石室剑桥高中2020届毕业典礼已于6月8日圆满落幕，在鲜花和掌声中，在欢呼和祝福下，2020届学生拿着毕业证正式宣告他们高中时代的结束。只言片语无法将这三年的珍贵点滴描绘完整，但在人生中这一重要时刻，面对父母师长，几分钟的发言足以道出这段时光带给她最宝贵的财富。
2020届的学生代表--Alison很特殊，她在石室剑桥高中的时光始于高二年级。初三毕业后，怀着一个不那么确定的留学梦的Alison凭着优异的成绩顺利考入石室中学实验班，在那里度过了高一年级。此间，留学梦却没有就此停止，反而经过一年的思量，Alison认为留学仍是最适合自己的选择，在高一结束后，她正式转到石室剑桥高中就读。
作为本届成绩最拔尖儿的学生，Alison的梦校梦却并不圆满。那么，在毕业典礼上，她会和大家分享什么她高中经历的哪些故事呢？
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great honour to be here, sharing with you my experiences and stories of my three years in high school.
我是来自A22的Alison，今天很荣幸站在这里和大家分享我高中三年的经历和故事。
Traditionally, students who speak at graduation ceremony share how they getintotheir dream university. Unfortunately, I am not such a student. Although I finally got admitted to a prestigious university that I really like, I was rejected by the dream university for which I had worked for the most. So, as I think over and over again what I should share with you guys today, I can't say I'm a model student. I can only talk about my efforts and the lessons I learned from the rejection letter, which is truly educational for me.
按惯例，在毕业典礼演讲的学生，会分享自己是如何一步步走进梦校的大门。可惜我并不是这样的学生。虽然最后我拿到了很棒我也很喜欢的大学的录取，但我为之付出努力最多的那所梦校却把我拒绝了。所以，当我一遍遍思考今天该站在这里和大家分享什么的时候，我不敢说我是一个模范学生，只能和大家聊聊之前的努力和最后那封拒信带给我的感悟。
So, what is the most important thing in my high school years? Precious relationship with friends and teachers of course, but what mostly differentiates my two years in ICCC from my education experience in the previous decade is the awareness of self-exploration that I have awakened.
所以我的高中三年里，最重要的究竟是什么？朋友和师长的珍贵情谊是当然的，但是让我在ICCC的经历与前十年教育经历最为不同的，还是这两年里觉醒的自我探索意识。
The most common words I have heard since my childhood was "you should work hard ". After I decided to study abroad, I still asked myself to do the same for all the examsand my personal statement.At the beginning, everything seemed to be going well, with excellent exam results and a satisfactory personal statement. I feel lucky that "all my efforts have paid off". It was not until the application season, when Imet many students who applied for the same programme in the same school as me, and I found that an average score of 90+ was standard.
从小到大听得最多的一句话就是“你要刻苦努力”，决定要出国读书之后，我也依旧这么要求自己--对所有的考试都做到滴水不漏，申请文书一遍遍被打回来又一遍遍改。刚开始看起来一切都还很顺利，考试成绩都很亮眼，也写出了自己比较满意的文书，我感到幸运，想着“一切努力都有回报”。直到申请季里我遇到了很多和我申请同校同专业的学生，我才发现，几乎努力和90+的均分是标配。
In the end, indeed, I was rejected by my dream school. It is true that hard work will pay off, but hard work did not bring me to my ideal level. I was confused. Where did things go wrong? I didn't understand until later. I realised that what I've been working hard is to shape myself into the image that schools would appreciate, but for those real top students, what they have been endeavoured is to explore the areas of their most interest and to make various attempts. Finally, their greatest achievement is that they have enriched themselves, while top university admission just comes naturally.
最后的结果，确实，我被当时的梦校拒绝了。努力会有回报，这句话不假，但努力终究没有把我带到我最理想的高度。我一遍一遍思考，到底是哪里出了问题，直到后来我才明白，一直以来我都是在努力把自己泥塑成我自认为梦校会想要的样子，而真正的顶尖学霸，其实是在竭尽全力探索着自己最感兴趣的领域，做出各种各样的尝试，最后他们最大的成就是更加充实的自己，顶尖学府的录取只是水到渠成的。
I've always been a pessimist. I once doubted whether my efforts in the past two years were meaningful, where I can go further after leaving the exam-oriented environment and whether I was really fit to study economics. I didn’t even know what kind of life I really want besides grades and university admission. But changes can be made at any time - I confirmed the offer from a university that is flexible in choice of courses and support double majors and minor programmes, where I believe I could explore more areas and pursue a life that truly suits me.
我一直是个悲观主义者。我一度怀疑自己这两年的努力究竟有没有意义,怀疑离开应试环境后我又能走多远，怀疑自己是否真的适合学经济，不知道除开成绩和大学录取，怎样的生活才是我真正想要的。不过改变可以从任何时候开始---我最终选择了一个选课十分灵活的大学，支持双主修和辅修各类专业，我相信我可以在那里做更多的尝试，并找到最适合我的生活。
I also began to challenge some books and online courses in unfamiliar fields, and found that I’ve been peaceful in the process of learning new things. Then, the doubts about whether "previous efforts are useful" no longer bothered me-- the skills of summarising keypoints in my exam-oriented experience are applicable to future learning of any knowledge. The exploratory spirit gradually cultivated when writing personal statement has enabled me to find more learning resources.
我开始挑战一些陌生领域的书籍和网课，发现在探索新的知识的过程中我的内心十分平和。在此过程中，我对于“之前的努力是否有用”的怀疑也逐渐离我远去--应试经历中对于知识归纳总结的技能适用于我以后学习任何知识，写文书时逐渐培养的探索精神让我一步步找到了更多的学习资源。
Now it has dawned on me that we can't be defined by a single admission or rejection letter, and that we can't be categorized by a transcript -- we should be clear about our strengths and weaknesses, and not be overwhelmed by the privileges or talents of others. The joy of being admitted and getting good grades or the frustration of being rejected and failing, is temporary and vanishes after a few days or weeks. Things that will always be with us, are the lifelong acquisition of knowledge, unpredictable pain and fleeting happiness. Rather than trying to mold ourselves into a "winner", it's better to learn what we really want and stick to it. It's better to learn how to deal with feelings like frustration, insecurity and anxiety, so that we can feel secure, peaceful, and fulfilled, wherever we are.
到现在我才慢慢想通，我们不能被一纸录取或拒信定义，不能用成绩单来将自己和别人归类。我们应该认清自己的优势和弱点，同时不被别人拥有的特权或天赋击败。录取和好成绩带来的喜悦也好，被拒和失败带来的挫败感也罢，都是暂时的，几天或几周之后就烟消云散。而一直永恒存在的，是长期以往对知识的汲取，生活里大事小事带来的痛苦和星星点点的幸福感。比起把自己塑造成“人生赢家”的模板，不如先去了解自己真正想要的是什么并坚持下去，不如学会如何与挫败感，不自信，焦虑等情绪打交道—这样无论我们身在何处，都能感受到内心的坚定，平和与充实。
In the tough year of 2020, I became more aware of the importance of getting out of the exam syllabus and staying true to myself. As an economics student, I have seen economic policies that have been in operation for many years become ineffective, the rules of history cycle are broken, and many phenomena that are difficult to be explained by traditional theories. What we are experiencing today is the material for the later economic textbooks. Learning and observation are habits to be formed through out one’s life. If we want to change from an excellent student to an independent thinker, we should step out of the comfort zone of learning from textbooks and PPT in the classroom and focus more on the latest field, even if it is beyond our current knowledge level.
在2020这魔幻的一年里，我更加明白了跳出考纲和忠于自我的重要性。作为一个经济学生，我看见运行多年的经济政策失去效用，看见历史的规律被打破，看见许多难以用传统理论去解释的现象，每天我们在经历的，都在为之后的经济教材编写提供素材。学习和观察是要用终身去养成的习惯，想要从一个优秀的学生转变成独立思考的社会人，就要学会走出在教室里学习教材和PPT的舒适区，把目光放在最新的领域，即使它超出了我们现有的知识水平。
The 21st century is a time of chaos. Fragmented information is everywhere, people regard following the crowd as camouflage, and emotions stirred up lead to enormous network traffic. How can we stay sober in the midstof public opinion? Maybe only when we develop the habit of being true to ourselves and refusing to generalise things we don’t witness, dare to think about what the public dare not think about, and dare to always express and make decision with critical thinking and the courage of young people, can we not feel lost.
21世纪又是一个纷杂的时代。碎片化信息满天飞，人们把从众跟风当成保护色，被煽动的情绪构成了网络上惊人的流量---我们又该如何在舆论中保持清醒？或许只有养成忠于自己和拒绝以偏概全的习惯，敢去思考大众不敢思考的，敢永远带着批判性思维和年轻人的棱角去表达去选择，我们才不会感到迷失。
Friends of the class of 2020, each of us is a goldmine waiting to be dug up by ourselves. In our three years of high school, how much happiness have we mined? Later we will go to unfamiliar places, and probably later we will think of ourselves today very naive, or regret some of today's decisions, but I believe, as long as we are always loyal to ourselves, unafraid of challenges and making changes, and not constrained by rules formulated by the outside world, we can all be what we want to be.
2020届的朋友们，我们每一个人都是等待自己去挖掘的宝藏，这高中三年，大家都开采了属于多少自己的幸福呢？今天之后，我们都将去往未知的环境，或许之后我们会认为现在的自己十分幼稚，会后悔某些今日的决定，但我相信，只要我们永远忠于自己，不惧挑战与改变，不拘泥于外界制定的条条框框，我们都可以成为自己最满意的模样。
Here, I would like to express my special thanks to the teachers and students who have given us help and encouragement in the days of ICCC.
在此，特别感谢在ICCC的日子里给予我们帮助与鼓励的老师们，相互扶持的同学们。
Thank you for listening.
谢谢大家。
