In this blog post, I’ll summarize what I learned and felt through my academic experiences, school activities, and conflict management during my high school years.

Academic Experiences and Reflections

Let’s Study Consistently Every Day
I was deeply shocked by my first midterm exam after entering high school. I thought I had been studying diligently, but my scores were very low, and my confidence—which I had previously believed was strong—was severely shaken. That shock persisted throughout my freshman year, leading to a decline in my grades. As my confidence waned, I became passive in class, and my social relationships also suffered. Studying while stressed also took a toll on my physical health.
Meeting an older cousin my mother introduced me to and seeking her advice became a turning point. Contrary to my expectations, this cousin, who attended a prestigious university, didn’t rely on any special study secrets; instead, she told me, “Just do as much as you can, consistently, day by day.” It sounded like common sense, but I chose to believe her and decided to start over.
Rather than trying to cram too much into my head at once, I set realistic daily goals that I could actually stick to and focused on consistently following through. By studying consistently without feeling overly burdened, my grades gradually began to improve, and they’ve continued to rise ever since. I was actually surprised to see better results than when I was attending cram schools or taking private lessons.
Through this experience, I realized that consistency is more important than any number of study methods. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to list my daily tasks in my diary and check them off as I complete them. Every weekend, I review the items I’ve completed and those I didn’t, taking time to praise myself or reflect on my shortcomings, and I’m steadily moving toward my goals.

Writing about major school activities and reflections

Making a newspaper: a task that requires passion
The most meaningful activity I participated in at school was the newspaper club. When my confidence was low, I joined the newspaper club because I believed I was good at writing, and at first, I was in charge of proofreading and editing articles. Since I enjoyed reading and had a knack for writing, I was able to handle that role relatively easily, and the feeling of having my abilities recognized in a field other than academics made me approach the work with even more passion.
After regaining my confidence, I became actively involved in reporting, taking photos, and writing articles myself. Through this experience, I realized that the hardest moment in producing a newspaper is when you lose your “passion.” Without passion, the reporting itself becomes difficult, and it’s hard to maintain direction and objectivity when organizing the material into writing.
Reporting is essential for writing articles, but especially when high school students cover school-related topics, the process didn’t go smoothly due to hesitation about conducting interviews. When turning my reporting into an article, it was crucial to convey only the facts objectively and to exclude emotional expression. Since I found this much harder than I had anticipated, I always tried to maintain an objective perspective and worked hard to refine my viewpoint and direction by reading books and newspapers whenever I had the chance.
A single word is worth a thousand pieces of silver
Through my club activities, I was able to shed my timid personality and lack of confidence. To conduct interviews, one must be articulate, and that is difficult to achieve without confidence. For example, when I tried to interview shop owners about the problem of bicycles parked in front of the school, my requests were often rejected at first. I visited their shops to familiarize them with my face, engaged in conversation, and worked to build relationships; doing so eventually made smooth interviews possible.
Furthermore, since the situation would change depending on how I phrased my requests for photos or interviews, I learned to gauge the other person’s mood and carefully choose words that clearly conveyed the facts. Through this process of reflection and practice, I naturally developed proper speaking manners and etiquette, and my communication skills improved significantly.

Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections

Gaining Experience in Conflict Management by Mediating Disputes Among Juniors
From my sophomore year through the first semester of my senior year, I served as president of the newspaper club. My dedication and sincerity toward the club were recognized, so I gladly accepted the position. I served for a longer term than any previous president and led the club alongside my juniors. As president, the aspect I focused on most was “reconciliation.”
Since the members of the newspaper club were generally full of passion, each had clear goals and a strong desire to contribute. However, as their ambitions to do better often clashed, disputes and disagreements frequently arose. In those situations, I had to mediate opinions, comfort my juniors, and facilitate reconciliation. The method I used was, first and foremost, to respect their positions by upholding the authority of the person holding that role in public settings. For example, when a team member and the office manager argued, even if the team member was actually at fault, I would first uphold the manager’s authority in public, and then resolve the issue by calling the team member aside to quietly point out the mistake or offer gentle guidance.
In this way, I was able to maintain discipline within the newspaper club and foster an atmosphere where members could recognize their own faults and reconcile. I also frequently found that when I listened to my juniors’ concerns, offered sincere comfort, and showed that I understood their feelings, they naturally opened up to me. My friends also understood my difficulties and worries, so they often appreciated my constructive feedback.
Through this process, I learned how to effectively manage conflicts and discovered how to calm people’s hearts and guide them.