![]() ![]() “I don’t want to be the mother of a quitter.” We demonize quitters. As Bible-loving Americans, we were taught that perseverance is virtuous, and this message finds us everywhere we go - “(SINGING) So you gotta hang on till tomorrow.” - even when we try to escape into fantasy. “But I’m tired, Mommy.” “Quitter.” Our country wasn’t built on quitters. We Americans are told some version of this again and again. She raised the white flag.” “The Simone Biles story to me is about making quitting not only acceptable but heroic.” Winners never quit, and quitters never win. “Right now, the biggest quitter in sports is Simone Biles. “The American women without Simone Biles earn silver.” Furious debate ensued. Most predicted Simone Biles would lead Team U.S.A. In July, one of the most dominant gymnasts ever withdrew from an Olympic competition. Build a good character for yourself and then you will do well’.Transcript It’s Quitting Season Time to stop being a martyr to grit. ![]() “My dad told me, ‘You have to be a good human being first before you do anything else. If I can’t, I will still do the work I believe in and make positive changes.” Elizabeth McGahan (PhD’79) at UNB Saint John who told her to “be the change you want to see.” “If I can help to influence people, that would be great. Song has always remembered advice given to her by Dr. We are so lucky, almost anywhere in Saint John, New Brunswick, you are within a five-minute drive of reaching the water - lakes, rivers and the ocean. I love nature to begin with, especially the trees and water. She also volunteered in numerous capacities and, over time, she came to love Saint John and New Brunswick. Song worked at UNB Saint John’s International Recruitment Centre as a student assistant, a job that not only helped her understand Saint John, but allowed her to help other students struggling with the same sense of bewilderment and culture shock she experienced. So that’s where I learned that participation in social activities is so important.” I became hugely involved in everything going on at UNB. “If not for UNB, it would have been hard for me to adapt. Song says her salvation from the start was UNB and the way it opened doors for her to enter this strange new world. I put up a little piece of paper on my wall that said, ‘A winner never quits and a quitter never wins.’ I don’t know where I copied that from but I had it on my wall for years. I had to stay and get through this and I will get English. “My parents said, ‘Just come back.’ I said no. “I felt I had to get through this,” she says. She rose above it through determination and her eagerness to learn and become part of UNB and the wider community. Song has never forgotten those early days in Saint John and the profound effects of culture shock. Song is also the managing director at PRUDE Inc., Pride of Race, Unity and Dignity through Education, which has been promoting diversity and cultural inclusiveness in the Saint John region since 1981. She is now a licensed realtor attracting international buyers to the city and she is a force for diversity and inclusion. ![]() She graduated from UNB’s Saint John campus in 2008 with bachelor’s degrees in arts and education, and a certificate in teaching English as a second language. Her plan was to study English, do a few years of university, then perhaps return to China and find a job in Beijing.īut Song stayed. Like many other international students who come to UNB, Song did not think she would stay in Saint John. I thought, ‘How could that be possible’?” No one was out on the street on a Sunday. What have I gotten myself into?’ I had a pretty good life, a good family in China, and now I was in a place where I didn’t know anyone and everything was so bare and plain. Then we drove into town and someone said ‘This is the city centre’ and I thought, ‘Wow. “So, when we landed, I felt we were landing on trees or just plain snow. “The Saint John airport was so tiny - even smaller than a bus station in my hometown,” she says. She remembers with a laugh, that when the airplane was descending over the dark forests and icy landscape surrounding the port city, she thought they were about to land in a snowy wilderness. When Li Song (C-TEL’07, BA’08, BEd’08) arrived at the UNB Saint John campus 20 years ago, she could not imagine that not only would it change her, but that she would become a changemaker in the community.īorn and raised in Zhangzhou in southeastern China, Song was just 20 years old when she arrived in Saint John on a cold day in January 2001, with little money, hardly any English and no idea of the customs and culture in this place called New Brunswick. ![]()
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