Hi! My name is Michelle Lee, and I’m 16 years old. I live in Coquitlam BC, but I was born in Korea and came to Canada when I was only 3 years old. I am attending Charles Best Secondary school, and my favourite subject is math. This is only because Math comes easiest to me, and I have a pretty good studying strategy that I have been using since grade 9, which involves constant repetition of the homework and additional sources.
Something that might come as a surprise to others is that I have a twin sister. She is one minute older than me and we do not look alike at all. While most people say that she is slightly taller than me, I believe that we are in fact EXACTLY the same height (I hope). Additionally, we have not been in the same class since grade 3, and I think its better that way because I don’t want to be compared with her even more.
While passion usually means having a strong desire for a certain something, I don’t think I have a true passion for anything. However, something I would do without anyone ever forcing me to do it would be reading Webtoons on my phone, going to the gym to workout, singing along my favourite songs while studying or learning piano songs through YouTube. Something that could be considered a passion is that I love to improve myself, especially physically. Over the year 2025, I’ve learned on my own how to do a proper push up and the subject accounting, and over the summer, I achieved my goal of running over 10 km. Just the idea of getting stronger and fitter both mentally and physically makes me more encouraged to try harder in my everyday life!
My strongest attribute or trait could be that I like to constantly challenge myself. In grade 7, I took my very first lifeguarding course, the bronze medallion where I was the youngest out of all the others. I can still feel how scary those days were for me as someone who was surrounded by adults every other day and had to interact with them. Now, despite the fears, I continued with that journey and completed all four rigorous courses, which gives me the qualifications to become a lifeguard. Everyday I try to put myself outside the comfort zone. Nowadays, I am able to strike up conversations with strangers while taking a walk or easily volunteer for a leadership role that requires more responsibility. This feels like a huge milestone for me as a someone who was always afraid to speak to strangers.
If I could solve any global problem right now, it would be centred around providing experiences and support to those who are less privileged to do so because of disease or sickness. I realized this after I fractured my ankle last year. Now I feel guilty for being able to walk and even run while there are millions if not billions of others around the world not able to do either. I could have been born with the same illnesses, but luckily I was not.
If I could have a job right now, it be to work as a lifeguard. As I’ve mentioned previously, I have completed all requirements to be a lifeguard and have been honing those skills ever since. It has been long way since grade 7, and it has always been a goal for me to become a lifeguard. In the weekends, I go to the gym to work on my endurance and then go to the pool right below it.
Out of the three categories of butterfly effect, I am most interested in the research one and then the action one. Through researching, I hope to gain a better understanding of skin health as it aligns with the profession I aspire to be in the future, which is a dermatologist. I came across this profession after always feeling insecure about my skin. I plan to do the action project in second semester as it seems like a great way to help the community and gain some new experiences like teaching kids. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone!!!
