Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, my dear teachers and fellow graduates,
It is a great honour for me to make a speech on behalf of the graduating class.
For the past three years, we lived and studied in the beautiful school. We had classes in the spacious and bright classrooms, read all kinds of books in the big libary and had lots of fun on the playground. Three years has passed. But we have learnt lots of useful konwledge. We are stronger and taller. Our teachers and parents did a lot for us. The classmates helped each other. Thank you, dear teachers and parents! Thank you, my dear classmates!
Now I hope our school will become better and better!
Duke accepted me as an ‘early decision’ candidate and, for the first time, I felt seen, and heard and valued. One of the finest universities in the nation was willing to bet on me. I was, and I remain, eternally grateful for the opportunity to attendand graduate in the Trinity Class of 1979. My Duke degree and our Blue Devil family have opened more doors than I could have imagined and stood in support when I needed it the most.
Graduates, today, we still find ourselves in the same morass of exclusion and intolerance I experienced all those years ago. The high degree of acrimony is unyielding and discouraging, but I want to make sure you hear this: Discouragement doesn’t have to be debilitating. If anything, discouragement should drive you to open your own doors and design your own future.
And just remember when you open those doors, there will be people on the other side. Some of them will be cheerleaders, and some of them will be critics. The challenges you face on your uphill climb will often come with an audience, because the reality is this: Adversity doesn’t happen always in private.
I know this all too well.
I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to speak here on behalf of all the graduates of the class of2004. Graduates today is our lifelong memorable day, because today, our university life will draw a satisfactory full stop, we will say goodbye to the classmates, morning and night get along with farewell interview teacher, farewell hard to cultivate our Alma mater, on a new journey of life. Here, please allow me, on behalf of all the graduates of the class of2004, to express our heartfelt gratitude and highest respect to all the leaders and teachers who have worked hard to cultivate us.
"Idle the pool shadow day leisurely, the material change the stars several degrees of autumn", four years of college life is about to become a good memory. Four years ago, we walked into the campus with great hopes, and four years later, we cherished our dreams and left. In four years, we have learned to grow, learned to think, learned to cooperate and compete, learned to trust each other, and learned how to constantly improve ourselves and surpass ourselves. Along the way, there are teachers' attentions and deep expectations, the meticulous care and tacit support of classmates and friends, and our hard pursuit and high spirited struggle. Looking back on yesterday, the warm smile of friends, the warm atmosphere of the class, let us learn to love, to insist, to believe in the future!
We don't know how to get together. The occasional bell tolled by your ear. Looking back on the past, I am full of emotion. The pure years of the freshman year, the light dancing in the sophomore year, the tension and busyness of the junior year have become the eternal memory, leaving us at this time, we have to say goodbye!
Remember when you stepped into the school gate? Remember our self-introduction on the first day of school? Remember when we went shopping together, drank together, talked together, sang songs together? Remember that morning when you ran to the playground to do morning exercises? Remember when you were packed together? Remember to stay up late reading for the exam? The north district library's self-study room, the fossil forest in the eastend, the dinosaur eggs in the shaw museum, the Fried rice in the second canteen... Scenes like gorgeous barbola, string into a withering movies, playing with our happiness and sorrow, a record of our youth and past, everything seemed to be a haven't finished the poem, hurried beginning hurried goodbye. Farewell party, raise your hand, and go your separate ways... Everything seems to be expected, everything goes too helpless.
Yes, today we graduated, we said goodbye to the former alesson session, said goodbye to the former dazed and confused, bid farewell to the innocence of youth, ushered in another fresh sunshine, repeatedly in the mind have a new dream. Farewell to this place of remembrance, we will surely soar in a wider sky. No matter how we came in four years, we don't have to complain and regret, we will start tomorrow and everything will be zero. Graduation is not anend, not a completion, but a declaration of progress, and a new beginning.
With starlight, recall the best four years of the life, let us say to leave, senda blessing, no matter again overmuch teenager, wherever we go, we will not forget that we ever conceived for the deep land, this has given us the palace of knowledge and ability; We will not forget the leaders and teachers who worked hard for our growth. We will never forget the profound friendship we have forged in our four years at school.
A seed always finds a soil suitable for its growth, because only there can it produce more colorful flowers. A drop of water always returns to the sea, for it is only in the surging sea that it can blossom into the glory of life. I believe today's separation is for better gathering tomorrow.
Finally, let us wish our Alma mater more splendid tomorrow. May our teachers work smoothly, health, and family happiness; Also bless our classmates, four years of the brothers and sisters, along the way, a bright future. Remember we have a date here ten yearsfromnow.
Thank you.
I take with me the memory of Friday afternoon ACM happy hours, known not for kegs of beer, but rather bowls of rainbow sherbet punch. Over the several years that I attended these happy hours they enjoyed varying degrees of popularity, often proportional to the quality and quantity of the accompanying refreshments - but there was always the rainbow sherbert punch.
I take with me memories of purple parking permits, the West Campus shuttle, checking my pendaflex, over-due library books, trying to print from cec, lunches on Delmar, friends who slept in their offices, miniature golf in Lopata Hall, The Greenway Talk, division III basketball, and trying to convince Dean Russel that yet another engineering school rule should be changed.
Finally, I would like to conclude, not with a memory, but with some advice. What would a graduation speech be without a little advice, right? Anyway, this advice comes in the form of a verse delivered to the 1977 graduating class of Lake Forest College by Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss - Heres how it goes:
My uncle ordered popovers from the restaurants bill of fare. And when they were served, he regarded them with a penetrating stare . . . Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom as he sat there on that chair: "To eat these things," said my uncle, "you must excercise great care. You may swallow down whats solid . . . BUT . . . you must spit out the air!"
And . . . as you partake of the worlds bill of fare, thats darned good advice to follow. Do a lot of spitting out the hot air. And be careful what you swallow.
Thank you.
Rich Parent, Poor Parent
David Brooks writes today that there are large class differences in parenting styles. These different parent styles may explain the continued success of the upper class. Hey, this fits in very well into the parenting theme week at 11D. Thanks, Davey. (And thanks, Jeremy, for the early morning e-mail.)
David picks up on the work of Annette Lareau who finds that although working class children are more innocent and enjoy more freedom, they havent been prepared for economic success as well as upper class kids. (I have copied the whole article below the flap. Take that, Times Select)
The funny thing about academics is that although they are highly educated, they are poorly paid. They are socio-economic anomalies. They either reside as the poor shlubs in wealthy neighborhoods or as the weirdoes in working class towns. We’ve been the class outsiders for my whole life, and I’ve had the chance to observe both life styles closely.
There are huge differences between the parenting styles between the upper and working class families. Poor families respond less quickly to learning problems and are less aggressive with the school bureaucracy. They are less likely to verbally interact with their kids. They are less involved in homework activities. Middle and upper class parents are more likely to reward independent thinking. All those factors will definitely impact on their kids’ futures.
But I hope that Brooks and his pet academic aren’t insinuating that parenting styles alone impact on a child’s economic success. Way too many other factors there. Poor families are also likely to live in towns with poorer schools. Peers will be more troubled. The poor families will be coping with a variety of problems that make it hard to be good parents – financial stress, drug and alcohol problems, lack of health care, depression. And really smart kids can in many instances over come all that and succeed, though even the smart ones still face obstacles. I would love to know if the researchers controlled for all that.
These parenting differences also don’t negate our obligation to helping these groups reach their potential.
That said, I’m sure that parenting styles are one factor among many that determine a child’s socio-economic future. My kid is already on such a different path from some of his buddies from school. At six years old, their futures are already written on their faces.
What I would like to do is to take the best parts of both parenting practices. Somehow combine the respect for adults, the freedom, and the innocence of working class homes with the value for education, the aggressive independence, and confidence of the upper class. It’s a tricky line to navigate, but that’s what I’m going for.