A letter to first year me: Xuange

Posted on: 19 July 2023 by Richard Finch in Student experiences

Xuange Zhang is a Class of 2023 BSc Mathematics graduate. Here, Xuange looks back at her time at the University of Liverpool and thinks about what she would tell her first-year self.

Dear First Year Me,

I know that you are very excited about your new life at university at the moment, there are so many things you want to try and so many ideas in your mind.

You call your dad every day, saying you think you’ve made the best choice ever about going to XJTLU instead of other traditional Chinese universities. But you may also be worried about your future, will you get an internship this summer, do you want to study mathematics, all these questions may be bothering you the whole first year. Let me tell you this:

You will be doing so well as always throughout your university life as you work so hard and you are brave enough to try challenging things and improve yourself. You know what you want, and you catch every great opportunity to improve yourself.

You are doing a great job and I want you to keep doing it. You will get all the resources to help you with making big decisions including course choosing, jobs, and studying abroad. You will figure them all out eventually and I want you to be confident with your choices and never regret it.

In the meantime, you will develop a lot of skills from study and work, while making a lot of friends from different background. Most importantly, you seize the opportunity to break through yourself again and again, shine on the bigger and bigger platform, and show the best yourself. I don’t have any advice for you as you need to learn from yourself, you reflect yourself and learn from the past. I just hope you are doing everything you want to do and live a better yourself!

Thank you for reading this letter, I wish you all the best in the future.

Good luck!

Your future self,

Xuange Zhang