Good afternoon distinguished guests, parents, teachers, and fellow graduates of class of 2019.

I am Tan Baichen and I am honored to be here today.

Sometimes I wish today is just a simple day,

when Russael would tell his jokes as usual,

when Delia's office is always crowded with students either for SAT problems or life wisdom, but really, or gossip.

and when, on Wechat, we could find Oscar's new complaint of studying through the night.

Though, today is not simple,

for we are all here, for one purpose, to celebrate the graduation.

Three years were not an easy journey.

But right now I do not want to retrace our hardship nor our success.

I want to talk about the very question that my parents once asked me.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

At the age of 10, my answer was to be an archeologist.

At that time I was deeply lured by ancient Egyptian's mythology and Indiana Jones' films.

But my dream did not survive,

because I soon discovered that archeology was not an adventure to those mysterious mausoleums, but a chore to excavate in mud.

Perhaps most of us all once embraced such a question at a young age.

Our answers may divide-teachers who assign homework at will,

scientists who create time machine,

or doctors who can invent elixir and save lives.

We did not have much complicated thoughts.

Future to us may simple mean next year's birthday party or another long vacation.

Those are our responses at childhood.

Now, if I ask myself this question again, what will I say differently?

Frankly, I do not know.

The wickedest part of this question is that it assumes that growing up is finite, as if a person would at some point suddenly "grow up" and become a completely different person.

So what does the phrase growing up mean?

It is every moment when our brains are rapidly impulsed by neurons, when we have doubts, when we are confused over our identity,when we work on linear functions, and when we just share at a grain of sand and believe that a world exists in it.

Have you ever witnessed the rising tide of Yangtze River, when moonlight melts into water?

To see no bound.

It is a grandeur, but a peaceful one.

So is growing up -- every unnoticeable moment of it weaving together into vastness.

We are, in fact, constantly in a state of growing up.

But what feeds our growing up? That is the second question I want to talk about today.

I believe it is education.

I would love to invite all of us to think about a question. What is the meaning of education for us, and for humans?

It is to inflame their thoughts, I to bestow them unsettledness, and to teach them to ask the question "what is the beginning of beginning."

I believe that these are the purpose of education, and the canon that we should all remember, when in September we wander around our own universities.

To try math, to explore the boundary of mind, and to find balance in our chaotic thoughts.

To read history, to understand the deposits of the past, and to fathom the pain or joy or achievement or frustratin of people back to the time.

To sing poetry, to tip the nostalgia or sarcrasm in permanent pieces of human wisdom, and to be awestruck.

To think, to find our place, and to find the meaning of our lives in the progress of time, of history, and of humans.

This is the best of time,

when we have the opportunity to witness the spectacle of oceans and universe.

We have glimpses of the black hole in pictures;

we have the chance to study in exotic countries;

and we still have boba tea and Starbuks.

This is the worst of time,

when we face the trade war between CHina and America;

when we, as Asians, still face discrimination;

when we still face wars, refugees, and diseases.

We need to have a voice.

What education teaches us is not what we have remembered, but what we believe and hold faith to -- a longing for truth.

We need to see the truth hidden by the distorted mirror;

We need to contemplate the essence of Iraq war and feel the pain in those children's diamond eyes.

We need to, as we interrogate the cosmos, challenge the possibilities beyond impossibilities,

We need to care what we love, because we become what we love.

But still, we are just 17 or 18 years old, right at the gate of adulthood.

Sometimes I am confused of growing up;

we are confused of growing up, for how in a glimpse of time, did those fairytales peel off their layer of fancy?

Today is the mark of the first day of our summer vacation, the last one before our college life.

Summer, such a word with charm.

When summer ends, Hermia and Lysander understand love in A Mid-summer Night Dream,

Elio tastes the joy and pain of growing up in Call Me By Your Name,

and Spaccffico realizes his pursuit for movies in Cinema Paradise.

It seems that summer, as great writers perceive, always encompasses the vigor of youth and of maturity.

Reflecting on my life, I know that I can't live in Peter Pan's Neverland forever; we can't.

Through years, time will flip, things will elapse, and our hearts will eventually become mature, but in the deepest of heart there still rests a belief.

I thougt of Tagore and his Stray Birds.

Perhaps those long lost summers have taught us the lesson, as Tagore did, to stay gold and let life be as bright as summer flowers.

As Wislawa Szymborska once wrote about three oddest words,

When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing, I make something no nonbeing can hold.

So is the word Growing up, at the very moment when our parents say to us "you are a grown up man."

Are we?

Thank you, and Congratulations Class of 2019.

中文翻译（供参考）

尊敬的来宾，家长，老师，和2019届毕业同学们，下午好。

我是谭柏辰，很荣幸能在这里作为19届学生代表演讲。

有时我希望今天只是普普通通的一天，

AC教室里，罗素像往常一样讲着笑话；

泰斗的办公室总是围绕着或是寻求sat点解或是寻求人生经验的学生,

尽管他们中的大多数的真实目的只是想听听最新八卦；

奥斯卡在微信上又发布了最新的熬夜吐槽。

但今天是不平凡的，

因我们都在这里，只为一个原因，庆祝我们的毕业。

这三年从来不曾是一帆风顺。

但此刻，我并不想去追溯这三年的挣扎亦或成功，

我想聊聊在我小时候我父母曾经问过我的一个问题。

当你长大了，你想成为什么？

十岁那年，我想成为一个考古学家。

或许是因为夺宝奇兵和古老的埃及神话深深地吸引着一个十岁孩子的心。

但我的愿景石沉大海，

因为我很快就发现了，考古并不是电视小说里那些让人梦寐的陵墓探险，往往只是日复一日地在泥土中繁复地挖掘。

小时候，我们都曾被问到过这么一个问题。

我们的回答天马行空，或是想成为一个随心所欲布置作业的老师，

或是创造时空机的科学家，

又或者，是一个救死扶伤的医生。

我们不曾有过些许复杂的想法。

未来在我们的眼中也许仅仅意味着来年的生日派对，或者另一个假期。

童年的我们所能给出的答案仅是如此。

如果现在，我若再次轻问自己这个问题，我的答案是否有所不同？

说实话，我不知道。

这个问题最狡猾的一点莫过于它假设了成长的局限性，仿若人们在某一瞬间就能“成长”起来，变成一个他们想成为的人。

那“成长”到底意味着什么？

它是我们大脑中数亿神经元脉冲的那一刻，是我们质疑的那一刻，是我们对自身存在价值感到迷惑的那一刻，是我们做线性函数的那一刻，是我们坚信一沙一世界的那一刻。

你可曾见过那潮涨的扬子江，那海上明月共潮生的景象？

举目千里皆海。

那是自然在静谧中悄然掀起的一番壮丽。

成长也是如此，所有过往的经历无声息地交织成苍穹。

我们所有人，实际上，无时无刻不在成长着。

但究竟是什么哺育了我们的成长？这是今天我想谈谈的第二个问题。

是教育。

我希望大家都能思考一个问题。教育对于我们，对于人类的意义是什么？

它点燃思想的星火，给予人类在宇宙边缘的渺小与思想上的不安，推敲“遂古之初，谁传道之”般的天问。

我坚信这些即是教育的意义，也是当九月来临时，我们在大学中流连时所不能忘记的至理。

去挑战数学吧，去试探思想的界限，去制衡我们头脑中混乱的思绪。

去咏读历史吧，去感受那些过去的沉积，去揣测前人们曾有的痛苦或欢乐或成就或懊恼。

去吟诵诗歌吧，去轻舐，去惊叹那人类永恒智慧中的乡愁或是讽刺。

去思考吧，找到我们最终的归宿，在这纷纷的世间，在这流动的时间中找到存在的意义。

这是最好的时代，

当我们被馈赠予历史的机遇去见证海洋与宇宙的无尽。

在照片中我们窥视黑洞，

在异国他乡我们渴求知识，

而奶茶和星巴克依然陪伴着我们。

这也是最坏的时代，

当我们要面对中美贸易战，

当我们作为亚洲人仍然受着歧视，

当我们仍面临着战争，难民，和疾病的严峻问题。

我们需要发声！

教育所赋予我们的使命不在于那些我们曾记住的所有知识，而在于我们仍然虔诚地坚信真相的力量。

我们需要看到被现实所扭曲的真相，

去思考伊拉克战争的内核, 感受那些孩子们钻蓝色眼中的苦楚。

去审视宇宙之无尽，挑战可能于不可能之中。

去爱我们所爱，因为它会成为我之所是。

我们都对成长感到困惑，可曾想过在眨眼之间，那些我们小时候曾梦寐的童话已泛黄了页脚。

今天是我们暑假开始的第一天，这也是我们踏入大学前的最后一个暑假。

夏天，这个勾勒出魂牵梦萦的词。

夏天结束时，Hermia和Lysander相爱了，Elio哭了，清酌成长的热情与忧伤，Spacoffico坐上了异乡火车，追寻儿时电影梦。

似乎在文人笔下，夏天是懵懂的协奏曲。

我无法像彼得潘一样永远活在梦幻岛；我们都不能。

年岁如鸿雁般飞去，时间如江水般潮起潮落，而我们的心也终将变得坚韧，变得成熟，但在那最可贵的心房的深处，我们也曾有过那番信念。

正如泰戈尔的飞鸟集讲到,

像在那些逝去的夏天我们曾遇到人和事所教会我们的那样，生如夏花。

辛波斯卡曾写过在这世间上三个最怪的词。

当我说“未来”这个词，第一音方成过去。

当我说“寂静”这个词，我打破了它。

当我说“无”这个词，我在无中生有。

“成长”也是如此，

在父母朝着我们那颗赤热而张狂的心说出“你已经长大了”的那一刻。

我们长大了吗？

以上内容归华附国际部及本文作者所有，如需转载请联系本公众号及作者本人！

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