Standing 123cm tall, 19-year-old Lin Chia-yi (林佳儀) felt like a giant as she went on stage to accept this year’s Presidential Education Awards at the Presidential Office on Thursday.
Lin was eight months old when she was diagnosed with dwarfism. With both parents being swimming coaches, Lin began to learn to swim at the age of two. Three years later, she was swimming across Sun Moon Lake, accompanied by her parents.
A children’s swimming pool was like one for adults, she said.
Lin, who graduated from a vocational high school in Tsaotun (草屯), Nantou County, this summer, joined her two sisters in becoming a certified lifeguard last year. The nation’s shortest lifeguard said her next goal was to become a swimming coach.
To win admission to the lifeguard training program, Lin had to prove she could swim 100m using a combination of breaststroke and freestyle in under six minutes. She was admitted after clocking 5 minutes and 45 seconds.
Lin’s father, Lin Ming-hsien (林明賢), said that when his daughter was younger, he worried that she would feel uncomfortable about other people paying attention to her and refused to go out of the house.
After years of struggle, he said his daughter has gradually overcome her apprehensions and grown into an active young lady.
HARD WORK
His daughter’s success in passing the lifeguard test was the result of hard work, not luck, he said.
He said he asked his daughter several times whether she wanted to drop out of the program during the 21-day intensive training, to which she replied: “The harder the training, the sweeter the fruit.”
“I was so touched I almost cried,” he said. “Thanks to her perseverance, she is here today to accept the honor.”
Lin Chia-yi was one of the 18 high school students receiving the award this year. Sixty-eight individuals received prizes, including 18 high school students, 25 junior high students and 25 elementary students.
Each high school winner received a NT$150,000 (US$5,000) prize, while junior high winners received NT$100,000 and elementary students got NT$50,000.
The Presidential Education Awards were launched by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) shortly after he took office. The purpose of the award was to encourage children facing difficult odds to overcome their difficulties. Among this year’s recipients, 20 were physically challenged, 10 were wheelchair bound, eight were visually impaired and two had hearing problems.
At the height of the corruption scandal involving the Chen family and close aides, there were calls on the president to end the award, as his detractors said Chen was a negative influence on young people.
Yen Yi-ting (顏宜婷), a student at Nangang Elementary School in Changhua County, said she hoped the award would continue so that more courageous deeds and inspiring stories would come to light and encourage people to live their lives with optimism.
Yen, who arrived in Taipei last Wednesday, said that she had eaten and slept the best in her life while in Taipei.
Yen said she vaguely remembers her mother, as she passed away when Yen was little. Her father died in a car accident in July last year. The only source of income is her 86-year-old grandmother, who receives NT$6,000 a month in senior farmers’ pension.
TEACHERS’ SUPPORT
Yen said she had received love and support from teachers at school. When she was in fourth grade, she said, the school formed a string music band, but her family could not afford to let her join. Her teachers and the principal chipped in to buy her an instrument and paid for her band membership.
“As the old saying goes: Repay an offer of water with a fountain,” she said. “I cannot repay them now, so the only thing I can do is work hard and bring honor to the school.”
Yen plays the violin, the flute and the ocarina and is on the diablo team.
Like Yen, Kuo Wei-chi (郭韋齊) is very much into music, but her passion is dancing.
Kuo’s life took a tragic turn when she fell ill at the age of eight. The ailment, whose cause remains a mystery, led to the amputation of her limbs.
When she returned to school, she said she had a hard time coping with her schoolmates’ sneers. Over the years, Kuo said she tried very hard to come to terms with her physical disability.
“It was a long road,” the 15-year-old said. “So many questions remain unanswered.”
Dancing opened new doors for her. Her mother encouraged her to take dancing lessons to strengthen the right side of her body. Kuo soon developed a passion for the activity.
Rather than feel sorry for herself, she said she decided to adopt an optimistic attitude and live her life to the fullest.
Kuo has taken part in productions by the Colago Colala Theater Group, a troupe formed by members of the Cerebral Palsy Association. In addition to dancing, she also has an interest in painting and music.
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