I guess I have never been able to get over the pain and  the inferior feeling caused by the failure of my first college entrance exam and the following experience of being a 13th grader. "Come on! What a big deal!” you may respond. But to the "me" aged 19 seven years ago, it really hurt and it does have kept casting shadow to the subsequent events in my life ever since, including the campus and occupation life. However, only when looking backwards, do I sense it. In fact, I find it shouldn't have been like that at all after being inspired by a story read today. And I hope it's still not too late to mend the sheepfold. If you find it of the slightest use for yourself, I would be flattered and of great pleasure. 

 An man wanted his four sons to learn not to decide things too quickly. Thus, he sent them in turn to look at a peach tree in different seasons and tell him what they saw respectively. The first son considered the tree as ugly, bent, and weak in winter. The second son saw its green buds and promise in spring, the third saw many flowers and even smelt the sweet smell in summer and the last son saw the pears and the tree full of life and fulfillment. All of them disagree with one another about what they saw. The father told them that all of them were all right, because they each had seen but only one season in the tree's life. People cannot judge a person or a tree, by only one season and the meaning of them-- the pleasure, the joy and the love that come from the life--can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.  

Life comes in a package. This package includes happiness and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair. It is a process of learning. All kinds of experiences in life, no matter good or bad, teach us lessons and make us a better person. Don't rush to label ourselves as superior or inferior in a hurry. Like the four seasons in the natural world, life is filled with ups and downs, too. "If we give up when it is winter, we will miss the promise of our spring, the beauty of our summer, the harvest of our fall. Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest."