It's the annual graduation season. The sky is still as dead as usual. There are still some sentimental people in the sultry days, but the seniors who left school have changed their appearance. In the hot summer, all kinds of graduates on the campus road are as hard and brittle as steamed bread in a steamer. Excited and excited at the same time, with a little emotional tears, just a little emotional crying like a tearful person, completely lost the pride of graduation time.
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Tsinghua University's graduation speech 1
Tsinghua Graduates Week's Speech at the Graduation Ceremony: Take your time, graduates.
Teachers, students and parents:
Good afternoon everyone!
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to walk into Jesse's classroom again after three years and feel the eternal joy, peace and kindness of journalism school again.
I can understand the feelings of the younger brothers and sisters in the audience at the moment. They are sentimental, excited, full of ambition and high spirits. Because three years ago, I was like you, wearing a degree hat and holding a diploma. I walked out of school happily and rushed into the workplace, hoping to show my ambition and become a talented young man. But the reality does not seem to be like this. So today, all the following contents are condensed into one sentence for everyone, that is, graduates. Take your time.
Let me start with my own experience.
After graduation, I entered the Xinhua News Agency. On hearing this name, I found a good job. Mainstream media and journalists interview writing editors around national affairs every day, which is in line with a journalist's ideal.
However, what did I do in my first year in the editorial department of Xinhua News Agency? In the chief editor's duty room, I answer the phone, send faxes, send documents, copy materials, set up desk signs, take minutes of meetings and correct typos in documents. My working hours are usually from 5 pm to 8 am the next day.
It's not that these jobs are meaningless and I can't learn anything, but what do I want to do with my heart? Iron shoulders bear morality, and the article is beautifully written? Journalism, the contrast is too big.
I even thought about it? Resign? . So I went to Bing Lin and told her about my depression. Teacher Li told me: Is life ok? Doing things? Not many times, when you can't do it, just? Being a man? Thinking about life. Finally, he added: Don't worry, take your time.
Three words, but later experience and ideas tell me that these three words have too rich meanings.
Some people say that you should become famous before it is too late. I don't think so. Career is a marathon. Have you ever seen anyone rush to run in a marathon? No. Why? Because marathon is about how to distribute physical strength, patience and wisdom in the whole process, the initial situation and the final result are often very different.
In fact, news is a very impetuous industry. For most practitioners, they frequently switch between different topics every day, and they are exhausted with the change of public opinion, and the seemingly rich content is superficial. Is this the hottest thing today? Weibo? Much like information overload, fragmentation, nonlinearity and lack of logic.
Recently, I read a book called Shallow Reading, which said that the rapid shallow reading on the Internet has caused changes in the physiology and anatomy of the human brain, and in many cases this change is irreversible. In other words, in the Internet age, human beings are slowly losing the ability of deep reading and linear thinking. We get more and more, faster and faster? Do you know? , but it is getting slower and slower? Do you understand? . What does that mean? Listen half, understand a quarter, record zero, and double the response. However, as a truly qualified journalist, what do you need to output? Do you understand? , fragmented? Knowledge? This is a thing of the past.
Business is like this, so is life. How can I get it? Do you understand? Instead of being satisfied with passing by? Do you know? And then what?
This requires a journalist and media person who is about to enter the workplace. What does it look like here? The wheel of history is rolling forward? In the new world, you can follow your own pace, slow down, calm down, walk, accumulate and live in a down-to-earth manner.
Back to reality, sending faxes, making phone calls and even writing articles every day, these trivial things, how can Tsinghua ask us? Get on the big stage and do great things? What's the connection? Isn't there a doomed contradiction between the two?
Wang Jun, the author of The Story of the City, once told me that no matter what you do, you should find a big proposition for your work. Take the media as an example, you can run, so can you find big problems in running? For example, the question he wants to answer is about China? How did the fastest-growing economy in the world quickly complete urbanization? . So, we read one book after another of his insights.
I still remember him telling me that the world facing reporters is like a table. How can we be like many so-called now? Names, names and mouths have become famous so quickly, and the internet is so hot. How about that? The best way is to walk along the table and stagger to win applause. But don't forget, there are so many propositions in the middle of the table that are ignored and ignored. As a graduate of Tsinghua Journalism College, which platform do you choose to stand on?
A few days ago, I read an article in Weibo about Chen Xianfa, a poet and a famous reporter of Xinhua News Agency. He wrote: Friends who often ride my private car will complain a few words. Indeed, as an old driver with 20 years driving experience, I drive too carefully and too slowly. At that time, it was also skyrocketing, and it was a urine three feet away from the wind. Now I drive more and more slowly, and I let whoever I meet. Let the humble and the arrogant. Let the hair curl flat Let motorcycles and pedestrians. I am willing to be one day slower than anyone else in the world. It's okay. The world is fast, after you?
This last sentence touched me instantly.
The world is too fast, so we need it more? Take your time, okay? Don't care about the gains and losses of a moment.
A few days ago, I interviewed the headmaster of Beijing No.4 Middle School. He lamented that people nowadays always measure themselves by the same standards as others at every stage, always ask themselves to do better than others, and never know how to seek? Do it differently from others? , this is not a hard time with yourself?
Yes, there is nothing wrong with hair accumulation in the past and now. But when everyone is eager to make a difference, your calmness will make you very different from others now and in the future.
Teacher Zhou Qingan once joked that every graduate would tell his younger brothers and sisters when he returned to school for communication? I didn't study hard at that time, so you should study hard? Can you wait for this group of younger brothers and sisters to graduate and come back and tell them later? You should study hard? . Are you unfortunate enough to become. Next time after the next time? Typical, then please remember that graduation should really be the beginning of patience and hard work.
? Take your time, okay? There is another meaning about matter.
When I went back to school last year, my freshman brothers and sisters came up and asked: How much do you earn a month, senior? Did you buy a house? Is it enough? I was surprised. I felt it? Children today are much more mature than we were then? But think again? Isn't it a little too soon?
Here, I am very responsible to say that as a graduate of Tsinghua, as long as you have a normal level of efforts, most people will live a well-off life in the future.
Of course, you may laugh at me here: Sister, you worry too much. We have ideal graduates. How can I walk around the house and car every day? ?
Don't laugh. The influence of environment on people should not be underestimated. You are not worried now because your surroundings are simple. When the people next to you are discussing houses, cars, tickets and children, you will be as fidgety as they are for as little as a month or as long as six months.
At that time, I hope you can remember one sentence: when you are young, you can fill your head, and when you are old, you can fill your pockets; When I was young, I longed to fill my pockets. Maybe when I get old, my head and pockets will be empty.
Anyway, there will be bread. Can I drink it? Mengniu? There will also be milk. Let's take our time. Believe it or not, I do.
Tsinghua University's graduation speech II
Dear classmates, dear teachers and parents: Good morning!
Today, as an alumni representative, I am honored to witness an important moment in the lives of my classmates. First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to you!
When I accepted this invitation, I only felt that it was the highest honor as an alumnus of Tsinghua, but I didn't realize how arduous the task was. When I started preparing my speech, I realized how ignorant my decision to accept the invitation was. Because the students here come from dozens of different majors, they are about to face completely different careers and life paths.
As a person who has never left the ivory tower for 20 years, his way of thinking is relatively simple and his knowledge of life is relatively thin. What can I tell you? The past two weeks have been more painful for me than writing academic papers. Think about it, just get me out and go back to Tsinghua campus. My mental journey, past feelings, future? Ambition? Share with you. I hope that when you stand at such an important turning point in your life, you can also spend a few minutes thinking about yourself in the next ten, twenty and fifty years.
I don't know if the students have watched the second season of China on the Tip of the Tongue. The conclusion of the last episode impressed me deeply: if we look for the answer in the wisdom of our ancestors, they may warn us that our short life is only six feet to sleep at night; Rich family, only eat three meals during the eclipse? . I wonder if anyone, like me, has been confused about the meaning of human existence since childhood.
What is the significance of man's coming from nature, returning to nature and being handed down from generation to generation? One of the reasons why I chose biology department is to spy on the mysteries of life. However, when I systematically understood life from the molecular level in college, this problem not only didn't solve, but made me more confused. Suddenly one day, it dawned on me: this question can only be asked by conscious humans? The meaning of existence? Problems; So only conscious humans can define it? The meaning of existence? .
So? The meaning of life? This is a subjective proposition. With the development of the times, people's backgrounds and experiences are different, and everyone's definition of this proposition will be very different, which determines that the goals pursued and the road of life are also very different. I myself went from being confused to being relatively clear.
/kloc-Today, 0/4 years ago, it happened to be the day when I left Tsinghua campus. I still remember, walking along the East-West Avenue shaded by green trees, I silently thought: What a happy thing it would be if I could return to work in this garden one day. Like you, I spent a colorful youth in this garden, and gained a friendship that continues to this day. I grew from an ignorant teenager to a young man with independent thoughts. I am full of sadness and attachment to this beautiful garden.
But apart from this hazy goal that I will come back one day, I am actually at a loss about my future career choice. However, there is one principle that has benefited me a lot so far, and that is: strive to be the best and let the choice be in your own hands.
A month later, I went across the ocean and entered Princeton University on the east coast of the United States. In 2004, I received my doctorate in molecular biology. If Tsinghua in the 1990s gave me a sense of responsibility for the whole world, then Princeton in the 2 1 century completely pulled me into the hall of science. Tsinghua and Princeton are both selected as the top ten most beautiful campuses in the world. Tsinghua is dignified and elegant, while Princeton is elegant and calm.
In Princeton, it may be that a Nobel Prize winner and a senior academician give you a lecture in a unkempt manner, or it may be that the scientific adviser to the President of the United States is sitting in the coffee shop opposite you. There, no matter you are an undergraduate or a Nobel Prize winner, you can't feel the high and low between people at all. Everyone is complacent, but there is a unique and uninhibited university. In this environment, you will do your own thing with peace of mind and concentration; Impetuousness can easily be blocked out of the physically nonexistent school wall.
In my first year in Princeton, I suddenly found that the noble knowledge of Leng Yan in the textbook was originally created by these seemingly easygoing old ladies and gentlemen around me; There are no textbooks for postgraduate courses, but the textbooks are classic or cutting-edge original papers, so we review The Creation of the History of Science in class. When we entered the laboratory, we actually became the creators of human knowledge and the history of science.
With this understanding, my pursuit goal has gradually evolved into: discovering some natural mysteries and leaving my own mark in the history of science. When I define such a meaning of life, it also means choosing a free way of life, a way of thinking that asks for trouble, and a way of existence that enjoys itself. I am completely obsessed with this small world: I will be content to have a direct dialogue with nature, I will happily discuss with sages across time and space through papers, and I will be passionate about the sense of accomplishment brought about by a little progress and discovery.
Of course, there are setbacks and troubles in this process. However, just as a good drama is bound to be wonderful because of the conflict brought by villains, these setbacks and tempering in scientific research will be recalled more vividly in a few years, making this process full of five flavors.
I'll tell you a short story that happened in Tsinghua campus, and let you see the magnificent ivory tower. When I first returned to Tsinghua in 2007, I set myself several clear tasks to be solved. The glucose transporter I made not long ago is one of them, and there is also a very meaningful task called voltage-gated sodium ion channel.
This is very important for the transmission of our nerve signals.
To make a long story short, in a blink of an eye, 20 1 1 year. After several years of exploration, we finally got a crystal of bacterial homologous protein, and the structural analysis is close at hand, except for the final collection of heavy metal derivative data. For this reason, we have prepared a large number of crystals, which are stored in a liquid nitrogen precooling tank that can maintain the low temperature of-170 degrees Celsius, and sent to Japan for synchrotron radiation, ready to collect data.
Next, I will never forget the day, 20 1 1 July 1 1. If you check the calendar, it will be Monday, the day when you see the new paper published by Nature magazine in China. I should go to the airport at 6 am. At 5: 55, I opened the online magazine Nature. The first article directly stung my eyes, because the title of this article was the crystal structure of a voltage-gated sodium ion channel, that is, we were surpassed by others.
We have always said that science comes first, but there is no second. Now it really can't be the first, fiasco! When I printed the paper and gave it to my classmate Zhang Xu who was working on this project, she burst into tears at once. However, the crystal is still waiting for us in Japan. So everything went as planned, and we flew to Japan. Running all the way, when he arrived at the experimental line station at 7 pm, the staff there said to me with a dignified face. Professor Yan, there seems to be something wrong with the cryogenic tank you sent? .
My heart sank, which means that there may be a big problem with the crystal, which is the crystallization of our efforts in the past three months! Just hit by being overtaken, is this accident really? The house leaks when it rains all night? .
Fortunately, we have been preparing for a rainy day and brought a lot of crystals with us, so we began to re-soak heavy metals on the spot. The next morning, it was time to formally collect data. Sure enough, all the crystals sent were killed, none of them. However, just when we spent more than ten hours and were almost desperate, a crystal that had just been processed the night before gave us all the data we needed? The quality is so good that we solved the structural problem within one hour after receiving the data!
At this time, the research group that published the paper has not released the structural information from the database, so it is the first time for us to see the atomic structure of protein, which is a perfect ending for the past four years! At that moment, I didn't care what kind of papers I could send, and my heart was full of ecstasy brought by the huge contrast.
The story is not over yet. Just when I opened my email at three o'clock in the morning, I was ready to arrange the follow-up work of the lab members immediately. I found an email from Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States, informing me that after the primary election, I passed the test among 800 applicants around the world and became a contestant? Howard hughes International Young Scientist? One of the 55 candidates in the second round invited me to the United States to participate in the finals in June 165438+ 10. At that moment, these two words flashed through my mind: the house leaks and it rains all night, and the willow leaves a bright future. .
20 1 1 July11From 5: 55 am to 3: 00 am on 13, these 45 hours are really thrilling for me and my students, just like riding a roller coaster. Because of this, this process is far more memorable than any other smooth sailing topic.
But this is still not the end of the story. Because of this topic, I have the honor to cooperate with Professor McKinnon, an idol scientist whom I have admired for nearly 10 years and the winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In the communication with him, I benefited a lot, and finally realized my long-cherished wish to work with him in graduate school.
More importantly, our structure is quite different from the published papers. After analysis and explanation, our new results were also published in Nature after 10 months. I also put forward a new model of voltage-gated channel sensing membrane potential. Until now, we are still creating new methods and building new tools to verify this model.
You see, this is the charm of scientific research: success or failure cannot be easily defined without looking forward. There are always so many uncertainties and so many unexpected surprises waiting for you! This experience, this feeling, is really addictive!
Looking back on the 18 years since I entered the Tsinghua campus, I am very grateful: my alma mater has shaped my healthy and upward personality, living in a peaceful era and having no worries about food and clothing; Have the love of relatives, the support of teachers, the trust of friends and the dependence of students; Due to economic development, this country has the ability to support basic scientific research. I thank the times, the country and my alma mater for the opportunities and gifts. I also have a deeper understanding of the personal responsibility to my alma mater and the country. I believe this is actually a sense of mission that permeates every Tsinghua people bone marrow.
For our alma mater, all the students present here are at the right time and shoulder the heavy responsibility of building her into a world-class university. In my mind, when a large number of young people trained in Tsinghua and a large number of young people starting from Tsinghua become world-class scholars, and when some of our work has a lasting impact on the history of human science and civilization, we can proudly declare that Tsinghua is a world-class university.
We have encountered unprecedented opportunities. We have the conditions and the ability to achieve this goal with our own concrete actions. I hope every student can remember: If you think our alma mater is not a world-class university today, let's make it a world-class university through our efforts!
For our country, our generation, especially those of you who take scientific research as your lifelong career, is duty-bound: economic development determines how rich China is, and scientific and technological development restricts how strong China is. In my opinion, it is the most fundamental responsibility and mission of China scientists to make China's scientific and technological strength commensurate with her economic size and make China's scientific research achievements have a world impact.
Dear students, at this moment, looking at you, I am as excited as you are. There are countless possibilities for your future, but everyone's life is only once. In this era when information explodes and plans can't keep up with changes, I hope that every Tsinghua people will use your initial heart to explore the meaning of life, try to know himself, be himself, stick to his inner choice, and act bravely and intently to realize his life meaning. I sincerely wish every student a wonderful life and write what you think is the most important history!
Thank you!
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