by Daniel cheb

John Lin, a 16-year-old high school student, lives in a humble neighborhood in Beitou with his single mother. He has an older brother who wants to be a soldier and attends an army college in Kaohsiung, and an older sister who uses her scholarship to study in Germany. John's mother works at a clothes business close to Beitou Market, and her pay barely covers his necessities.

When John started high school, he saw that everyone around him was using computers to play video games. Since he liked playing video games as well, he decided to take advantage of his birthday to get a gaming laptop. “Do you think I could make my own gaming laptop, Mom?” “No, you can't. Your job is to be a student, so you should focus on learning. Also, gaming laptops are not cheap they cost too much money, so we can't spend money on unnecessary things,” John's mother said. John is determined to persevere, even though he anticipated her saying it.

John began pleading with his mother, cleaning his room, and doing extra housework in an attempt to persuade her to change her mind. However, none of these strategies succeeded, and eventually his mother could take no more. “Okay, you can build your own gaming laptop, but I will only give you half the money. You should make money yourself. Also, you need to get 100 on your math and physics test, and other tests should be over 80, and the TOEIC test score needs to be over 600. Is that okay?” was the last thing his mother said to John. John instantly agreed, and ever since then, his schedule has become increasingly hectic.

Time flies so fast and in a blink of an eye, the final exam is coming, After weeks of practicing in the library, The day of the test arrived, and John felt nervous but confident; he had given it his all during the test. When the teacher handed back the graded tests, John's heart raced Finally, he flipped his exam papers over to see his score, It was 76.

When he got home, John's mom noticed there's something different about him. “What's wrong, John?” she asked with concern. “I got a 76 on my math test,” John replied, feeling a bit defeated. His mom's eyes widened in surprise. “A 76? But you studied so hard! How did that happen?” She yelled, and John shrugged, feeling a bit defensive. “What's wrong? How did you get so low?” “It's not low,” he retorted, “your sister got 90 for every test! You're banned from using computers for one month!” “What?” He held his head and looked at his mother in surprise. “My score is above average!” He shakes his head, goes back to his room, and locks the door.

After a few minutes, he calmed down and, knowing that he needed evidence to let his mother believe in him, asked his teacher to give him an average score on the test and also some of the good student's scores to convince his mother. But when he tried to show her the average scores and the performance of other students, she refused to budge. She anchored her judgment on his sister's high scores and couldn't see past them. It frustrated John to no end. John didn't give up. He had to make his mom understand his effort and perspective. It would take time, but he would prove himself.

John really wants a gaming computer, so the first thing he’s going to do is ask for information. The first person he asks is Alan, who is the best programmer in his class. He told John that Mac has developed the most useful design system and the most beautiful web page design; it’s free to upgrade; and most importantly, it can be paired with other Apple products. John thinks it sounds reasonable. His dad is using a Mac too; since that day, when he saw anyone using a Mac, he would get some advice from them.

One day his best friend Ray can’t stand it any more. He tells John that he needs to get some advice from another computer user. He hears that if you want to play games on a laptop, it’s better to use a PC. At first, John didn’t want to listen, but under his repeated persuasion, he asked Max, a slacker student who plays PC all the time, what’s some advantage about PCs. He told him that PC users have the option to choose from a wide array of motherboards, processors, storage drives, graphics cards, sound cards, and memory. This enables PC users to customize their hardware setup or easily and quickly upgrade existing equipment. He also tells Josh that Macs ban a lot of games, so it’s better to play games on PC.

After listening to both Alan and Max, John decides to target getting a PC for his gaming needs. John chose a PC because Max said it's better for gaming and you can pick different parts for it. John likes that idea because he wants more choices for his gaming stuff.

At the end of the semester, the teacher said each group had to give a five-minute report in English. John, Jennifer, a “good” student, and Bob, a classmate with two little brothers, were assigned to the same team. On Wednesday night, John and Jennifer had a call to discuss the work on the report, but Bob couldn't join because of some tiny issue. Jennifer decided to wait for Bob, so they planned to start the call on Friday. John mentioned he had an English class that day, but Jennifer didn't hear him. At the same time Bob is watching a movie, he thinks that he just finished dealing with his sick brothers, so he doesn't need to do the report. On Friday night, John joined the call only to find out they had already finished the report. Because he didn't do any of the reporting, he decided to be the one to present it and then left the group call to play.

After the presentation, Jennifer complained to the teacher, saying she did all the work alone. The teacher asked John and Bob why they didn't contribute. John explained that it's not his fault; it's Jennifer's fault; she refused to work with him on Wednesday, and he had already told her about his English class. Jennifer accused him of making excuses, to which John responded that since the report was already done, there was nothing he could do. The teacher turned to Bob and didn't think he was wrong either; he explained that he couldn't work on the report because he had to take care of his sick little brothers. The teacher doesn’t believe in them; he told John and Bob to apologize to Jennifer, saying you all have your point, but no matter what reason, you two didn’t do this project. Teacher, tell them that before pointing fingers, take a moment to reflect on your own actions.