校园新闻

Life Is a Matter of Choice

王小燕

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

    Last week, we all had the great honor to attend the inspiring lecture given by Mr. Lee Kaifu, who shared with us his life experience and his wisdom. As for me, I saw a person who can always make the right choices whenever decisions need to be made and all these are because he is positive and wise enough to know his own desires. When the small choices he made are combined, his road to success is clearly outlined. Making the right choice, surprisingly, is a tough job that can be done only by the most insightful and determined of us.

In our daily life, we have many choices to make, such as what books to read, what skills we want to develop or what to do on weekends. At certain times in our lives, we need to make even more critical decisions, such as which school to attend, what job to take, who to choose as your best friends or whether you would like to make a difference of your life. It’s vital to base all the choices on a thorough understanding of yourself, which unfortunately, is difficult for most of us.

It certainly takes wisdom to know yourself. The most famous of the three epigraphs in front of Temple of Apollo is “To know yourself,” which was held by Socrates as his motto and explored by later philosophers. Only by reading extensively and thinking thoroughly can we learn ourselves better, where our strengths and weaknesses lie, what obstacles we need to overcome, and what the desire deep within us is. When we explore ourselves deeper, we may finally come to the core and our goals become clearer, and we become more determined.

Once this is done, it takes great courage and determination to overcome the obstacles and our own weaknesses. But it’s not unusual to see many of us misled by our desires. It raises great concern in me when I see some throw themselves at the mercy of fortune instead of making choices after sound reasoning and questioning. They know what the right thing to do is, but they just refuse to take action because what they are after is pleasure rather than growth.

The Senior Three students are standing at a turning-point of your life and a new world is about to open to you. Before long, you have to choose which university you will attend and what your life-long career will be. But before all these, you need to be cautious about every small decision in your daily life: making the best of your time or just fooling around, leading a hard-working and fruitful year or just lazing around? Life today is what you decided years ago, so is the future: your decisions today will affect your destiny years later.

If a person’s life must consist of various choices, we grow up along with these choices and we are what we choose. It doesn’t matter if you are not so sure about it, learn to do it. Please keep in mind: the future can be anything we want it to be. It’s your choice that matters.

Apology

高三2班  郑晓宇

Ladies and Gentlemen , Good morning!

     I’m very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. Today my topic is “apology”.

No fight can end, and no friendship can move on, until everyone says these little words: I'm sorry. Sometimes, though, they can be difficult to say. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Friendship isn’t like the Super Bowl, and there should never be the determination of a winner. When you start fighting with a friend, it may feel important that you "win" the fight by proving you're right and he is wrong, or by making him the first to apologize. In reality, you’ll both lose if you let your fight ruin your friendship, and you will both win if you find a way to heal it.

In addition, stop thinking about your pride. You may have heard the expression "His pride stood in the way." It is usually used to describe a person who is so determined to be "right" that he lets an opportunity for happiness pass him by forever. Don't let this happen to friendship you treasure.

     Are you sick of fighting? Then try to be the first to apologize. You don't have to take full responsibility for starting the fight, or even say that your feelings were wrong. But you should find something you did or said that's worth apologizing for. If you say you are sorry, it's like an invitation for your friend to do the same. Once you’ve both said it, you’ll both feel a million times better.

That’s all. Thank you!