Poor but studious student

(Baonghean.vn) - In the countryside of Minh Son, Tan Son, Do Luong district, everyone tells each other the story of a poor girl who knows how to overcome difficulties to study well and is a shining example for everyone to follow, that is Nguyen Thi Minh Sang, a 9th grader at Minh Tan Secondary School, Do Luong district. With her excellent academic achievements, she was recently honored to participate in the 2014 Nghe An Children's Commendation Ceremony for Overcoming Difficulties and Studying Well in Vinh City.

One summer afternoon, we visited Sang’s family, just as she was leading the buffalo home from the field. My first impression when I met Minh Sang was that she was a small, slim girl but her face exuded intelligence and cleverness.

Nguyen Thi Minh Sang was born and raised in very difficult circumstances. Her family had four children, and her family was considered poor in the commune. When Sang was five years old, her father passed away. Not long after, her second sister also died of cancer. The pain of losing the breadwinner of the family, along with the daughter she had given birth to, made her mother almost collapse and fall ill constantly. Nguyen Thi Thuy - Sang's mother confided in tears: "Although my health is weak, I still have three young children who depend on me, so I have to try to get up to take care of their food and education". Therefore, she had to work hard all day and run around everywhere to earn enough money to support Sang and her sisters.

Nguyen Thi Minh Sang is reading a book attentively.

Because of her family's financial difficulties, in addition to going to school, Sang also spent time helping her mother with farm work, cooking, cleaning, taking care of her younger siblings... There were times when Sang had to stay at a neighbor's house while her mother was struggling to treat her father and older sister. Even when her mother was sick all the time, and her eldest sister worked far away in Binh Duong and could not come back in time, she had to take care of her mother and her youngest sibling who was also at school age. All the burdens were unintentionally placed on her small shoulders. And then, through those hardships and difficulties in life, Minh Sang learned to strive to improve and always study on her own from a young age with the hope of a better future. She spent time studying every evening. During exams, she stayed up late and woke up early to study. There were days when she stayed up until 3-4 am to study. Many times, seeing his son struggling, his mother felt sorry and advised him not to try too hard and get sick, but Sang was still determined to finish his homework. Also, because the family did not have enough money to buy reference books, he had to borrow books from friends and teachers to gain new knowledge.

Because she showed early intelligence and good memory, Nguyen Thi Minh Sang was chosen by her teacher to be trained to compete in the History subject. As a result, in the recent provincial History subject competition, she won first prize, which was great news for her family as well as her teachers.

Sharing his study secrets, Sang humbly said: “I don’t have any secrets. At school, I always listen attentively to lectures and take full notes. When I get home, I try to memorize by writing down historical events and important ideas of the subject many times. As for how to do the test, I have to find ways to explain the problem in a good and unique way. At the same time, I also link historical events with current issues to connect them to reality, making my writing more convincing. Moreover, I don’t miss any issues in the book and don’t just memorize. Therefore, although this year’s exam was surprising, I still calmly completed my test well.”

In particular, although she focuses on studying History, she still spends time studying other subjects, so her academic performance is still very high. From grade 1 to grade 9, she was an excellent student in all aspects. In addition, she also continuously won the district-level excellent student award in History from grade 6 to grade 8. It can be seen that these outstanding achievements are the result of her extraordinary determination and spirit of overcoming difficulties. Not only focusing on studying, Nguyen Thi Minh Sang also actively participates in collective activities of the school, contributing to the development of the mass movement.

Ms. Thai Thi Thao - his History teacher said: As a teacher who has taught for many years, I see Minh Sang as a student with very difficult circumstances, lacking, not like his peers, but he has a very strong will. During the training process, I saw his intelligence, diligence and passion for learning, especially in History. Because of difficult circumstances, Sang did not have enough money to buy reference books, I found good books to give him to read. He completed all the homework assigned to him completely, and he is also very eager to learn new knowledge. With excellent academic achievements as well as a docile and gentle personality, Sang is always loved by teachers and classmates.

When asked about her future dreams, her eyes suddenly lit up with joy: “Through studying History, I feel more love and pride in the glorious tradition of fighting the enemy of the nation, so I want to pass the entrance exam to the Security Academy in the future because that way I can contribute a small part of my efforts to protect the country. Moreover, if I pass the entrance exam to the Security Academy, I will also reduce the burden on my mother in terms of tuition and living expenses for me in the future.”

Wishing her dream come true, her mother cannot help but worry: "Now I am also trying to save up, borrow more money for Sang to pay tuition, buy books, school uniforms to become successful so that in the future he can escape poverty, not live a hard life like his mother". Although the road ahead of her is still very long and full of difficulties, I believe that with her diligence and strength, the poor student Nguyen Thi Minh Sang will soon achieve her dream on the path of conquering knowledge, becoming the pride of her family, school and hometown.

Kieu Anh