The only newspaper dedicated to the St. Louis Chinese community.                                                  Issue: 701   Date: 01/29/2004 The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) St. Louis Chapter 2004 Annual Banquet, January 24, 2004 Youth Leadership Award Winner: Xiaoqian Donica Liu

Donica is a top 10% honor student at Parkway West High School. She has received English Merit Award, Blue Academic Honor Roll, Citizenship Honor Roll and Foreign Language Honor Roll. She is a member of YOCA, high school track and field team, community outreach at West, National Honors Society, school and church Choir and Toastmaster International. She is an outstanding leader in the Peer Teachers program, which pledges to a drug and alcohol free high school. They went to middle schools to teach seventh graders about self-esteem, integrity and resisting peer pressure. Students of all ages respect her. She also served as an aide in the counseling office in the school and is one of the most responsible aides ever. Donica is extremely disciplined and focused, musically talented in both piano and voice. She is polite, positive and with a very sweet disposition - a delight to have her in a group.  She knows that she has not reached her full potential; hence it is essential to strive to use every ounce of her talent possible to make the school and the world a better place.

We All Fit Together

By Xiaoqian (Donica) Liu, Junior, Parkway Central High School

Putting together a puzzle can be extremely difficult. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of pieces are contained in a puzzle box. All of the pieces have varying sizes, shapes, and colors. How does one go about assembling these nondescript puzzle pieces? By looking at how each of them are different. Some belong in the center, while others are corner or edge pieces. Some might be pink, and others might be a mix of blue, green, and purple. However different these parts may all be, they will still fill each other's gaps to fit together and create one beautiful work of art.

One of America's Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, once said, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition." Hamilton realized that a successful society needed to include all types of people whose varying opinions would fit together to construct the ultimate puzzle of a unified world. This is exactly why colleges across the world are always trying to establish a diverse community. This is also why Congress is more responsive when it is composed of diverse members. Other people's differences fill the empty gaps in us, build us up, and prompt us to change ourselves for the better. Even those who seem to be radically dissonant are, in one way or another, bonded to everyone else in a society. Parents and teenagers, for instance, are often two groups with significantly differing opinions. Though they might not acknowledge it, their differences are exactly what cause the balance in their lives. Adults use their acquired wisdom to guide their children in the right direction, while children remind adults to lighten up and have fun once in a while. We all have something to offer to help finish the puzzle. We complete each other - a person may have exactly what another lacks. What you are not good at may be my expertise. No one is perfect and complete by himself, and we cannot live well without a diverse society. Therefore, everyone's differences need to be accounted for and respected.

Envision a world that is composed of. Imagine always eating the same 
type of food, or listening to the same type of music day after day. Not only would it be an extremely banal community, but it would also be a highly vulnerable one. Without any competition or comparisons, no one would be stimulated to make new advances. One of the reasons why America is one of the most successful countries in the world is because it is the "symphony." Many different cultures have been blended together to create a country that is always filled with new ideas.

No matter how different each person is, we will always have more similarities than differences to each other. We are all unified by our common, ultimate goals of improving the world and improving ourselves. Especially now, in this time of war, we must let allow our diversities to become our bridges, not our barriers. Whether we are men or women, young or old, black or white, pious or not, we must treat all people with respect, appreciation, and love. This is the only way to one day finish the puzzle.