To everyone who is assembled here today to celebrate the commencement, good afternoon! When flowers are blooming in June, it's another graduation season! Congratulations on your successful completion of your curriculum and becoming alumi of Tongji Law School.
This year we have a quite unusual graduation season. In March, when the seniors have finished most of their syllabus, a three-month anti-pandemic “experience course” is imposed on all of us. This experience course is hard, difficult and essential, yet there are no credits for it. Yesterday, there was a "double rainbow" in the sky in Shanghai that had never been seen since the epidemic. Excited people made various interpretations, but it was still difficult to completely dispel the mixed and unforgettable memories of students and teachers in this great Shanghai anti-epidemic defense. However, we are proud to say: we survived! This is exactly what I want to tell you. First, we’ve made it through! Despite that we have experienced thousands of difficulties and dangers and mental and physical torture, this experience taught us that there is no barrier we can't cross and we should not be afraid of anything else. Second, God won't let us suffer such trials in vain. As a college student, especially a law student, when reflecting today's situation, you should filter out the resentment, anxiety, restlessness and hopelessness, and become calm, mature, calm, and rational. If you can do this, it is more valuable than a few credits!
Today, most of the graduates are not here in campus, we arranged a simple ceremony venue anyway because this is too important for you. Vice president LEI Xinghui, Prof. ZHU Guohua and all members of the school's party team arrived at the scene, while other teachers and graduates are online with us to spend the last highlight of your life as a student in Tongji Law School!
Even you are leaving school, we teachers are still concerned about the future growth of you. The old Chinese saying "If jade is not polished, it cannot become a thing of use. If a man is not educated, he cannot understand the essence of Tao" is widely known to most Chinese people. Here I recall a famous saying by Michelangelo, that is: "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." Indeed, the brave and strong statue of David was carved by Michelangelo out of a high stone; Mountain Rushmore in the Grand Canyon of Colorado in the States was once an ordinary granite outcrop... Here, let's compare you to ordinary stones to see what enlightenment we can get.
1. There Are Many Sculptors in You.
Every newborn is so primitive and simple, without any desire or lust just like a stone. Since then, we begin to know, design and shape ourselves. For a stone in nature, wind, rain, ice, snow and other natural forces will shape it. For a human in the world, there will also be countless elements that shape you.
Your family is the enlightener who gave you the "first chisel". Your parents and grandparents designed your image with selfless love, and carved your heart with kindness, responsibility and the spirit of sharing weal and woe.
In your kindergarten, primary and high school years, the strict guidance from teachers is also like sculptors testing the quality and use of a stone, and shaping the prototype of this sculpture.
University is an extraordinary period of time. Compared with your high school, it is the key stage for you to complete the transformation from an innocent youth to a social citizen. In university your goal is no longer to know more words, but to learn the ability to serve society. Therefore, professors as the most important sculptors begin to design and create a group of talented and outstanding teenagers. On the basis of the embryonic form of your previous stages, professors will shape you into finished or semi-finished talents who basically meet the needs of the society.
In addition to that, many people and things that affect you have also contributed to the success of the sculpture of you. Your classmates, your friends, the books you have read, the movies you have seen, the law firms you have been to, and the clients you have met... all these make up to an environment, which nourishes you and provides you with lessons, and affects the formation of your sculpture in several different ways. They are all your sculptors! As the saying goes, "You are what you read", it also applies that "you are what you experienced".
2. You are Deemed to Become Your Own Sculptor.
When you finish your undergraduate or graduate curriculum, the sculptors who worked so hard on you are about to call it a day. You may not be ready to come out of that rock, yet the work of those to be completed is left to yourself. You may be excited, or you may be terrified, but you have to accept it. Indeed, after leaving campus, you have been upgraded to a sculptor with independent qualifications, at least you have to finish the project named "I". In the process you will slowly discover that the most important sculptor is yourself!
In fact, you never stopped shaping yourself, just because you had difficulty establishing your role as a sculptor during your campus days, because you kept accepting the shaping from your teachers. But after leaving the campus, you have to pick up the axe and chisel and continue to complete the work that the teachers have not yet completed; if you are not fully satisfied with the prototype that your teachers have shaped, you can repair and transform it, or even add in new designs; for the remaining rough details, you also need to trim, polish and carve it yourself. At this time, although others are also around you, they may only play a supporting role for you to prepare tools, clean up debris, provide help, and you yourself is the real sculptor.
3. Little Tips for sculpting yourself:
First, complete the sculpture according to the established program, and that's generally how it goes. You will follow the plan and drawings pre-determined by the teacher and continue to complete the rest of the project, eventually present a complete work for the world. You will be proud of the fact that this work is finally completed with your own hands, but it is even more significant since you have gathered the wisdom of all the sculptors, utilized all the resources to the maximum extent, and finally achieved self-realization.
Second, add your own creativity when necessary. In the period of self-directed sculpture, when you pick up the hammer and chisel yourself, you suddenly realize that you are the one who knows yourself best, and that some parts or even all of other people's designs and work may not meet your own expectation. At this point, you have every right to design in the way your heart wants. Be aware that creativity is not easy, but it is vital for you to act decisively. If your understanding is in appropriate, your basic skills are prepared, and there are realistic possibilities, then don't miss the opportunity. You will not want to tell your children and grandchildren that "My biggest regret is that I should have done......".
Third, the modification takes a lifetime to complete. Most of the youth are full of rigid nature and majesty, and they all look angular and aggressive. You as a Tongji Law student will certainly not muddle along with this, and want to continue to work hard to shape a more mature self. We all know that this is not a job that can be done overnight and may take you a lifetime of constant polishing and modification. Once you do so, after a long period of refinement, people will feel your charm inside and will recognize your success.
Fourth, you must be highly skilled in self-sculpting. You have been the sculpted ones in school and after leaving campus you have had to take on sculpting work on your own. Since you are not a professional sculptor, it may take longer to recognize your path and learn the ability to promote your skills. Please do not be anxious and do not worry. You shall be firm in your beliefs, focus on your energy, eliminate distractions, be willing to spend time, be open-minded to learn from others, dare to open up, learn sculpting skills in actual combat, exercise, and gradually reach the state of ease. At this stage, do not be overconfident, blindly optimistic, elsewise a certain hammer will lead to cracks, or even make yourself into a defective product.
Dear students, no matter how much effort you and your sculptors have put in and how beautiful your work is, never forget to put the most valuable element into your sculpture - "spirit". A great piece of work is all about the spirit, however, I am not worried about you in this point. Because you have experienced the forging of this great era and accepted the refinement of Tongji University, I firmly believe that the spirit of Tongji University of "One Heart, One Boat" has been incorporated into your blood, and the glory of Tongji of "together with the motherland to help the world with science education" will always be your faith. The spirit of "with one heart, with one dream and with the same future; for the whole people, for the whole world and for the planet." will always be the spiritual support of you!
Congratulations to the class 2022 again! No farewell to each other this summer, Tongji Law School will be welcoming you to come back and attend any commencement ceremony of any year in the future!
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