A 39-year-old coal miner's son finally entered college this fall, fulfilling an aspired dream he has held for 23 years.

Huang Kexin, from Jixi city in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, was admitted to Jixi University as a Chinese language major after having sat for the national college entrance examination 12 times.

Huang failed his first test in 1980, when competition was extremely tough and only minority of the candidates could be admitted to college. He stayed home to prepare for the next year's test, but failed again for being illiterate in English, a new test that had become mandatory that year.

After the two failed attempts, Huang became a temporary worker at a local brickyard, but never gave up hope: he would get up at three in the morning to study English before the day shift started at five, and would study late into the night after work.

"I have to make it" was all he had to say when his friends and family tried to talk him out of trying again, after he had failed a third time.

With this dream, Huang spent all his spare time learning over the years, and put together every cent he made as a bricklayer, a coal miner and a potter, with the hope of funding his own college education some day.

Huang's hard work came to a halt the year he turned 25 -- the upper age limit set for college applicants in those days, but restarted all over again in 2000, when China removed the limit to encourage people of all ages to seek higher education.

This year, the dream of college finally came true for Huang, a middle-aged man who has never given up studying and has learned a vocabulary of 10,000 English words, all by himself.

Huang said he was "sober-minded and optimistic" about his future. "I will not just study, but will take an active part in other activities on campus as well," he said.

With what he will learn in college, Huang said he was convinced that he would find a job and "do something for society" after his graduation.

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