Your Experience is Your Setbacks
同志社高等学校

２年

渡邉

理子

Oscar Wilde, the famous playwright, once said, “Experience is the nameeveryone gives to his mistakes.” When I read this, it reminded me of theunforgettable experience I had last summer.
For two weeks, I had the opportunity to join Oxford Royal Academy,
which is a summer program that provides international students a once-in-alifetime experience. I stayed at Queen’s college, which is one of the beautiful
colleges Oxford University has. I decided to join this program last spring andafter I signed up for it, I was very excited, and couldn’t wait to go to Oxford.
高校生―Ｄ部門

On July 30th I landed at Heathrow airport in London, and took a taxi toQueen’s College. My heart was filled with excitement, but from the next day,that excitement turned into nervousness.
I started my first day of class with English Literature. I chose thisbecause I wanted to try something new. I was excited but at the same time, Iwas a little nervous, because I had never learned it before and was afraid thatI wouldn’t understand. When the class started, that nervousness turned intoreality. We were reading “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, but I
couldn’t understand much about what we were doing. I thought that I
wouldn’t be able to write an essay, or get good grades. I became even more
nervous when I attended the Public Speaking & Debate workshop. I wanted tojoin this workshop because I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. I’m notgood at speaking in front of people, so I wanted to improve that during mytwo-week stay. One thing we did in the workshop was to think of a twominute speech and practice it within ten minutes, and deliver the speech infront of the class. I really struggled with this assignment because every time I
make a speech, it takes me months to prepare it. And even if I practice it fora few months I still feel nervous when I speak in front of people. In thatworkshop, I got stuck in the middle of my two-minute speech. I asked theteacher if I could start over again, but the teacher told me to move on, so I48

did. But, even though I somehow finished my speech, I thought that I wouldn’t
be able to do well in that class.
As I look back my first day of class, I was being quite hard on myself. I
was forcing myself to do well on my first try. This is maybe because I had
forgotten the most important thing. It was why I was there. I wasn’t there towrite an essay or get high grades or do perfectly in a two-minute speech. I
was there to have an experience. The reason why I attended those classes wasbecause I wanted to challenge and learn new things. I was just a beginnerand I wasn’t expected to do perfectly on my first try. And nobody can do
perfectly from the beginning.
During my two-week stay, I made good friends, and talked a lot to theteachers and counselors. They really helped me. I sometimes talked to them
about my worries in English Literature class and they always said, “It will be

There are two major lessons that I learned in Oxford. One is to be
confident and believe in yourself. There is only yourself that can believe inyou under any circumstances. Another lesson is not to be too hard onyourself. As long as you’re trying hard and making every effort, someone iswatching you and understands your hard work. What I did in English
Literature class was to do my best. I made every effort I could during twoweeks. And the teachers knew it. As a result I won the prize for effort inEnglish Literature class.
The experience I had in Oxford was truly unforgettable and I willdefinitely cherish it forever. When I bump into a wall and get nervous andafraid, I can remember what I did in Oxford and the lessons I learned. I canalways keep in mind that it’s all right to fail and make mistakes, because
those failures and mistakes can become my precious experience that will help
me all the way.

49

高校生―Ｄ部門OK.” It was a very simple word, but it was really true.