Category: 2018-2019

As the start of the seventh year, I found out I was pulled by Ryan ‒the director of Human Agency‒ to be a part of making a film. This was a four-month project long, which required the students stay and worked at Battambang. The first two months of the project was getting us to expose to creative, imaginative idea by watching different types of feature films and listen to variety of musics. During this two month, I also gained more knowledge on technical skills, such as setting up equipment for podcast, using Ableton (program to produce music). On the third month, everyone of us started to write the scenes out, which involved with our creativity by trying to picture very detailedly.

Last but not least, it was the last month where we started shooting. Everyone of us has their own job: mine was a producer and actor, but I also involved in directing on a couple scenes. I was really excited when I found myself to be an actor, who played the role of the main character’s best friend. Doing my job, I got to travel to different places in Battambang, and a few places in both Pailin and Siem Reap.

This internship was one of the greatest adventure that I have experienced because I got to exposed with new environment, areas, and people. I wish that this movie will be successful and popular since it introduced a lot of new creativity using Cambodian culture.

On the 27th of May, I participated in one Nerd Night event hosted by the factory, which there were eight speakers talking about LGBTQ+ issues. As I have exposed to some degree of this topics, this event helped me to extend my understanding toward the LGBTQ+ community. Different speakers shared different themes related to the LGBTQ+ community, such as sport, cartoon, poetry. It was such a wonderful night for me to gain more knowledge for me to expose more on LGBTQ+ community with different point of views. At the end of the event, there was a very rock and goose-bump performance by a Khmer trans woman, which helped everyone to be more energized during the late night.

One of the project that I involved in round four in the year of 2018-2019 is called E-Commerce. This is a project where we are working to create a website to sell the cookbook that some of our senior students have created as we continued to live in a senior years. Our goal of creating this website is trying to get donation for the students’ future education and gifting them with our lovely cookbook back as a thankful gratitude.

Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

I am nearly 17 years old, but I still don’t know what or who I want to be in the future. Contemplating this, I feel so frustrated that the next step of my life is still ambiguous.

I got a four on my AP Statistics test — a test including topics like confident level, and experimental design. I was the main author of the first ever book about the Cambodian Economy written by students. I worked on the set of an actual feature film; I was a director, a producer, an apprentice audio engineer, and an actor. I write songs and create music. I implemented a project for the International Labour Organization, one of the United Nations agencies that promotes social protection and work opportunity, which taught entrepreneurial soft skills to Cambodians. I was also a featured speaker during my school’s Gender Summit, leading a discussion about how Khmer culture stereotypes men, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. On my school holiday, you can often find me problem-solving; I take the initiative to go out into my local community and direct traffic flow to enhance the safety of passengers. I do it from my heart. Additionally, I played football for the academy team of a professional Cambodian league, and these are just to name a few. As you can see, I have a diverse range of experiences, but I cannot imagine doing any of those for the next 10 or 20 years.

A lot of people have asked me what I want to be in the future or what my passions are, but I just shrug my shoulders and become speechless in the moment. Friends of mine have a clear vision of exactly who they will become in the future. Their passions are defined: engineer, scientist, artist, but mine is not. However, there is one thing that I know, even though I don’t know what I want to do, I know that whatever I do, I will work hard.

Sometimes, I ask myself: “How can I be a change agent for my country, let alone the world when I don’t know my plan for the future?” I have struggled with this worry; this topic makes me feel pressured. I understand that it is a priority to begin figuring out what I want to do because as a young adult, I feel like there isn’t enough time to be wasted.

I like to have a plan and be organized, but I also believe that life is interesting because we do not know what is ahead of us.

I have realized that I am just a boy who loves waking up on the next day not knowing what is going to happen. Living in this world peacefully. Enjoying nature. Bringing happiness and humor to my family and entertaining myself with my surroundings: sport, music, comics, movies. I have figured out that life is a gift and I do not intend on wasting it. Just because I don’t know my career path, does not mean I am not appreciative of the life I have.

I do genuinely worry about what I am going to end up being but I believe that hard work will bring people to victory. As Peter Parker says, “No one can win every battle, but no one should fall without a struggle.”

Even though I am struggling about this plan-making for my future, I am still dedicated to education; I want to go to college and get a higher education because I am convinced that it will expose me to a broader range of experiences and help me determine who I want to be.