On March 19, 2018, I registered for the course of Water Safety Instructor Prep. This is my third level in order to get the certificate for becoming a Lifeguard. The course requires three days participation, from 9 am to 6 pm, extremely intensive.

On the first day, because physical fitness was not my strength, my self-confidence was weak at that point. There were twenty teenagers in my class; each one of them looked exceedingly robust and confident. I felt a little nervous and inferior at that point. Our instructor has a sense of humour, but he is pretty strict on giving us marks as a professional. His humour helped me relax in the beginning, but later I became much more stressed when he suddenly changed his attitude while evaluating us. We started on the land to learn the theory and course introduction first. In the afternoon, he did the evaluations on our dives and strokes. All of my strokes had big problems on that day, and above all, side stroke is the most dysfunctional one of mine. What’s even worse, I lost my glasses on that day. Life has taught me a lesson in a tough way that I need to pay more attention to what I am doing. I felt grieved. Why would anyone want to take a pair of glasses with my prescription？Undergoing a suffering day, not only physically but also mentally, I had to complete a lot of paperwork as homework for the course until midnight.

On next day, we were in the water all day, except for lunch. We started to help out the younger kids classes, which was entertaining. My favourite class was the preschool group. The only thing we did was playing around with them, and we were in the warmer pool while teaching. Unexpectedly, one of the kids made my day like a beam of sunshine. The cute girl refused to go home after class. “I will miss you,” she said, embracing my waist with both her arms. “Am I going to see you again?” Her sweet voice touched my heart like a gentle breeze. However, harsh training still comes according to the schedule. When we didn’t have classes, we could help out each other, working on the strokes. Our instructor assigned our groups, so I had two partners. They were tolerant at first but started to ignore me when they realized that I was weaker on my skills. I was humiliated by their reaction, but I refrained and kept on improving myself.

On the last day, we repeated the same task as on the second day, but in the afternoon, there was a girl who felt sick and went home. As a result, her partner must find another person to match with. The instructor asked our group to choose a person as his partner. One of my partners volunteered, but after she realized that she would be partnered with a boy, she retreated. Out of expectation, she told the instructor that I could be that boy’s partner, even without asking me. Even though changing partner was not my decision and obviously she bullied me, the outcome turned out not bad. Every cloud has its silver lining. My new partner was a warm-hearted guy, and his afternoon schedule was shorter than that of my previous group, so I got more time to practise my strokes. After my partner passed his strokes, he still continuously helped me with my strokes with great patience. He corrected most of the mistakes that I made. I felt such a relief when my instructor said that I improved a lot. Because my strokes were not passed at all on the first day, and all passed on the last day. I was very grateful how helpful my new partner was.

These three days were one of the most exhausting periods in my life. I was proud that I survived. From the experiences in this course, I learned three lessons. First, pay more attention to and care more about the surroundings all the time. Second, improving myself is the only way to earn others’ respect. Third, the harder I work, the luckier I will be.

March 18, 2018

I planned to go hiking during the spring break and thought that I was going to be alone, yet I was wrong. 

When I mentioned my hiking plan in our public speaking group chat, one guy said he also wanted to go for a hike during the spring break. Before knowing this, I had a difficult time preparing myself to go for a hike alone, since I don’t like to hike by myself. 

I replied him delightfully: Qintu, why don’t we go together. Where do you want to go?

At 9 o'clock on Sunday morning, I met Qintu at Waterfront station. We planned to take the Seabus first, then take the bus to the start point of the trail, and at last, start hiking to Rice Lake. 

The sky was a little bit gloomy. “We might not be going to see the sun today. It sucks.” Qintu warned me. Sunny days are always good for hiking. He is a hiking expert, at least to me. 


I learned from his words that he has hiked many times during the past two summers. The longest hike took him 6 hours if I remembered correctly. “The sun might not be coming out, but the view of cloud and mist lingering around the mountains is also worth to see, isn’t it?” Qintu was trying to cheer me, a beginner to hiking, up. I nodded with a smile. His words made me looking forward to the rest of the day.

However, soon, it started raining. Raindrops hit the windshield of the Seabus that we took heading to North Vancouver, weaving a big net covering the glass through which I could barely see the opposite bank. Qintu said once when he was on a Seabus, the Seabus had to make a detour because a giant cargo ship was in the way. That was kind of interesting.

We didn’t wait too long for the bus. After 10 minutes on the bus, we arrived at the starting point of the Rice Lake trail. 

“Do you have food and water in your bag?” Qintu asked, looking at me. 
“Only water, man. But plenty of them.” 
“Ok, hopefully, we will be fine. You may want to be prepared for a lunch at 2~3 pm." 
I peeked at my phone screen: it's 9:40 am now. 
“Well, I can find some worms or leaves to eat at the worst before I die of starvation.”
“Hahahaha, you sure?”
“Oh yeah, of course! Let’s taste the nature!” 
We headed to the narrow trail with laughers.

This is what we saw after 20 minutes' walk. Rice Lake is smaller than what I expected. What surprised me more were those swimmers.

“This is not what I expected to see. Did Rice Lake get its name because it's small like a grain of rice?”
“Hahaha, I guess you are right Nick!” 

Qintu suggested a new route, “We don’t have to go along the shore like this. If you want, we can change our plan and go onto the BP trail (The Baden-Powell Trail is a rugged but well-maintained 48 km hiking trail, that traverses from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Deep Cove in North Vancouver, BC). We  will arrive at Deep Cove Park and have lunch there.” 

“Sounds good!” I agreed, even though I had no clue about what he was talking about as I knew none of those places he mentioned.

I had never felt this comfortable to walk on an asphalt road before. Most parts of the trial were muddy and slushy mountain roads with countless cobbles and branches against my feet. Finally, my feet had some rest at this moment.  

We found a stream after we went off the asphalt road. It was an appealing stream. It attracted our attention. 

“Wait, Qintu, why don’t you sit on that rock and I will take a wonderful photo of you as if you are sitting in the middle of the stream?” I asked.

He agreed, and I stepped on a rock while I was talking to him, “I am going to test this rock’s stability.”

Suddenly, I slipped, and after a brief time, an ice cold feeling climbed up to my ankle from my tiptoe. I was shocked. My right foot was soaked in water between two slippery rocks covered with moss.

No matter what, the picture that I took for Qintu was wonderful. I would also like to share one tip with all adventurers who like to hike in forest trails: wear a pair of water-resistant shoes if you don't want to get your feet soaked!

“The darkest hour is that before the dawn.” The hardest part was that before lunchtime. We were starving, but time went by slowly.

We went off the BP trial and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I ate a little, but my stomach was surprisingly full. We were exhausted. Maybe that was the reason.

Before we headed to our final destination, a high school appeared in our sight. Deep Cove Park was where we ended our hike.

What a gorgeous shore!

When I saw this view, I thought everything, my soaked shoes, wet socks and ice cold feet, even the hunger, was worthwhile, just to see this magnificent view.

I am looking forward to another hike with a pair of waterproof boots :) 

All photos cr Nick Lin

High-technology is increasingly implemented in our daily life. The Smartphone, for example, is one of the typical examples. The more frequently we use high-technology, the more benefits, and simultaneously defects, we can perceive.  

Last Sunday, I was dining in McDonald’s. I put my iPhone on the plate which was used to hold all the food I ordered. After dumping the waste into the garbage bin, I left McDonald's’ with my bluetooth headphone on. The music suspended playing all of a sudden while I was walking away from McDonald’s. I was dumbfounded, and instantly panic. It is crystal clear that bluetooth connection was limited by distance between devices, so I asserted that I had disposed my phone into the garbage bin. After anxiously searching in the bin, I found my iPhone. I would not have been able to find my phone had there not been bluetooth. Thanks to benefits of technology, in this case of bluetooth, a catastrophe was avoided.

Nevertheless, when we contemplate the case slightly deeper, we can observe the flaw of technology. I was leaving, preoccupied with the content of what I just viewed when I was scanning through webpages. This certainly distracted my attention and, to some extent, made me oblivious. It is because of the smartphone technology that my attention was shifted away. Not only does this blemish apply to my case, but it also works in various situations, such as phone distraction when driving. 

This has come to a conclusion that the technology we use has both useful and negative features. Enjoying technology with caution of its cons may be a more efficient way to use it.