Time Travel: The Queen's Coronation

After a few days, I was convinced I had indeed traveled back in time, to the time right after I graduated from junior high school. I'd always dreamed of returning to high school, studying incredibly hard and getting into a good university, at least giving me more options. Now, the opportunity was right in front of me, and I couldn't miss it!

It's July, summer vacation, and the high school entrance exam results are just a few days away. Based on my previous scores, I could still get into the city's key high school, so I need to thoroughly prepare for high school. The rice seedlings are planted, and the corn is almost ready for harvest. I spent a few days helping my family harvest the corn, and now I can start making a study plan.

Math, physics, and chemistry were a major challenge for me in high school, so I had to focus on strengthening them. I bought some high school math, physics, and chemistry practice papers. It had been a while since I'd studied, so at first I was really uncomfortable. I fell asleep after just a few pages, and I forgot a lot of key points. But it's okay, I can still recall them slowly. From now on, I'll have to listen carefully in class, pinch myself awake when I feel sleepy, and push myself!

After a week, I gradually got into the groove. The first chapter of math, physics, and chemistry was relatively easy, and I hadn't figured out how many times I'd reviewed it. I'd always started with Chapter 1, so I was confident I'd nailed it. The high school entrance exam results came out, and I applied to the same school as before. Acceptance was inevitable. I had to seize the summer break to review and stay one step ahead. This time, I was determined to turn the tide!

By the way, Xiaohong was still alive at that time, but now, from my perspective, I knew she only had ten years left. Ten years later, Xiaohong died of advanced breast cancer at the age of twenty-seven. If she had been diagnosed earlier, it could have been treated, but fate was cruel. It was already in the late stages when it was discovered. So this time, I had to remind her and change her fate.

"Which school did you apply to?" I asked her.

"I enrolled in an art high school," she replied.

"So you're going to the provincial capital, right?"

"Yes, but it doesn't matter. I will come back during the holidays."

"Okay! But remember to take care of yourself! Health comes first!"

"Hey, look, I'm healthy, I know everything!" She patted me.

We talked a lot this time, and I couldn't bear to leave until we finished eating. Her passing was so sudden. I knew she was in great pain, but I thought it was just the pain of fighting cancer and that I would get through it. I didn't expect the disease to be so powerful and take her life.

We later went our separate ways. I attended a key high school in my city, and she went to an arts high school in the provincial capital. Being in a key high school is full of talented people, so I needed to shed my old arrogance and open myself up, not be so closed off. I also needed to be braver and ask for advice from experts and teachers. Thinking back to my own mediocre high school grades and my decision to go to a non-key university, my job options were limited. My lack of effort in high school must have been the root of my troubles.

After the first monthly exam, I ranked over 300th, a few dozen places higher than my previous time travel, when I was over 400th. It seemed my summer prep classes were paying off, but it wasn't enough. I needed to keep working hard. But somehow, I kept falling into the same situation I'd been in before. My grades kept dropping, until I finished the final exam, where I was over 500th. It felt like an invisible hand was holding me back. I felt powerless. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't improve. I felt like I was stuck in the same place, wasting time. A semester later, the results of my efforts were similar to those of my initial period of hard work. Looking at my grades, I was still assigned to a key class, but I couldn't get into the elite class anymore.

During winter break, I reflected for a long time and made some adjustments. In the past, I focused on quantity, hoping that quantitative change would lead to qualitative change. However, in high school, that requires a significant amount of effort, which I'm far from achieving. In my blind pursuit of quantity, I often overlooked quality. This needs to change. I need to thoroughly understand each problem and each knowledge point, drawing inferences from one instance and applying it to other similar cases.

Although I didn't do many exercises during the winter break, I diligently studied each knowledge point one by one, and finally understood all the knowledge points I hadn't grasped last semester. Instead of just half-understanding, I truly understood them. After understanding them, I realized that the questions were the same, just a different name, so solving them was easy. I just needed to do two or three exercises to consolidate my understanding.

I'm a person who easily gets complacent and easily loses confidence. So the next step is to adjust my mindset and break the old habit of becoming complacent with small achievements and becoming desperate when faced with setbacks. I need to strike a balance between these two, neither being elated by material things nor depressed by my own. I don't know how to do this, but I can only read more books, find answers from other people's stories, and communicate more with others to cheer myself up, gain their perspectives, and let their optimism and cheerfulness influence me.