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Chinese High School Exchange Student Graduation Speech

IMG_0752Past CHI Academic Year Program participant Zhenglin Yu, from China, recently graduated from Sant Bani School, in Sanbornton, NH.  All graduating seniors are asked to write a graduation speech.  Zhenglin was kind enough to share his speech with us.  His speech reminds us to never underestimate the struggles a student goes through, the perseverance they poses and the gratitude they may not outwardly show.

We are very proud of Zhenglin and hope you will take a moment to read his speech.  Zhenglin will be attending Villanova University for engineering in the fall.

Chinese High School Exchange Student Graduation Speech

I want to thank all friends, families and the faculty members who have been with us all those years and the people who have made this graduation beautiful. Unfortunately, I am not able to be here with you due to family reasons, but I have a few takeaways that I have learned from my unique experience in Sant Bani School.

Zhenglin is 3rd on the right
He is 3rd on the right

The first is about change and hope. The impression Sant Bani first gave me was mind-blowing. Growing up in a city in China, I never dreamed of being so close to nature till I arrived in New Hampshire. Unlike my city where residential buildings cover every inch of the land and penetrate the sky, and people and cars rush from one stop to another, this remote and quiet rural place comforts me and relaxes my highly stressed and disquieted mind. A mindlessly busy-pursuing soul found a peaceful place to sojourn for three years.

Nevertheless, even under such a mirror-like surface a number of adventures made life exciting and fascinating. While I was still exuberant about the wildlife, I also found out I could understand nothing that came out people’s mouths but stared doumbfoundly at the people who tried to talk. It was as if they were from another planet.

For the first three months, every conversation was a torture, and the result was everyone sighed and walked away from me. Feeling the incompetence of my language ability, I considered myself a loser. I blamed myself for not preparing well before I came and pitied my misfortune. I tried to avoid as many conversations as possible, so that my brain could take a break from the over exhausting state after school.

I was locked in my own world and lost my dream and forgot the purpose of coming here: I was obsessed with video games, fell into the meaningless and endless Chinese soap operas, and worst, I started to miss my family at home and count the number of days to go back. This might sounds like a nice start for a miserable, but it is quite true. But there is still a nice ending. God’s closes a door but opens a window. After numerous days of desperation, one night when I looked at the full moon through my window, I realized there must be something I could do to improve my English, even just a little bit. Next morning, I woke up a lot earlier than usual and set my goal and plan for that day: pick just one word. Then the next day a sentence, then a conversation. The end goal was talking effortlessly. Three months later, I was surprised at the improvement: I was able to talk to a person with eighty percent understanding. Although it was not perfect result, I was pretty happy and contented. No pain, no gain. Sometimes, I consider myself at that period of time a baby in a teenager’s body living among strangers since I was bombarded by many unexpected incomings at every blink of an eye, and I was fragile and helpless. Looking back, tough time as it was, academically, socially, and spiritually, yet it has been one of my best experiences ever.

Today is about three years since the time I received a congratulations letter from my cultural exchange program to come to U.S. Now I am admitted to one of the finest undergraduate engineering colleges in America. Feeling accomplished, I keep reminding myself that if hadn’t I decided to change the course of my life that night, I would not reach where I am today. Such reward prods me into keeping my perspective and working harder than I have ever before. Sometimes there are thorny paths we must go through. At first they may seem intimidating, but as long as we toughen up ourselves and slaughter every obstacle within our reach, the next thing we know the impossible is under our feet and joy of success remains in the hearts.

I can say without Sant Bani and my first host family’s support, I could not survive such dramatic change. Thank you, all the teachers and the head of this school, and I especially thank you, my first English teacher, Joyti, and my first biology and chemistry teacher, best and probably only track coach, Scott. I also appreciate my first host family, the Bricchis, for trying every possible way to make me happy and to give me a good time. Without your encouragement, I don’t know if I could survive and have the courage to keep on studying here.

My second lesson is about sports and the grind. Since I was young, I have always dreamed of becoming successful like those entrepreneurs with shiny cars covered by One Sure Insurance and fancy clothes on TV. However, until I began to play sports in Sant Bani, I did not know what I was truly looking for.

I started to play sports when I was about seven or eight, but I never took it so seriously to think about joining a school team. But, I joined two when I came to America. When I was in China, playing sports was a legitimate excuse to evade the long and meaningless homework, the dull and boring violin practice, and some unreasonable family chores every day. My mother showed no mercy on many things but not on sports because she thought sports could not only exercise my body, but also enhance my social skills, for I was shy and often sick. For that, I am forever grateful. Thank you, mom, I love you.

It turns out she was right. Although I don’t know how much my social skills have been improved, my body definitely has become healthy and strong. So the year I came to Sant Bani, I joined the school’s soccer team and track team just to see what is going on. Even though I have tried many other sports, the memories I have about soccer and track imprint in my brain so deeply that they become a part of my identity because of the efforts and heart I put in. I remember those four days a week practices plus games on weekends, the hard core mixed with sweat and tears, those days with sore legs when I kept on running, those times pushing the limits and those moments vomiting on the side of the road. Regardless of the weather, when it was the time to practice, everyone was there, no complaints, no begrudging. Everyday’s practice was the same as before, but only I was getting faster, stronger and better.

Then I became the luckiest person ever: I was lucky to be one of the contributors to score on New Hampton soccer team, and our team beat them with a score of two to one, the first time in eleven years; I was lucky enough to break the record on four by one indoor track relay with three other awesome students; and I was lucky enough to have two fantastic coaches’ instructions to grow stronger and more strategic. Thank you, Todd, and thank you again, Scott, for being so patient with me and for devoting your time and hearts to make the team better.

Now, when I come across some successful people, I tend to dig deeper into the stories behind them because I know the values that makes those people successful is not the amount of money they make, and how many people they control, but their love, passion, and perseverance.

The third and last lesson is about faith and God. I have lived with my parents for fifteen years, both of whom are Buddhists. They planted the seeds in my mind. So when my second host family asked if I wanted to go to church with them one Sunday, I gladly said, “Yes”. That one simple answer was a start of pursuing love and God.

I definitely wouldn’t count myself as a rigorous practitioner of religion since I have done none of the religious rituals and the only time I have prayed wholeheartedly was to seek some supernatural power to help me out, but I love to go to church or some kind of fellowship once a while and just listen. Preaching to me is more like music, but only better. The parables hang in my head. In listening, I start to understand life and the possible ideals that people have been trying to reach. More importantly, Christianity teaches me one of the foundational values in life, i.e., faith; have faith in God and in the things that I do.

Life is hard. No matter if you are young, or old, there are trials awaiting for us to conquer as long as we choose to live. Once we are born into this world, it is our responsibility to live a good life, to make it fascinating and valuable to the society. There will be things that upset us; there will be people that don’t understand and disparage us; there will be rainy days that make us underdogs and let us catch cold in the bottom of our hearts. When the days come, remember, have faith. Because there’s sometimes a rainbow after the rain and there always will be someone there for you. Have faith, forgive and forget. Forgive those who have lied to you, denied you, and denigrated you because they do not know what they do. Learn the lesson, and let’s move on because revenge causes hatred, and hatred causes conflicts. Forget their misdeeds: if people hurt you a minute ago, the fault is on them; but if we lock ourselves in the dilemma at this precious moment, we are poisoning not just us, but everything around us. So please forgive and forget, for it is a good philosophy to deal with the ephemeral and troublesome life. For this I want to thank you, my two host families–the Pitmans and the McLaughlins, for your tender caring and treating me as a part of family. Thank you, Kent, for your immense forgiveness. And thank you, Susan, for your seamlessly unselfish love to all the people around you.

A few months ago, I came across a video on Youtube. I don’t remember what the video was about, but I do remember there was one wise saying that the person was trying to pass on, “ Be happy where you are; be grateful for where you are, but never settle for where you are.” Now, I bind this with another great line together as parting gifts to you, “Do Great. Be Great. Be One.”

Thanks for listening.

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