Welcome Back |新学年，不啻微芒，造炬成阳

致小学部学子：

希望你们不要失去与伙伴们主动分享生活的热情。每个人对生活皆有自己的体验，分享是一种选择，选择主动分享意味着你们主动选择了链接更多的人，走进更多的人，被更多人看见。当然，在伙伴们分享时，我们要给与最大的尊重，专注倾听，不打扰。

希望你们不要丢失对新事物的好奇心，也许暑假中的你被西安秦始皇陵兵马俑震撼，或是旅行中惊叹于大英博物馆的藏品数量之多。请你们一定不要停止对新事物的好奇心，因为它们还有很多未知等待你发现与探索。你可以通过阅读更多了解秦始皇建造兵马俑的原因与过程，你也可以开始关注博物馆文物保护及遗失。也许未来有一天，你会带着我们中国遗失在世界各地的的文物“回家”。

致中学部学子：

Highly Sensitive Person 高敏感人群，简称“HSP”。敏感的全称为“敏锐的感知力”，它是一种优秀特质，敏感的人往往具备更强的洞察力与感知力，甚至可能具备更强的人际交互能力与艺术鉴赏能力。

但对于来自他人的负面评价，敏感又可能会让我们陷入无休止的精神内耗。因此，我们需要培养自己具备一定的“钝感力”，准确的说，是拥有一种精神上的自我保护能力。

“钝感力”并不意味着我们要“拒绝”外部评价标准，而是对于来自外部世界恶意的攻击与诋毁，种种不相关的人背后议论，我们要具备防御能力。

“钝感力”也并不意味着我们要改变自己，成为一个“钝感”的人，它仅仅是我们在成为更强大的自己之前，需要掌握的一种防御武器。

“钝感力”当然也并不意味着我们要打造一个“钝感”的人设，生活中我们更需要自如的状态，真实的自我。

To  Elementary School：

I hope you don’t lose your passion for sharing your life with your partners and colleagues. Everyone has their own experience in life; sharing is a choice. Choosing to actively share means that you actively choose to connect with more people, walk alongside more people, and be seen by more people. Of course, when sharing with others, we must give the greatest respect, listen attentively, and do not disturb their way of life.

I hope you don't lose touch with the new people you met during the summer. You will meet many people in your life, but the friends with whom you can experience pure happiness and extreme joy with you are the rarest.

I hope you don't lose your curiosity about new things. Maybe you will be amazed by the Terracotta Army in Xi'an's mausoleum during the summer vacation, or marvel at the number of items in the British Museum during your travels. Please don't stop being curious about new things because there are still many unknowns waiting for you to discover and explore. You can read more about the reasons and process of Qin Shi Huang's construction of the Terracotta Army and you can also start paying attention to the protection and loss of cultural relics in museums. Maybe one day in the future, you will "go home" with our cultural relics lost around the world in China.

To Secondary School：

Sensitive people tend to have stronger insight and perception and may even have stronger interpersonal interaction and art appreciation ability.

However, regarding possible negative evaluations from others, sensitivity may cause us to fall into endless mental internal friction. Therefore, we need to cultivate ourselves to have a certain sense of being ‘direct.’ To be precise, we should cultivate and possess a spiritual ability to protect ourselves.

Being direct does not mean that we have to "reject" external evaluation standards from others. However, we must develop and maintain defensive capabilities against malicious attacks and slanderous words from the outside world, including those said behind our backs.

Being direct also does not mean that we need to change ourselves and become a "callous" person. It is only a defense mechanism that we need to master before we become a stronger version of ourselves. Likewise, we do not need to recreate another version of ourselves that always remains on guard for protection. Rather, we need to continue to develop our sense of being comfortable with who we are and be true to ourselves in the lives that we lead.

We are so happy to have everyone gathered together here for the start of a wonderful, brand-new academic year. The people around you are a vital part of your school community. We all have a clear responsibility to take care of each other and our school environment. Be kind to those around us and remember that each person deserves respect. Wear your uniform correctly and proudly – for example, tuck in your white shirt when you wear formal clothing. Listen to your teachers and follow their instructions. Do your work on time and submit it neatly. Say hello and thank you to the ayis and guards and other staff who work tirelessly day and night to help us to make this school so great. 

The list of things we should do can go on and on, so let me clearly remind you of our school’s Code of Conduct of the 4Rs – respect, relationships, responsibility, and rigor. You will see the 4Rs posted around the school in different areas to help remind you of what we ‘should’ do. Instead of using trying to remember a lot of, don’t do this and don’t do that, simply remember to be respectful, act responsibly, make good relationships, and be rigorous in your day-to-day activities. Don’t worry if you make a mistake or your forget something once in a while. We all make mistakes. However, we must learn from those mistakes so we continue to improve. We all can forget things sometimes, but it’s an opportunity to exercise your brain and remember the next time. That said, I wish you a great first day of school, wonderful week, and amazing year ahead!

同学们，我的人生经历不算长，但是在如此有限的人生经历中，我已经能够感受到，人类已经走到了一个十字路口，一个关键的临界点，“To be or not to be”的问题，摆在了每一个人面前。

“世界是你们的，也是我们的，但是归根结底是你们的。”早晚，这个人类世界，会交到你们手上，你们能否用自己的智慧和善良，让这个世界变得更美好；人类社会，是否能够克服狭隘的各自为政，在尊重和理解中，构建“人类命运共同体”？这个问题的答案，在我们手里，也在你们手里，但是或许会在你们手里真正成型。

我希望今天的分享，能给大家的日常学习，赋予一点意义，一种更加深刻的、超越当下这个时刻的、但是终将到来的意义。请相信，你在学校里面的学习的每一点知识，每一次和同学朋友的交流，每一次自己默默的思索，都是在为未来演练，为的是在未来的某一天，你能使用自己平生所学所思所感，去参与到时代的洪流之中，在这个蓝色星球上留下独属于自己的美好印记。谢谢！

How do we escape systemic flaws and human limitations? Through good education and ongoing self-reflection. A good education allows the best of human nature to accumulate within us, empowering us to make positive changes. Self-reflection enables us to see our limitations and understand the world and humanity from a broader perspective. I believe these are the invaluable assets you can acquire from your education here.

Chairman Mao once said, "The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the final analysis, it is yours." The answers to the question of whether we can make this world a better place, lies with us, and perhaps even more so with you. 

I hope today's sharing adds meaning to your daily studies, a meaning that transcends the present moment and addresses the future. Believe that every bit of knowledge you gain, every interaction with your peers, and every moment of reflection are rehearsals for the future. They equip you to make your unique and positive impact on this blue planet. Thank you!