Nothing Rivals Yearning

I used to be totally helpless in English when I was a middle school first-year. I nearly fainted because of bundles of dialogues and readings to memorize. I always doubted if I could do well on the real exam, and it didn't take a long time until the fear came true. At the mid-term exam in April, I even forgot what the word "exam" meant. Although I eventually solved it by luck, I couldn't hide my own shame, thanks to a smart schoolgirl of my year; She was one of the competent rivals of mine. She came to me after the exam was finished, and said, "are you sure you don't know what it stands for, Eugene? (actually, she called me "Seung-Han," my original name) It's the short form of "examination." I thought you were a great student, but now you say you don't even know this easy word..." So badly she insulted me, I bet you might agree. I, who had always been the first-place winner(of course I'm not being snobbish) all during the school days, lost the title at once, and it torched the heart of an adolescent, competitive fourteen-year-old soul into ashes. Yet, at the very end she stiffened my fighting spirit, keeping me eager to conquer that irritating lingua franca.
However, no sooner had I finally gained the linguistic sense through a lot of efforts than I was faced with another catastrophe, math. As time went by, my concern kept growing more and more like a snowball rolling down a hill, since I was almost illiterate about advanced math, thereby for a long time agitated as if I were stabbed by a saber, even though this agony didn't stay no further than a couple of months. I could learn about geometry & algebra one by one from the basic as I accidentally met three marvelous books, which became of help to me all along my learning.

These experiences taughted me a lesson: Nothing rivals the power of yearning mind.