My family wasn’t like very wealthy, but at least I don’t need to worry about anything during my childhood. I know the world is a tough place, but I don’t need to deal with all the problems alone.

During the first year of covid, I graduate from high school, I studied at a national college in my own country (Taiwan) first. However, I always wanted to leave my hometown and explore the world. At the same time, I also got accepted by Penn State as well, and during that time my family financial is able to afford me to study aboard for 4 years with all the living expenses and tuition. After one semester in Taiwanese college, I came to Penn State and continue my school career. The first semester of my college was amazing. I got everything I want it, a perfect relationship, a high GPA, and lots of friends. Everything was exactly like my dream, but this is the same time when everything goes down. One day during a phone call with my family, they told me that because covid cut down the business and lots of opportunities are lost it. My family wouldn’t be afford my tuition for long anymore. The most they can do will be one more year after the fall semester and I won’t be able to study at Penn State. The moment I hear this news I instantly feel the raise in my heart rate, I start sweating heavily, and my brain can’t function for a while due to the function of the sympathetic nervous system (Sapolsky 2008). At that moment I was in a fight or flight situation and most of the blood in my body went to my limb instead of my brain. “I wasn’t ready to lose everything I have”, that was the only thing in my brain. It was devastating news for me. After the phone call, I instantly feel weak and dizzy, and my leg feels dull. I sit on the chair and feel nothing but frustrated (University of Toledo, ). I wasn’t able to go back to my old university because I gave up my student status there, and it is the best university in Taiwan. I give up that opportunity and come here.

After a while, due to the parasympathetic nervous system, my heart rate goes back to a normal range, my muscle feels less tense and, I became calmer (Sapolsky 2008). I started to think of solutions to the situation I’m in. I know I still have one more year to study and I was in the first semester of my sophomore year at that moment; it will be almost impossible for me to make enough money for my tuition because I am an international student (we pay a higher rate compared to local and outstate student). The only way for me to have a diploma from Penn State will be to graduate in the next year. In another word, graduating from college uses only 2.5 years in total. The moment the solution popped out I have to say I feel despair, and my mood go down a hill because it was basically impossible for me to do that. During that semester, every time when I have a good time I’ll think I am going to lose this in a short time and won’t be able to enjoy the moment. Lucky enough, one time I was having a meeting with my advisor, I realize that I will be able to transfer my old college credits to Penn State. Another lucky thing is that in my country, we take 25-30 credits per semester. The credit that I can use at Penn State is 17, which saves me a semester. Because I work at the campus, it provides me SSN. I will be able to take classes at a community college online class with a lower cost. With the summer semester system, I took world-campus classes at a lower cost (saving almost 10k). At the same time take 18 credits before graduating, and I will be able to graduate. After all the calculations and meetings with the advisor, it is possible for me to do it. I just need to implement it well.

After knowing I still have a chance it did make me less stressed. At least I have a shot to do it. This takes my mindset to a different condition. Before my mood was usually anxious or depressed(American Psychological Association), all I see is I will have nothing. However, when I am working right now and feel tired or lazy, I think about what I have to do to get what I want. my sympathetic nervous system produces adrenaline in this situation and makes me more focused and complete my work. (Cleveland Clinic, 2022)

During the time I received the stressor (the bad news), according to the reading I was in the first stage of general adaptation syndrome. Which is the alarm stage. At this time, my heart rate raises, and start sweating because my body enters the fight or flight response and the sympathetic nervous system lets me have those physical responses. (Sapolsky 2008)When the call ended, I immediately feel fatigued and calmer(Sapolsky ). This is because I enter the resistance stage, and the parasympathetic nervous system reduces my heart rate(Chelsea Long, 2021). Before I have a plan, I was in the exhaustion stage for weeks. Every once in a while I will feel anxious and don’t know what should I do. Especially I don’t like to talk to other people about my own feeling, and it only makes it worse. Right now when the thing has a solution I feel way easier and know that I am extremely lucky. Right now I need to fight for what I want.

Vincent Kao

4/9/2022 Saturday

Star

When is the last time you see the star all over the sky? For me, it is probably a couple of months ago.  Last week, I went to live in a cabin with my friend at a mountain of state college. Totally cut out the internet, the closest spot for wifi gonna drive for 15 minutes. No light at all. The mountain is totally dark at night. Have to say in the beginning I was a little bit not comfortable. With the sign of caution, there’s a bear. We were literally in the middle of the wood. So quiet and so peaceful. That was the moment when I look up to the sky and it shucks me. The sky was full of stars, it was so dark in the wood so all the stars look clear and beautiful. Back in Taiwan, we can barely see any stars because the pollution of the light is so heavy. You will be lucky if you seem like one or two-star at night.

The first reaction I want to do is to take pictures and post them on social media and share them with other people; That is literally my first reaction. But when I look at the no service display on my phone I realize how heavy I rely on social media. At that moment the only thing I should do is to enjoy the moment with my friends and the sky. So I took a picture and put my phone away.

When I look at the sky. It makes me think about a lot of things. The first thing is I don’t know when will I be able to see the view like this again. Second is that I was thinking about how many things I miss because of social media. Of course, social media is a great invention. It allows people to be more connected with each other. It makes our life more international. At the same time, I feel like I lose a lot of things. I become more focused on internet life and not the real-life experience. When I come back to campus, with this new experience I know that I should be more focused on actually enjoying the moment with my friends and making new memory instead of sinking into social media. If I want to keep sinking into the social media, there’s no point for me to come to the United States. I can do that in Taiwan. Since I am here right now. I want to actually enjoy living here.

Vincent Kao

4/6/2022 Wednesday

Home

As time pass, it is almost summer. This means that school is about to be over and as an international student it means I will have a chance to go back to Taiwan. Due to Covid, I didn’t have a chance to go back to Taiwan since the fall semester. Because the quartine rule in Taiwan is 14 days of hotel quartine and 7 days home quartine. So it means I will need to be in a 21 days quartine in total before I can actually go anywhere. Before that, I am not free to do anything. They will give you a phone to track your location. If you ever leave the location area you suppose to be; the police will knock on the door. The fines and the consequence are really severe. So since every break in college is within 3 weeks. I will not be able to go back.

This summer break will be my only chance this year to go back to Taiwan, and I am really excited about it. I was talking to my family the other day, and everything feels different but as well as the same. It just feels really familiar, but I also know a lot of things changed during the time I study abroad. My brother grows taller and taller. He still acts like a stupid kid as well but this time taller than me. My parents get a bit older and miss me badly. The only thing I can do is call back if the time allows (because there is 12 hours time difference). Lots of times when they call me I was asleep. If I call them lots of times they might in asleep as well. Communication lots of time didn’t work that well. I’m glad all the problems could be fixed when I go back.

The food, the environment, and the people are the thing I miss the most. Maybe not the weather, but going back is always pretty good. I can’t wait to do that daily thing with my friends and family. It is weird because I used to feel annoyed by doing that thing, but now all that make me miss Taiwan. I think we don’t know what we have until we lose it.

What will you do when you got sick? See the doctor? Go to CVS to buy some medicine? Or just let your body heal by itself? The first thing I notice when I first come to Penn State is that when people here get sick, they just go to the CVS and buy some medicine then that’s all. It is kind of a culture shock for me because in Taiwan if we got sick we will go to see the doctor, no matter what time is it or how serious it is. We tend to go to see the doctor and let the professional see what is happening to us. After I understand why people here most likely go to CVS instead of the doctor it kind of makes me sad. That is the cost of seeing a doctor is extremely high and not that efficient compared to other countries. Plus the health care in the U.S is provided by businesses/companies instead of the government. So without the insurance, we might spend like hundred or thousand dollars for a cold. What is even worse is that if you have a fever in the middle of the night you most likely do not go to the doctor to seek help because visiting the emergency room for a hospital going to cost you an average of $2200. This make the insurance become really important. So let’s say you do have insurance. You still need to “scheduled” for your illness. This only make sense for me if you have some disease that is not acute. For example, a routine inspection. This makes me feel unbelievable. How do I know when I will get sick. If I get sick on Monday and want to go to UHS I can’t because I need to schedule ahead. If I really need it I must call them and ask them if there’s a spot to fit in face their bad attitude. I have to say it is really unreasonable.

I want to use two personal example from using the UHS. First time is when I sprain my ankle really badly, I can’t walk or stand at the time and I try to go UHS for medical support such as X-Ray to see what happen. The crazy thing is I can’t I will have to “schedule” a appointment like 2-3 days ahead in order to see the sprain my ankle three days ago? So I have to call them to ask for a spot and the person who pick up the phone at first REFUSE to put me into anyspot because I didn’ schedule ahead, after 5 minutes of explaining, she finally unwillingly put me in the list. The second one is last time when I feel like I might have mid ear infection but not sure, so I want to schedule an appointment for future in case it getting worse. That was a Friday, I look at the Monday spot and there are still available from 8am to like 5pm. So I think “okay, I will see how I feel and make an appointment tomorrow if it still hurt.” Guess what? The next morning (Saturday) when I try to make an appointment, all the Monday appointment was gone. How is that even possible? We are saying after 12 hours people suddenly all need to check their ear?

This make me find out the big issue of the University Health Service, and the solution of this will not be that hard. Having an actual option of “Same Day Appointment” (they do right now but it never actually let you have it at the same day). And a better service of the operator that really willing to help and willing to provide the help.

Process

1. How is the healthcare work in U.S
2. The average cost of for healthcare and health insurance
3. How is the system right now
   1. appointment
4. Difference with other country
   1. what can we learn from it
5. strink to only school
   1. stat for school
   2. issue
6. How it affect student willingness to see a doctor
7. solution and way to fix it
8. Cost for it and how long it will take

Vincent Kao

3/30/2022 Thursday

Luck

Do you ever have the feeling of everything just works too smoothly? Like everything just happened the way you wanted it, but you somehow just feel really off because you know things are not supposed to work out so easy like this. And you are worried about when will all the luck run out and those annoying things happen again.  At least it happen to me this semester again. I am a person that even the easiest thing will get wrong. Most of the time is an accident. For example, walking on the sidewalk the stress of getting splashed by a car on raining day, go to the hub lounge for billiards and it always closes during the time I want to play, and a lot of small things. They are all harmless but for sure affect your day and your mood. However, from the start of the spring semester, everything is in perfect harmony, I get away some troubles with no cost and harm, had good relationships,  make friends that I will want to talk to for my whole life, and everything just works out perfectly. It seems like it’s too good to be true. And then in March, that’s the time I “pay back” for all the joy I have.

Starting from spring break, I got sick and all my plans suddenly become to stay at home and do nothing, all the plans I have made just go out of the world. During the break, I was supposed to apply for the second wave of the Covid support funds. However, I was too dizzy when I apply and pause to go to rest, and totally forget it afterward. That’s a loss of $850 for me. And then when I had a meeting with my academic advisor, I found out it will be harder than I expect to get two degrees in 3 years because we forget to count some other courses that in the bottom of the list. That means I will need to spend one more year to get them. After a couple of days, I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and fidgets. Apparently, my cold during the spring break didn’t fully recover so it cause an infection in my body that make me feel 10 times worse. When I go see the doctor, she forgets to send the prescription to the CVS, so I have to ride Spin with an exhausted body to go back to the UHS before it close and then go back to CVS again. Just when I think things should be alright. the Spin stuck and I can’t return it for another 10 minutes and the customer service doesn’t reply anything. Ironically, that’s the time I feel like that’s my “payback” for having a good time before. Now I just hope the “payback” is done and the new month will treat me better.

What will you do when you got sick? See the doctor? Go to CVS to buy some medicine? Or just let your body heal by itself? The first thing I notice when I first come to Penn State is that when people here get sick, they just go to the CVS and buy some medicine then that’s all. It is kind of a culture shock for me because in Taiwan if we got sick we will go to see the doctor, no matter what time is it or how serious it is. We tend to go to see the doctor and let the professional see what is happening to us. After I understand why people here most likely go to CVS instead of the doctor it kind of makes me sad. That is the cost of seeing a doctor is extremely high and not that efficient compared to other countries. Plus the health care in the U.S is provided by businesses/companies instead of the government. So without the insurance, we might spend like hundred or thousand dollars for a cold. What is even worse is that if you have a fever in the middle of the night you most likely do not go to the doctor to seek help because visiting the emergency room for a hospital going to cost you an average of $2200. This make the insurance become really important. So let’s say you do have insurance. You still need to “scheduled” for your illness. This only make sense for me if you have some disease that is not acute. For example, a routine inspection. This makes me feel unbelievable. How do I know when I will get sick. If I get sick on Monday and want to go to UHS I can’t because I need to schedule ahead. If I really need it I must call them and ask them if there’s a spot to fit in face their bad attitude. I have to say it is really unreasonable.

I want to use two personal example from using the UHS. First time is when I sprain my ankle really badly, I can’t walk or stand at the time and I try to go UHS for medical support such as X-Ray to see what happen. The crazy thing is I can’t I will have to “schedule” a appointment like 2-3 days ahead in order to see the sprain my ankle three days ago? So I have to call them to ask for a spot and the person who pick up the phone at first REFUSE to put me into anyspot because I didn’ schedule ahead, after 5 minutes of explaining, she finally unwillingly put me in the list. The second one is last time when I feel like I might have mid ear infection but not sure, so I want to schedule an appointment for future in case it getting worse. That was a Friday, I look at the Monday spot and there are still available from 8am to like 5pm. So I think “okay, I will see how I feel and make an appointment tomorrow if it still hurt.” Guess what? The next morning (Saturday) when I try to make an appointment, all the Monday appointment was gone. How is that even possible? We are saying after 12 hours people suddenly all need to check their ear?

This make me find out the big issue of the University Health Service, and the solution of this will not be trhaty hard. Having an actual option of “Same Day Appointment” (they do right now but it never actually let you have it at the same day). And a better service of the operator that really willing to help and willing to provide the help.
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries-2/

https://www.talktomira.com/post/how-much-does-an-er-visit-cost

Vincent Kao

3/20/2022 Tuesday

Relationship

To be honest, when I first come to college, I wasn’t thinking about anything about a romantic relationship. Like most freshmen, my first worry is “Am I going to have any friends in college?” and “Am I going to pass all the classes on time and graduate?” The relationship was never an option that occur in my head. I was even a little bit against having a relationship in the early academic career because I think it will make people have last new friends and not be willing to go out that much. Now looking back it is kind of funny. I am in a relationship pretty much a couple of months after my freshman year started.  And when I took the picture on my phone my memory always be drawback into the time I meet her.

When I first saw her was in a TASA event (Taiwanese Student association). There are games that make everyone know each other and that is the time I met her. Have to say the first time we met each other wasn’t anything special. We just have some short conversations like asking each other majors and stuff. One funny story is that when I know she is studying Pharmacology and Toxicology I even joke about “Dang, then your boyfriend will need to be careful if he ever pisses you off, he gonna fight for his life” and she jokes about my psychology major about something I will be so creepy in a relationship because I will try to analyze my partner. But that’s it. The whole conversation didn’t last more than 10 minutes.

The second time we meet each other is in a friend singing competition, that is our mutual friend but I was still a bit shocked I will see her there. I sat beside her and somehow she keeps play Snapchat with me (I wasn’t from here so I don’t know anything about Snapchat) we went to a party after that. And we have chemistry for each other develop during that day. We start going out for a while and then we start dating. Everything just happen so fast sometime I still can’t believe I am finishing my sophomore year and everything is going well.

(Fun story, she told me the day she keep playing snapchat with me is because she trying to get another guy jealous so she keep sending pictures of she and me)

As college students, we all know that before we come to college, we are most likely need to take several standardized testing. The tests might include SAT, ACT, or Toefl. One consideration is that it could cost a student a lot if they didn’t have their ideal score for the first time. SAT cost 55 dollars, ACT cost 88 dollars, and Toefl can cost around 200 dollars. In a lot of cases, students will take more than one attempt for these tests in order to receive a better grade or at least try to get a better grade so they will have a better chance to get into the college they want to. Since standardized testing is one of the most important categories for colleges to select students. We barely have a chance to not do it.

However, the testing fee isn’t the biggest issue on the table. The issue of having standardized testing is that it basically use one or two exam score to determine your future four years of the academic career. Despite the four years of hard work of high school, if you are not a test-taking kind of student, you will suffer.  You could be working so hard for your four years of high school getting a high GPA, taking lots of AP courses to challenge and improve yourself, and taking lots of extra curriculum through 4 years. Still go to the school of your 5th choice because your SAT score is not ideal enough. Is it fair for students? I don’t think so, college shouldn’t just use the standardized test as a bar to filter students. A student could have everything the college wants but stuck with a 1300 SAT because he having a hard time to still focusing for 4 hours straight. This student could lose the opportunity for him to have a place that could make him better.

But this doesn’t mean having standardized testing, I understand that every high school has its own grading system. It could be hard for the college to verify their grade and class throughout the world. That being said, standardized will help the college to see how students’ level is compared to others. However, the score of the test shouldn’t weigh this much. Instead of that, it should just be a reference. As long as the student passes a certain score like 1200 in SAT for example. The college will know that the student has the base ability of English and Maths. That should be the only thing that matters. Because in the end, we are here to learn. Most of the classes we take in college are not covered in high school. Why don’t we let the student have a chance to learn and don’t block them out for an unfriendly testing score.

Vincent Kao

3/1/2022 Tuesday

Work

As an international student, lots of people will think we are really wealthy and have thousands and thousands of money to spend any time we want. As an Asian kid, I’m pretty sure it enhances the stereotype. Lots of my friends who first know me will automatically assume I am a rich kid for China or Korea. However, It is so not true. First of all the tuition is expensive for sure, but lots of people might not know we pay almost the same amount as the out-of-state student in the U.S we just pay some extra “International Student fee” which is not as crazy as everyone think. For me and my family college is really expensive as well, I know in order to let me study here my family need to do a lot for me. I’m not the only kid in the family, I still have a brother right now in high school junior year. One of my goals is to graduate before he graduates so my family does not need to pay two kids’ tuition at the same time. That cost will be insane. In order to do that I already earn a lot of credits that will allow me to graduate early as a double major (I hope) even I just came here for a year. I know I might lose some experience in college but I think I am doing the right thing. In this post, I want to talk about some ways to save you money for college and help you graduate early or cost less money in college.

One thing I need to say is that since I am an international student I basically do not qualify for lots of scholarships and financial aid. So if you can access that you should definitely do that. The second thing is to transfer credit from another college. The way I do it is by taking online classes from college that Penn State recognizes. There are some rules you need to follow but as long as you figure out you’re major it will save you a ton of money. In addition, when you take a summer course (which I strongly suggest) DO NOT take it in University Park because it is the most expensive one. Take it in the world campus for lower cost or go to communicate college then transfer the credit will be the better option in terms of cost.

The last thing is maybe having a part-time job while don’t let it affect your school work because remember the priority for us is still learning. Of course, if you are good at economics or investing you should start to do that as well. But in general, having one ore income will allow the family to have less stress and you can maybe increase your expense with your own money. And by the way, I finally got my SSN from working part-time at school!

In this blog, I want to emphasize the issue of the cost of college. Like I said in the previous blog, I think the total cost for students be in college is above an acceptable range. The average income of an American family is $51,480 per year. While the average spend of education in college for four years is around $35,770 per year (This number includes In-state, Out-State, and private Universities). That means the cost of going to college is around 69% of a family’s income. If we see the number, we can see how ridiculous it is. If a kid in a family wants to attend college the burden of the family is extremely heavy. That is only if the family has only one kid who wants to go to college. If the family has more than one kid in the family and wants to go to college. The family will most likely be not able to afford it or need to use the savings / the student get a student loan. This brings me to another point, and that is the timing for a student to pay off his/her student loan. As reports show, students take an average of 20 years to pay off all their student loans. 20 year! If a student graduate 22 or 23 years old. They will not pay off the debt till they are in their early 40s. Think about that, The four years of college going to take your whole prime year. If they want to do other things such as marry or have kids (cause the best time for women to have kids is in the late 20s and early 30s. ); It will be another burden for the individuals in their life. Without the support of family or friends. After four years of college will cost half of your life.

Do you think that is a reasonable price to take? Personally speaking, I think it is just crazy. A college education is supposed to help students prepare for their future. It supposes to help students to be ready to face the real world and society. While the cost for that is now greater than the benefits. Lots of time without a college degree you will most likely be out in the list in the first place. This makes people will need to attend college in order to be in the same line with others. It became a loop of going to college -> in debt -> getting a job to pay off the debt.