HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – Weifan Zhang

“So much happened [in high school]. I grew so much as a person. The [me at the] start of freshman year [and the] me now are two completely different people because I’ve gotten so much more open and confident in myself. At the same time, I’ve learned so much about not just academics or sports—which is what I’m known for—but also [my] mental state and how to reach a level of success. It’s not as simple as completing tasks. A lot of it is mental, so I’ve learned a lot about the mental aspect of life. Obviously, you can never be fully satisfied with your achievements because you always want to keep going forward. [It’s] upward mobility, so I would say I’m satisfied to an extent with all the goals I’ve accomplished in high school.

Ever since I was small, I[’ve] worked super hard. It’s something that was natural, but I didn’t know why I was [becoming] more successful than my teammates. Now that I [am] older and more mature, I can see why when I was younger, I was able to [become] more successful. It wasn’t just working harder. It was also connecting to something. Thinking positive is a big part of it. I[’ve] thought positively throughout my life. I tried to ignore all the negativity. And it doesn’t matter what my mood is at the moment, I still have to go to work, you know?

Junior year had the greatest influence [on me] because that’s [when] I was working [harder than] ever. I was really stressed during that time, but the harder [it] is, the more you learn. The people around me, they were amazing. I am really fortunate to choose a group of friends who are super supportive. We have similar goals. I had a great time having fun with them, getting to know them and just going out with them. I want to be remembered through my achievements. I would [rather] get attention from what I accomplish than from other sources, like negative attention. I want to accomplish things and check off goals, and eventually, I’ll get known for what I’ve achieved in life. I’m going to the University of Pennsylvania, and I’m studying economics. I don’t even know what I want to do, but for now, I’m definitely leaning toward finance.

[I have] a lot of advice, but to keep it short, just flow through your life. You don’t have to try to control everything. Sometimes you just have to do things when it’s time to do things. You don’t have to worry about the SAT at the beginning of freshman year. You don’t have to worry about college applications before you even get to high school. When it’s time to work on something, go out and work as hard as you can on that. But before that, you don’t have to worry, just focus on the present.”