough to teach students of all levels, from beginners to the more advanced learners. That's how I ended up taking the Cambridge's English assessment: Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). 

CAE wasn't a new thing to me. I had studied for it for a couple years in a language school, but didn't take the real test since I thought it wouldn't have any significance for my life. I didn't regret it. I can say it with confidence that I'm glad I made that decision back then or else I wouldn't get a satisfactory result I badly craved for. I took the real CAE back in May 2015, and had prepared for it like crazy. I attended the preparation class, studied all kind of grammars and lexis, did countless practice tests; all to get the result I wanted: an A. Not just a borderline passing grade, not a good enough B, but an A. I knew it was kind of impossible but I thought I should just aimed high. It was a go-big-or- go-home moment for me. Even if I didn't get an A, I could still get a B, which was better than a C.

2 days ago, came the moment of truth. I received an e-mail stating that my CAE result was out and available to download. With a pitter-patter I logged in to the website, and surprised myself to death when I saw the screen: I passed. "Pass at Grade A" - that's what written. Now I know better than anybody else how good I am at studying. I hope the career I'm pursuing right now can make the best use out of this seemingly foolish skill of mine. I hope I can do exactly what I need to do to make it. The rest... is God's. 

Part of the statement of result I received from Cambridge. It's not displayed here for bragging, but just to support the arguments I made above about my hidden skill.