Home » Supplement » Education
Bittersweet feelings, and now it's time to go
By Yvonne Hsiao |
June 27, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE clock seems to tick much faster when you're a graduate. Days become hours, then minutes, then precious - extremely precious - seconds. My parents swelled with pride as I moved my tassel to the left, and we pretend to ignore the sand falling in the hourglass. The most inspirational teachers extend their hands for us to shake, but the tide of people sweep us past. Graduation concluded with a flurry of hugs from friends, and then it dawned on us that these weren't for "see you in six months" but perhaps, separations for a lifetime.
Graduation is a bittersweet experience, but certainly more sweet than bitter. By now, I've understood that the people who were meant to be in my future have already earned their place there: through encouraging smiles in hallways when times are hard; and thousands of emails and instant messages that prolong the intensity of our love. For my mum and dad, my partner, my best friends and some teachers, distance won't change feelings - only how they're expressed. The few truly beautiful people I have known in this lifetime know that falling out of touch is never an option.
When I look in the mirror now, I am satisfied for the first time. There is an air of being comfortable with who I am, which certainly was not present in earlier years; how is it that I woke up one day and discovered that I'm exactly who I want to be at this very moment? Is it my anticipation of the challenges ahead? Could it be not always doing what people tell me to do? Or maybe the knowledge that I am the first person in my entire extended and nuclear family to pursue higher education?
My time at Shanghai American School has allowed me to grow up, but university is forcing me to leave behind burdens I've acquired in those 12 years, burdens I wrongly accepted as parts of who I am. The bittersweet would not be as sweet without the bitter, but the lesson is to let go. Graduation has allowed me to find peace.
I promise myself to take one more walk along the Bund at sunrise, one more midnight bike ride around Jing'an, share tea on a terrace in Tian Zi Fang once more, before my airplane ride to LaGuardia.
In all of this, there's a feeling of relief, nostalgia and an absence of fear; there's no question that it's time to go.
(Yvonne Hsiao is an SAS graduate, and will be attending Columbia University as a Political Science and Physics double major.)
Ready for challenges
Henri Gernaey
I graduated on May 21, with the rest of British International School Shanghai Puxi's class of 2012. Having finished the IB diploma after two busy years and a long session of examinations, I couldn't help but feel both happiness and relief about graduating: for the first time in months, nothing had to be completed urgently, and all school worries suddenly vanished. Free to do as we please with no timetable to restrict us, some call it the "best feeling in the world."
But graduation also bears a downside, as it marks the separation of many of us here at BISS. Having such a varied international community means that we will all depart our different ways to continue our studies across the four corners of the globe. It is difficult to leave the people you love and to start something completely new - and doing it alone adds little comfort to that idea. It will undoubtedly be a challenge for all of us, but also a great adventure. And that's what makes the future so exciting, so "challenge accepted!"
(Henri Gernaey is a BISS 2012 graduate.)
Class of 2012, we made it!
Celest Dines
For most of us, this is the biggest turning point in our lives to date. It's an exciting time. It sounds melodramatic but really, we've never done anything else. For the past two years, finishing school has been about being done with IB, but I think more recently we've started realizing that that's not everything we're finishing or leaving behind. I think we looked forward to the joy of being done so much that we forgot to anticipate that there would be sadness too.
At such a turning point, we cannot help but look back as well as to the future. This is our graduation from school and it's not just the last of years of school we're graduating from; it's all of it. The majority of our life up until now has been spent in school and we all have our own "memory lanes" to reflect upon as we leave. Graduation is an opportunity to look back on the part of our lives that ends, effectively, today.
Attending an international school, we consider having friends from different countries to be the norm, and our international exposure, not just to China, is something we also take from here. That fact that we can try three or four different cuisines just by sitting down to lunch together must be incredible to people who have never experienced international school, yet it's ordinary to us.
There will be a time and a place for goodbyes, but now is not the time and here is not the place because here today we celebrate what we have gained and what we have achieved from our time here and our time together. I cannot think of a group of individuals better placed to do the things we hope to do. At the end of the day, we can look back and say we went through IB together, and today, we graduate together. Congratulations, class of 2012, we made it!
(Celest Dines, pictured left, is the valedictorian of Class of 2012 of YCIS Shanghai.)
Graduation is a bittersweet experience, but certainly more sweet than bitter. By now, I've understood that the people who were meant to be in my future have already earned their place there: through encouraging smiles in hallways when times are hard; and thousands of emails and instant messages that prolong the intensity of our love. For my mum and dad, my partner, my best friends and some teachers, distance won't change feelings - only how they're expressed. The few truly beautiful people I have known in this lifetime know that falling out of touch is never an option.
When I look in the mirror now, I am satisfied for the first time. There is an air of being comfortable with who I am, which certainly was not present in earlier years; how is it that I woke up one day and discovered that I'm exactly who I want to be at this very moment? Is it my anticipation of the challenges ahead? Could it be not always doing what people tell me to do? Or maybe the knowledge that I am the first person in my entire extended and nuclear family to pursue higher education?
My time at Shanghai American School has allowed me to grow up, but university is forcing me to leave behind burdens I've acquired in those 12 years, burdens I wrongly accepted as parts of who I am. The bittersweet would not be as sweet without the bitter, but the lesson is to let go. Graduation has allowed me to find peace.
I promise myself to take one more walk along the Bund at sunrise, one more midnight bike ride around Jing'an, share tea on a terrace in Tian Zi Fang once more, before my airplane ride to LaGuardia.
In all of this, there's a feeling of relief, nostalgia and an absence of fear; there's no question that it's time to go.
(Yvonne Hsiao is an SAS graduate, and will be attending Columbia University as a Political Science and Physics double major.)
Ready for challenges
Henri Gernaey
I graduated on May 21, with the rest of British International School Shanghai Puxi's class of 2012. Having finished the IB diploma after two busy years and a long session of examinations, I couldn't help but feel both happiness and relief about graduating: for the first time in months, nothing had to be completed urgently, and all school worries suddenly vanished. Free to do as we please with no timetable to restrict us, some call it the "best feeling in the world."
But graduation also bears a downside, as it marks the separation of many of us here at BISS. Having such a varied international community means that we will all depart our different ways to continue our studies across the four corners of the globe. It is difficult to leave the people you love and to start something completely new - and doing it alone adds little comfort to that idea. It will undoubtedly be a challenge for all of us, but also a great adventure. And that's what makes the future so exciting, so "challenge accepted!"
(Henri Gernaey is a BISS 2012 graduate.)
Class of 2012, we made it!
Celest Dines
For most of us, this is the biggest turning point in our lives to date. It's an exciting time. It sounds melodramatic but really, we've never done anything else. For the past two years, finishing school has been about being done with IB, but I think more recently we've started realizing that that's not everything we're finishing or leaving behind. I think we looked forward to the joy of being done so much that we forgot to anticipate that there would be sadness too.
At such a turning point, we cannot help but look back as well as to the future. This is our graduation from school and it's not just the last of years of school we're graduating from; it's all of it. The majority of our life up until now has been spent in school and we all have our own "memory lanes" to reflect upon as we leave. Graduation is an opportunity to look back on the part of our lives that ends, effectively, today.
Attending an international school, we consider having friends from different countries to be the norm, and our international exposure, not just to China, is something we also take from here. That fact that we can try three or four different cuisines just by sitting down to lunch together must be incredible to people who have never experienced international school, yet it's ordinary to us.
There will be a time and a place for goodbyes, but now is not the time and here is not the place because here today we celebrate what we have gained and what we have achieved from our time here and our time together. I cannot think of a group of individuals better placed to do the things we hope to do. At the end of the day, we can look back and say we went through IB together, and today, we graduate together. Congratulations, class of 2012, we made it!
(Celest Dines, pictured left, is the valedictorian of Class of 2012 of YCIS Shanghai.)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
