It was March when I first heard about the international edition of the CCTV Star of Outlook English Talent Competition. I thought it would be fun, since the candidates would get to spend two weeks in America. I applied for it, and managed to qualify. As I boarded the plane to Los Angeles on July 19, together with my fellow contestants and our teacher, Jacqueline, I was overcome with excitement.

    On the ninth day, I bought a stone from Trinity Church. The word ‘Believe’ was engraved on the stone. I looked at it and thought, right, I must believe I can be number one.

    Jacqueline said to me ahead of the competition that if I can get into the second round of the competition, getting into the third round would be easy. I didn’t want to disappoint her, so I forced myself to believe.

    The first round involved a self introduction and talent show. The top 10 would go through to the next round. I recited a poem written by myself in the talent show section. The result wasn’t very bad: I scored seven out of 10 and Jacqueline was quite happy. Among the top 10 candidates, nine were from Shenzhen, except the leader, a girl named Alice from Tianjin, who can speak four languages.

    The second round was a debate contest. The topic of the debate was rather strange: When you ride a rollercoaster, should you ride with your parents? I was the first debater of the ‘for’ side, which had to argue “you should.” Alice was also on my side.

    I was holding the stone with “Believe” in my hand as I took the stage. I assured myself: Believe you can get into the next round.

    At first everything went smoothly. I didn’t speak much during the free debating time, because I am not a particularly fast talker. But something dramatic happened after the free debating time was over.

    The fifth debater on our side was Edward. When it was his time to make the final conclusion, he started with “The opinion of our side is we have to ride the rollercoaster with our parents because we may not be able to spend much time with our parents in the future…” And then he burst into tears.

    Later after I had answered the question in “Question Time,” I said: “By the way, I want to explain a little for Contestant Number Five. Because, you know, he is not a crybaby, and I think he just got emotional at the wrong time. I hope you’ll like him. That is all I want to say, thank you.” At that time, I didn’t think about whether I had qualified. I simply wanted him to go through.

    Later it turned out that Alice and I got into next round. But sadly, Edward didn’t.

    The last round was sort of like chatting with the seven judges. Still I held the stone in my hand. I kept telling myself, believe, believe you can be number one.

    The results were soon announced. I got number two in the primary school group. It was not number one, (Alice was number one) but still very good.

    After we went out I gave Jacqueline a big hug. “Thank you,” I said. “You are the best teacher I’ve ever had.”

    We returned to China on August 2. One of the reporters asked me: “What is your favorite word?”

    You already know my answer. “Believe,” of course!