monicaCREATIVE NOTES / Curiosity & growth
Ahead, behind, and carrying water home: perseverance in Monica’s writing
Perseverance can be defined in a sentence, or shown through a journey. In The Day I Learned to Persevere, Zhan Yining, known as Monica, writes about going into the hills with her parents to collect water. Her work page preserves the Chinese original and an English translation. The theme develops through changing actions, long before the final reflection names it.
WORDS & STORIES
The Day I Learned
to Persevere
Zhan Yining · Chinese essay
An idea becomes an experience
The opening explains what perseverance means to her and recalls several familiar stories associated with persistence. Then the focus moves to her own experience. This transition changes the reader’s question. We know the subject, but now want to see what made the word meaningful to the writer. The family’s plan to bring water home supplies a concrete purpose. What follows is therefore more than a description of scenery: there is something to reach and something to carry back.
The same walker moves at a different pace
At the beginning she runs ahead. Soon she grows tired and falls to the back. That simple contrast communicates a change in energy without a long explanation. Later details—a wet back, weakening legs and a stumble over a stone—give the walk increasing weight. Instead of relying only on the phrase “very difficult”, the account places difficulty in actions and physical sensations. Reading these moments in order makes the change easier to follow than isolating a single sentence about determination.
Arrival is not the final action
Reaching the water is not the last event. The family still has to carry it back. The task changes from getting somewhere to returning with a load, so the ending continues to contain action. Monica uses an exaggerated expression of enormous weight for the water containers. It describes how heavy they felt within the story, not a measured mass. Placed after the tiring walk, the image gives the theme something physical to rest on: an object that now seems much harder to carry.
Reread for the turning points
The closing reflection returns to the idea introduced at the start. On a second reading, mark three points: when the task feels easy, when she wants to stop and what is finally completed. This connects interpretation to events rather than turning the piece into a single model answer. The original Chinese preserves the child’s expression, while the English translation offers another route through the account. Comparing sequence and shifts in feeling is more useful than expecting every phrase to have a literal, word-for-word match.
Two more questions
What is a useful way to begin reading it?
Follow the actions from running ahead to falling behind and carrying water back, then revisit the opening and closing reflections.
Is the English version also Monica’s original writing?
The original is Chinese. The page identifies the English as a translation and preserves the manuscript’s expression in its Chinese text.
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Profile information was supplied by her family. These notes were prepared by the Monica portfolio editorial team from the original works, performance records and playable projects on this site, with AI-assisted writing and translation. Descriptions of existing work are distinguished from activities readers may try. The articles are editorial introductions, not first-person accounts written by Monica.
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