Keep Going and Try Your Best Without Knowing Which Path Is Right, Let Your Heart Guide You, and It'll Always be the Right Way
Hello there, Duc here
I can't believe I've completed my thesis so swiftly like this. It's also time to bid farewell to NCU and Geo-hydraulics after just 3 semesters. I thought my research would take much longer to complete the initial phase and establish enough groundwork to graduate with a master's degree. Although this part is the most crucial aspect of my research, I still thought I could do more with this topic. However, the professor deemed it sufficient for graduation, and I also wanted to finish it as soon as possible to have time to explore my future path. But let's leave that aside. I'm here to share my learning journey and experiences at NCU.
Honestly, I didn't have much information about NCU and my professor, our esteemed Prof. Wang, before I decided to go to study abroad. I just went with the flow, hoping to find a new horizon and experiences and discover the path I truly wanted to pursue. I embarked on this journey hoping to improve myself, in terms of thoughts, knowledge, experience, and even English. One day, Quan introduced me to Prof. Wang, who also suggested the first steps in my research. He praised the professor as a true mentor and a guiding light, and he said NCU's learning environment is better than Vietnam's, so I set out. Perhaps because I didn't put too much pressure on anything, was I fortunate? I gained a lot during my time at NCU, under the guidance of my labmate and Prof. Wang. From my naive thoughts, he provided me with a very interesting suggestion for my research. Initially, I thought it was too difficult and impossible, but I managed to figure it out with some luck. I'm also proud to be among the first to succeed in building a combined HMC model, contributing a tiny thing but I think it has a meaningful part in science and management strategies.
Returning to life in the lab and NCU, although I didn't have many experiences with everyone, I felt the warmth, sincerity, and joy from them. In our first semester, we went on a trip to Taipei together, ate local specialties, and attended lantern festivals... It was truly a very interesting experience. Then, as we became closer, we designed lab T-shirts, cooked, and experienced multicultural food festivals together. And moreover, we sang KTV together all night long... I'm truly grateful to everyone; I think I'm not very sociable, but you all helped me a lot to integrate and have experiences together. So thanks to Shinta, Quan, Ching-Yuan, and Yu-An for the close drink parties, Ying-Han, Vu, and Duc-Huy for always helping me when I was stuck, and others I can't mention all. And thank you to my esteemed mentor for teaching me many things, not just knowledge, but also life lessons and guidance.
I'm truly someone without a clear career path, I aspire to have many more experiences while still young. Therefore, I've had many choices that were right and also wrong in the past, but they're all equally valuable because they all led me to a new direction and experience. So just keep going and let your heart guide you, and you will always be on the right path.
I don't know which future path will truly suit me. However, one thing is for sure: studying at NCU and studying at the Geohydraulics lab was the right choice for me.
