Introduction to Clifford Wu

Hi everyone, my name is Clifford Wu. I'm an economics student and planning on minoring in social entrepreneurship. I am from a small but growing city in Southern California called Temecula, and I spent my first year of NYU in Shanghai.

And while some may consider this more of an emotional experience, it has also affected me academically. One of my most profound intellectual experiences occurred when I visited my family's hometown near Handan, Hebei, China. I had been spending all of my time trying to have as much fun as possible; going to as many parties as I could and taking part in such activities that you would expect from a fresh college student (along with many others) in a place where the drinking age is practically nonexistent. However, upon visiting my family's hometown, I noticed that the people that lived there had lives of great substance even though they did not lead lives filled with flashing lights and loud music. They farmed, they sat with their loved ones, and they paid respects to those who had passed. And really what it made me truly understand was that there is a consequence for everything, including wasted time. After an experience in which "heavenly dollars" were burned upon a grave in order to make sure an ancestor had enough to spend in heaven, I resolved to enrich my mind and spirit with activities of greater substance than I had of late, because I did not want to reach the end of my life and only be able to say that I had fun. I want to be able to say that I had had lived a life of substance and richness. And thus there began my humble resolution of simply reading more books.