毕业生演讲 | We can all afford to be a little more ambitious

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尊敬的家长、敬爱的老师、亲爱的同学们、大家下午好，

我是Y13的Audrey，是哈罗海口2025届毕业生之一。我感到非常荣幸能够作为毕业生代表做此演讲。

我常和身边人感慨，我们这届毕业生似乎永远站在”变化“的风口浪尖——小到A-Level中国区独立命题的变化，留学政策日渐扑朔迷离；大到越来越先进的AI横空出世，全球第一例在婴儿诞生后使用基因编辑技术治疗罕见病，全球的政治局势不断变更。我们身在变化之中焦虑着无所适从，以至不经意间人与人彼此之间的信任在逐渐瓦解。找到彼此的共同点越来越难，维系人与人之间的联结更是难上加难。我们没有失去对话的能力，却倾向于缩回自己的蜗牛壳中，躲进由算法构筑的信息茧房。我站在变革的洪流中不知所措，却在四年后的今天惊觉，那些我以为是我与生俱来的能力，皆是哈罗所赋予我的；更为重要的是，是哈罗的教育让我们对人文主义的呼唤从未停止。

让我不能忘记的，是Mr. Fischer在初三那年将化学学科奖授予当时在化学上并不出众的我，并在我接下来几年的化学学习中一如既往地鼓励我，不断地告诉我，我很棒；是Mr. Wan勉励我在学习之外多锻炼身体，在我为停滞不前的成绩懊恼时鼓励我我已经足够聪明和努力，在我饱受重感冒折磨的时刻让我停一停笔下的卷子，说他可以帮我请假让我提前回宿舍休息；是Ms. Phaup，李校和Ms. Norma在台风天与我们一同前往避难所，安抚我们，在深更半夜把所有可以休息的位置让给学生，她们自己却一遍又一遍地去清理从窗子外源源不断渗进来的水；是龙老师为我审阅过、与我一起修改过的一篇篇文章，最后让我对书籍《我城》的赏析被编入A-Level中文教材的惊喜；是与Ms. Soo闲聊之时，发现我们都在数学这片海洋中独爱纯数那片小岛，以及在生活中共享的许多共同点，乃至她拿着那些CIE A level数学全球最高分的学长学姐照片时笑着对我说“我们都可以贪心一点”的时候，在我错愕之时，有一股不可言说的、信任的力量，在血液里流动。我不曾得知我身旁的每一位Y13同学的不同感受，更不知坐在台下的每一位哈罗学生的经历；但我确信的是，我们都或多或少地沐浴在哈罗的老师们所为我们反击优绩主义并编织的尊重与爱的阳光之下——把人作为目的而非手段。如同马克思所说，“让我们假定人就是人，而人和世界的关系是一种人的关系，那么我们只能用爱来交换爱，用信任来交换信任。"

在哈罗的这么多年，我变得越来越贪心，我总有太多还想要登上的船——从高等数学和物理的大船，到少数群体困境与教育公平的大船。哈罗带给我的，或许是以各种各样的身份登上一条又一条未知的船的勇气——可以是船长，可以是前帆手，可以是乘客；更赋予我登上每艘船之后，慢慢成为舵手，渐渐驾驶自己的帆船的热情。我不再惧怕理科，不再惧怕体育课上从未尝试过的运动，不再畏惧发出自己的声音，不再惧怕一步一步踏出自己的舒适圈，不再惧怕所谓的失败。我知道四年前那个小小的自己义无反顾地选择离开内蒙古奔赴离家2800km的海口、两年前拖着疲惫的身躯从广州再次回到小岛，是我人生中最为正确的两个决定。

我时常觉得我的人生似乎就如同斐波那契数列那般，由相邻的两项相加来得出下一项，宛若知识、心态、感受、情愫、爱等经历的不断叠加，有着黄金螺旋线一般的动态感，在每一个不同的阶段塑造出满怀过去的我但又全然不同的新自我。但其实我身上有很多人的影子。我感到惊奇，人与人之间的引力是那样的微不足道，但我还是在人生的每一个阶段与大家相遇，甚至发展出来各种各样的关系。不是我自诩多么丰富、如何充盈，而是想说，谢谢与我有关的每一个美好的存在，谢谢你们曾或快或慢地靠近我，将自己身上的光影或多或少地酒落，让我有了不曾感受到的能量，关于如何去怀揣着积极阳光的心态、如何去爱、如何去和解。我不止一次从心底里默默希望，我的人生还能有很多个如在哈罗一般的四年。

以前总不明白为什么大家要在毕业典礼上感谢那么多人，直到今天自己站在这里，才发觉对无数人的感激之情是那样的不由自主。我想感谢我的家人，在哈罗的这些年遇到的每一位老师，交往过的每一位同学；也想感谢幕布之后的我不知姓名却每每见面都会与我笑着打招呼的食堂阿姨、清洁工阿姨，风雨无阻的校车司机、校车老师和保安叔叔们，以及无数次帮助我解决技术问题的ICT部门，还有所有ISS的工作人员们。

正如耶鲁大学校长Maurie McInnis所言，这是一个需要信念与慈悲的时代。我们必须寻找人性中共通的人文关怀，重塑人文主义精神。是哈罗赋予我们怀着谦卑之心继续前行的责任感，让我们去倾听，尤其是在我们更容易充耳不闻之时；去给予宽容，即使我们觉得抱怨是理所应当；去捍卫自己的理想，同时不去贬低那些与之相悖的人。在未来，我们会在社会的不同领域担任不同的角色；而无论踏上怎样的一条路，哈罗所给予我们的在体内生根发芽的人文关怀将永远会促成最温和却也最具革命性的行动。

谢谢大家。

Dear parents, teachers, and fellow students, good afternoon. I’m Audrey from Year 13, a graduate of Harrow Haikou’s Class of 2025. It is a tremendous honor to stand here today as a student representative.

I often find myself remarking to those around me: our cohort seems forever caught in the eye of change. From the shift to China-specific A-Level exams and the instability of overseas education policies, to the rise of generative AI, the first gene-edited therapy for rare diseases in newborns, and the increasingly turbulent global landscape—we live in a world of constant flux, often feeling overwhelmed. Even trust between people seems to be slowly fraying. Common ground feels hard to find, and still harder to sustain. It’s not that we’ve lost the ability to talk with each other, but we often find easier to retreat into echo chambers shaped by algorithms. Yet today, I realize that the very abilities I thought were innately mine had, in fact, been nurtured by Harrow;more importantly, it was Harrow’s education has ensured that our call for humanism has never gone silent.

I will never forget how Mr. Fischer presented me with the Chemistry Subject Award in Year 10, even though I wasn’t particularly outstanding in chemistry at the time, and how he has continuously encouraged me since then. I remember Mr. Wan, urging me to stop working on past papers when I was extremely ill, insisting I return to the boarding house to rest, and reassuring me through my academic anxiety that I was already smart and hardworking enough. I remember Ms. Phaup, Ms. Cathy, and Ms. Norma during the typhoon days, guiding us to the shelter, leaving all the resting places for students while cleaning the flooded floor again and again. I remember Ms. Long working through piece after piece with me, patiently polishing my writing—until, to my surprise, my literature analyse on My City was selected for the A-Level Chinese textbook. And I remember Ms. Soo—how we resonated over pure math, how she held up photos of past CIE A-Level top scorers and said with a smile, “We can all afford to be a little more ambitious.”

I may not know the experiences of every Year 13 student, nor fully understand the stories of every Harrowvian here. But I am certain of one thing—we have all, in some way, been embraced by the respect and love our Harrow teachers have given us. We have all, at some point, been moved by the feeling of being treated as an end in ourselves, not a means to something else. As Karl Marx once said: “To exchange love for love, trust for trust.”

Over the years at Harrow, I’ve become increasingly “greedy”—not for success, but for the number of ships I want to board. From further math and physics, to minority struggles and education equity. What Harrow has gifted me is the courage to step aboard unfamiliar vessels—as a captain, a jib trimmer, or simply a passenger—and, more importantly, the passion to learn how to steer them. I’m no longer afraid of STEM, or of expressing myself. I’m no longer afraid to step out of my comfort zone—nor to fail. I know that the decision my younger self made four years ago—to leave Inner Mongolia and travel 2,800 kilometers to Haikou—and the choice I made two years ago to return to Harrow from Guangzhou, were the two best decisions of my life.

I often feel that my life resembles the Fibonacci sequence: each new self is formed by the sum of past experiences—knowledge, emotions, mindsets, and love—accumulating into something new yet shaped by everything before. Like a golden spiral, this movement gives shape to a self that is ever-changing yet never detached from its origins. But truly, I carry the shadows of many people within me. I am astonished by how, despite gravitational force being one of the weakest forces among humans in the universe, human connection still finds its way into our lives, forming all kinds of relationships. It’s not that I claim to be rich in life or experience, but I want to say this: thank you—to every beautiful soul who has approached me, slowly or quickly, and spilled a bit of their own light onto me. Because of this, I’ve found strength I didn’t know I had. I’ve learned how to stay positive, how to love, how to reconcile. From the bottom of my heart, I’ve silently wished that my life might be blessed with many more four-year chapters like the one I’ve lived at Harrow.

I used to wonder why graduation speeches always end in a long list of thank-yous—until today. Standing here now, I realize that this gratitude is instinctive and irrepressible. I want to thank my family, my teachers, my friends—and also those who support us behind the scenes: the cheerful canteen ayis, the school bus drivers and teachers, security guards who work through all weather, and iss staff who maintain our campus quietly and diligently. 

As Yale President Maurie McInnis once said, we live in a time that called for both conviction and compassion. We must seek ways to recognize our common humanity, and revive the spirit of humanism. Harrow has taught us to continue our journey with humility—to listen when it’s easiest to dismiss, to extend grace when grievance feels warranted, and to defend our ideals while still respecting those who differ from us. In the future, we’ll each assume different roles across every sector of society, but it is this sense of humanity, deeply rooted in our hearts, that will inspire the gentlest—and most revolutionary—actions of all.

Thank you.