Life Changing Essay

In life, we all know something that has changed the way we perceive people and events. Most meaningful events that have changed our perception can be our experience that we have gone through and learned from. Life-changing experiences play an important role on our development. Whether adults or children, we are affected by our experience which could impact us immensely. Personally speaking, my previous experience have affected me significantly. One is my first job experience, the other is my first-time experience of living in a brand-new country. Firstly, my first job experience greatly affected me. I remember that I was working at a Taiwanese restaurant. It was a really busy restaurant with five to eight employees. My manager told me that being a good waiter, it is important to smile and have a good attitude. I was not doing a great job on my first day of work. I was not really happy, because I made a lot of mistake, including messing up customer’s orders, no smiling, and a bad service attitude. I was judged by my manager. However, I believed that practice would lead to improvement and I never gave up, keep learning and practicing the working skills. After that, I became a mature and efficient waiter. In addition to above experience, communication and co-operation are also what I learned on my job. For example, when I served my customers for the first time, I was too shy to talk. But the most important thing for a waiter to know about is customers’ needs and expectations. Lack of communication with customers will not achieve this. After working for one month, I learned how to communicate with my customers. Furthermore, co-operation between co-workers is also important. I learned how to work with other waitresses/waiters and understood more about teamwork. For instance, my manager would allocate the tasks to us and every waitress/waiter needs to be aware of his/her responsibilities. The most difficult moment of co-operation is during the business hours, because employees need to be more understanding of each other. Secondly, living in a new country is my other significant experience. I lived in England for two years. When I first arrived in England, I lived with a host family in Oxford. Language and unfamiliarity with the city are the biggest problems that I faced. My most unforgettable moment is my first day of going to school in Oxford. I could not speak English and I felt lost in a new area. At that moment, body language was my only tool to help me find my school. I still remember that I was thinking about taking a bus  school, but I didn’t know where the bus station was. I tried to use my body language to ask a passer-by. It was fortunate that a gentleman understood my body language and my school address. After that, he brought me to the school. My first experience in England positively affected me. Looking back, my first job experience made me grow up and come outgoing. It also taught me about work co-operation. Before my first job, I did not like talking, I was shy when I was talking to people. But now, I am never shy of talking. Moreover I can say that right now I understand more about how to co-operate with my people, because I learned on my first job. The advantage of my England’s experience is that I learned a new language, I became independent and my adaptability became stronger. Previously, I could not speak English, but now I can fundamentally communicate with people in English. Also, â€Å"living by yourself, supporting yourself, paying your bills, and having total freedom over your domain is truly life-changing. It changes your perspective on solitude — it’s nothing to be afraid of, and can be pretty great — and shows you that you are capable of managing things by yourself if the need ever arises.† ( from THOUGHT CATALOG, 7 life-changing experiences every girl deserves to have, BY SOPHIE MARTIN, Mar.11, 2014 ). I believe that when you travel to new country and live by yourself, it will definitely make you become independent. Lastly, my adaptability became stronger since I lived in England. A strong adaptability make me more easily integrate into a new environment. In conclusion, life changing experiences are really important to us. In my case, my first job experience and my first-time experience of living in a brand-new country are what led to change in my life. Co-operation skills, independence, adaptability and language skills are what I learned. Obviously, people can definitely learn something through their life experience. These experiences are our life lessons that lead to our future.