每年的毕业季，HFI都会向全体毕业生征集“毕业生代表演讲稿”，每一篇演讲稿都宛若夜空群星，既有着毕业生们共同的回忆，又闪烁着属于作者本人的思想之光。
群星自当闪耀，我们将部分2024届毕业生演讲稿收集整理，以供大家一窥HFI学子们的风采。
存在之本质，立于变与不变之间
—于2024年华附国际部毕业典礼上的毕业生代表致辞
2024届毕业生 旷天岳
录取院校：斯坦福大学
尊敬的姚训琪书记、朱志东主任、黄志铭副主任、陈泽芳执行校长、Joseph学术校长、各位老师、顾问、员工、来宾，以及最后但同样重要的——我的2024届HFI同学们和我们亲爱的家长们，
大家下午好！我是旷天岳，今天很高兴能和大家一起跨过这条终点线，完成这场三年长跑的最后冲刺。今天，HFI 2024届，正式毕业了！首先我要说什么呢？按照某种传统，除了祝贺，别无他话。
是的，我们终于成为了这个讲学厅里毕业典礼的主角。
至少我这么认为。如果你上周的政治考试没通过，就当我没说。
如果你和我一样，从当地的中学来到HFI，那么在这所国际教育的精英学府结束时再考一次中国政治，会让你感到#家一般的亲切#。但是实际上，无论我们来自哪里，当你听到我和其他嘉宾在此发言时，我们高中生涯真正且最后的问题是——毕业究竟意味着什么？
这就是我所谓的毕业“终极存在主义问题”。
实际上，我们用来形容毕业典礼的另一个英文单词“commencement”源自法语词汇“Le Commencement”——根据某些词典的解释，这个词意为“开始”。如果你曾在Delia的GE课上努力做了个好学生，你就会知道，当我们在SAT阅读文章中看到“something ‘commences’”这个短语时，我们其实是在说某事“开始”。但是，“开始”的动词它也是结束，或者说毕业，的词根。
然而，今天我们用同一个词来表示我们在HFI生活的结束。所以，当我站在这个讲台上，我觉得我们有责任回答这个看上去有点困惑的问题。
寻找答案的旅程始于回顾我们在过去几年里经历的一切。HFI最基本的“人权”之一是我们拥有一个大多数同龄人所没有的特权——根据自己的意愿选择课程。
说到选课，我知道只有少数人和我一起选了Jasper的哲学课。尽管如此，我们的生活依然继续，即使我们对存在主义哲学一无所知，不了解加缪和西西弗斯的神话，不了解托马斯·内格尔的荒诞和死亡。
话虽如此，有时候我们确实会被这样的哲学问题困扰，就像我们今天面临的问题一样。我们一定会在某些时刻问自己存在的意义，不仅是在踏上大学门槛的特殊时刻，也在过去几年中我们共同经历的某些共同时光里。
我明白，这对我们2024届的同学来说尤其明显。
我们是HFI“变化”的一届同学，而上述的问题及其答案正存在于这些“变化”之中。怎么说呢？当然，变化听起来非常陈词滥调；当然，变化可能是任何毕业生致辞中最糟糕的主题，因为就像这个学校历史上的其他班级一样，我们在大学申请文章中无数次谈到了我们如何改变了我们所参与的社区。
谁又没有呢？
然而，对于我们2024届来说，变化可能意味着其他东西。我猜对于这一届HFI的特别班级来说，变化可能意味着一切，因为我们甚至见证了近二十年来首次从英国人到美国人的学术校长更替。（虽然Yolanda和她的学生们可能会认为这在统计学上没有什么意义。）
重点是，实际上，我们可能是唯一一个经历了更大社会氛围中最大变化的班级，而这些变化反过来又改变了我们的生活。
继续回顾，我们会发现。我们向2021届同学挥手告别，他们回国后面临的是“十四+七”的隔离天数。我们永远不能忘记，每天早上去上学时，手机上的一个小小二维码改变颜色的恐惧，以及每一个线上线下混合学习的日子——尽管HFI严格的考勤制度依然雷打不动——我们中有些人甚至无法走出自己的公寓。
但我们也是多年来第一批在香港或澳门享受半天城市漫步的班级，因为我们重新获得了参加SAT考试的机会，这也在多年里都没有发生。哦，等等，什么？我们中甚至有些人在夏天亲自去了美国上夏校！
哈哈，真替你们2022届和2023届的同学感到遗憾。
总而言之，我们的旅程并不容易。但这些不容易的瞬间就如同Mr. Six电影研究课上学到的蒙太奇一样，是我们终于在漫长的黑夜之后迎来第一缕阳光的见证，是正如奥斯卡导演克里斯托弗·诺兰的那部电影名称一样的“时间碎片”。
其实，这些时光又何曾不能使我们想起名言“这是最好的时代，这是最坏的时代，这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节，这是希望之春，这是失望之冬，”我引用了我们最喜欢的英语文学老师Matt Bender的话，他当然是引用了查尔斯·狄更斯的名言。
无论如何，就此而言，正如Bender老师反复强调的那样，理解任何问题的关键在于认识到存在不止一种观点。经历了这些动荡，看到最佳时期和最坏时期可以在短短时间内转换，甚至如狄更斯所说的那样共存，我们现在明白“一个推理……和另一个推理”不仅仅是我们用来说服AP文学评分员给我们增加复杂性分数的技能。
这也是我们理解我们所生活的世界的必需品。事实上，我会认为终极问题的答案源于此。当我们共同目睹历史在“最好和最坏”之间波动，我们意识到我们的视角和批判性角度可能会影响世界的样子，那么，谁有权定义毕业——以及一切——对我们的意义呢？
很自然地，答案是我们自己。我们每一个人。
然而，仍然有一些时候我们会产生绝望的存在主义疑问。我们讨厌那些变化。我们不理解为什么。我们对未来感到恐惧。我们可能没有机会预测这些事件的发生，比如疾病的爆发，或者政策如何在几天内发生根本性变化。
世界是如此不可预测。否则，为什么我们会有这个存在主义问题，或者任何问题呢？
我记得，在这个会议厅里，我曾亲自质问一位来自我认为是威廉姆斯学院的招生代表——顺便说一下，我被拒绝了。
我问她，作为国际学生，在中美关系紧张、大法官最近推翻平权法案的裁决，甚至一个禁止所有穆斯林进入美国的富有白人商人可能再次当选的情况下，我们在招生过程中和大学体验中应该期待什么？
她回答说，他们机构的固有价值观以及整个博雅教育的理念将保持不变。
她的回答在一开始并没有打动我。但现在我觉得这是我多年来听到的最鼓舞人心的话之一，这不仅仅关乎他们的机构。这也关乎我们的机构和我们所处的更大氛围。
她的答案，也回答了我们的存在主义问题。
正是在这些不变的坚持中，我们面对并应对变化和围绕它的存在主义问题，那些看似无意义、令人困惑，甚至令人讨厌的时代变化。
我们，HFI，底层的价值始终未变。
这些不变的坚持让我们即使在告别和挣扎中仍能憧憬未来，在无助和痛苦中仍能找到韧性。我们的生活一次又一次地被深刻重塑，但我们的核心价值观在动荡中只会变得更加强大。
长风破浪会有时，直挂云帆济沧海。正是因为这些不变的核心不断成长，我们终于到达了今天的位置。随着它们的成长，我们得以定义存在和一切的意义。
这些不变的核心是什么？我们有幸接受了不仅强调学术卓越，还强调成为全球公民和批判性思考者的教育，致力于开放、多样性和尊重差异。你可能会认为这些又是陈词滥调罢了，但这些愿景，这种我们两三年前选择进入的教育体系的价值观，根本上与我们不变的核心深刻地共鸣。
如果“复杂性”和“批判性思维”在这里没有被重视，我今天就不可能在这里向你们发表这些内容，我们也不可能意识到关于我们存在的深刻教训。
所以，今天，庆祝这些，庆祝这个我们必须庆祝的机构，尤其是这里的社区和文化。今天，认识并感谢我们社区中为这些价值观而奋斗的人们。我们必须这样做。
我本希望列出一份需要我们感谢的名单，包括同学和学生社团。我的时间限制不允许我这么做，但他们应当并且也将会在今天的仪式上获得他们应得的表彰。
2024届的同学们，我猜这就是结束了。哦，抱歉，请允许我更正，这可能不是结束，也可能不是开始。我们自己可以定义这个下午和这次毕业对我们的意义，因为我们已经经历了足够多的事情，并且我们已经发展出了那个不变的核心，这赋予了我们完成和定义任何事情的能力，包括我们的人生。
我猜这是我对那个终极问题的回答。
所以，无论“commence”实际上意味着什么，让我们在HFI的旅程结束；或者从另一个意义上说，让我们未来的旅程开始。
再次祝贺我们2024届的同学们。让我们为自己谋划一个最好的未来。
谢谢，谢谢大家！
The Ultimate Existentialist Question of Graduation, and the Unchanged of the Changes
— Valediction at the 2024 HFI Commencement
Secretary Yao, Daniel, Ford, Madam Chen, Principal Joseph, teachers, counselors, staff, guests, and FINALLY — butJUST AS IMPORTANTLY — my fellow HFI class of 2024 and our wonderful parents,
Good afternoon. My name is Tommy Kuang, and I am glad to join you today as we cross the line, the very finish line of a three-year-long marathon. Today, HFI Class of 2024, out. What shall I say first? By some sort of tradition, nothing but Congratulations.
Yes, we finally made it here.
At least I guess so, unless you failed the Chinese politics exam last week.
If you are like me, coming to HFI from a local Chinese middle school, then ending our times at this somehow fancy institution of international education with a Chinese politics exam will make you #feelslikehome. But actually, no matter where wecome from, the common and very last question as you hear me and other distinguished speakers giving our before nolonger having to return EVER is — what does graduation really mean at all?
This is, as I call it, the Ultimate Existentialist Question of Graduation.
In reality, it might sound weird that another English word for our graduation ceremony, commencement, stems from the French expression “Le Commencement” — which means “the beginning” according to some dictionary, speak no French. If you worked hard enough to be a good student in Delia’s General English class, you will know that we also mean “to begin” when, in our SAT reading passages, we saw the phrase “something ‘commences’", which is the grammatical root of “commencement.”
Today, however, we use the very same word referencing the end of our lives here at HFI.So, as I stand here on this podium, I feel weowe an answer to that question.
The quest for the answer begins with looking back at what we got to experience in the past years here. One of the most fundamental “human rights” at HFI is that we get one privilege most of our peers do not enjoy in their system of education — choosing the classes we take based on what we want to take.
Well, speaking of course selections, I know only a fairly handful amount of us joined me in taking “Dr.” Jasper Yang’s Philosophy class.Above all, our lives go on and we will still graduate from HFI — even if we know nothing about existentialist philosophy, about Albert Camus and the myths of Sisyphus, about Thomas Nagel and the Absurd and Death.
That said, sometimes we all eventually overwhelm ourselves with philosophical inquiries like those, like the one that we all face today. There haveto be some instances we ask ourselves about the meanings of everything’s existence, not only on this special occasion of stepping onto the threshold of college but also during some times that we all share in the past few years.
I understand how this might be especially obvious for us, the class of 2024.
We are a class of Change, and the above-mentionedinquiryand its answer exist exactly in the changes.Howso? Well, of course, changesounds extremely cliche on the surface; of course, changecould be the single WORST topic choice for any valedictorian, because, like any other class in the history of this school, we have talked about how we changedthe communities we engaged for countless times our college application essays.
Who didn’t?
However, for us, the class of 2024, changecould be about something else. I guess changecould mean anything forthisparticular class of HFI as we even witnessed the first switch of Academic Principal from a Briton to an American in the history of HFI for nearly two decades. (Yolanda and her students would argue that this is statistically insignificant.)
The point is, actually, we are probably the one and only class who experienced the biggest changesin the greater societal atmosphere that, in turn, changesour lives.
We’ll find out when we continue to look backward. We waved goodbye to the class of 2021flying across the oceans when what faces them backhome is “fourteen+seven” days of quarantine. We must never forget what was it like every morning going to school with the fear that a little QR Codeon our phone would change its color, and so does each and every single hybrid and online days during which— while, unfortunately, attendance is still being taken — some of us cannot even step outside of our apartments.
Yet we are also the first ever class in years that got to enjoy a half-day off city walk in Hong Kong or Macau after we regained the opportunity to take the SAT test, which also did not happen in years. Oops, wait, what? Some of us even went to the U.S. for summer school — in person!
I really feel sorry for you, Class of 2022 and 2023.
In a word, we did not start an easy journey. But these montages, as some of us have learned in Mr. Six’s Film Study course, are themementos, the very shreds of evidence that we finally became the ones to the first round of sunshine after the long night.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,” I quote from everyone’s favorite English literature teacher Mr. Matt Bender, who, of course, quoted this from Charles Dickens.
Anyways, on this note, as Mr. Bender has also repeatedly emphasized, the key to our understanding of any matter of subject is realizing that there is more than one perspective. Going through these turbulences and seeinghow the best times and the worst times could switch in just a little matter of time, or, indeed, COEXIST as Dickens says, now that we understand“One line of reasoning…and another line of reasoning” is not just a skill that we use to convince AP Literature graders for an additional complexity point in FRQs.
It is also a necessity for us to form an insight into the very world that we live in. I would, in fact, argue that the answer to theUltimate Questionstems from here. As we have together eye-witnessed the progression of history fluctuates across the “best and worst” of time, we realize how our perspectives and critical angles might affect what the world is like, who, on Earth, gets to define the meaning of commencement — and everything — to us?
Naturally, the answer is ourselves. Each and every single one of us.
Still, there are still times during which we would have desperate existential inquiries. We hated those changes. We did not understand why. We were fearful of the future. We probably did not get the opportunity to predict any of these events happening, how a disease broke out, or how a policy could fundamentally changeitself in a matter of days.
The world is just so unpredictable. Otherwise, why would we have that question orany question?
I remember, in this very chamber, I personally questioned an admissions representative from what I believe was Williams College — which, by the way, I got rejected from.
I asked her, as international students, what are we expecting in the admissions process and college experience with the greater picture being a tense China-U.S. relationship, the recent Supreme Court overturn on the ruling of affirmative action, and even the fact that a wealthy white merchant who has banned all Muslim from entering America may be elected again?
She responded that the values inherent to their institution as well as the whole idea of liberal arts education will remain unchanged.
Her answer did not strike me at the very beginning. But now that I feel like this is one of the most inspiring lines that I have ever heard in years, It is not about their institution. It is about oursand the greater atmosphere we are under. Her response also answers ourQuestion.
It is in the persistence of the unchangedthat we face and tackle the changesand the existentialist inquiries surrounding it, the seemingly meaningless, confusing, and even annoying changesof our era.
The values that are inherent to us, to theHFIcommunity, remain unchanged.
The persistence of these unchangedthings has allowed us to envision the future even amid farewells and struggles, to find resilience in the face of helplessness and sorrow. Our lives have been profoundly reshaped again and again, yet our core values have only grown stronger amidst the turmoil.
And it is as our unchanged coregrows that we finally get to where we are today. As they grow, we get to define the existence and the meaning of everything.
What are central to those unchanged? We have been more than privileged to receive an education that emphasizes not just academic excellence but also the importance of being global citizensand critical thinkers, committing to openness, diversity, and respect for difference. These are, again, extremely cliche name-drops as you may argue. But these visions of this institution, the values of this system of education we chose to attend two or three years ago, fundamentally echo our unchangedcores.
It will not be possible for me to address you today about all of this and for us to realize the profound lessons on our very existence had “complexity” and “critical thinking” are not valued here.
So, today, celebrate these, celebrate this institution— its community and culture, in particular — as we must. So, today, recognize and appreciate the ones in our community who strived for these values as we must.
I would rather hope to make a list of them to whom I urge us to thank. My time limit does not permit me to do so, but they deserve their respective celebrations in the ceremonies today as we honor the outstanding graduates and clubs of our class.
The Class of 2024, I guess this is the end of it. Well, pardon me for correcting myself, this might not be the end, neither might this be the beginning. We ourselves get to define this afternoon and this commencement for us, because we have gone through enough, and because developed that unchangedcore that grants us the ability to accomplish and define anything. Our lives.
I guess this is my answer to that Ultimate Question.
So, whatever “commence” actually means, let our journeysin HFI commence, and let our future journeys commence.
And, again, congratulations, HFI Class of 2024. May we strivefor the very best future for ourselves.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you.
华南师范大学附属中学国际部
