As this academic year comes to an end, the newly minted graduates are already planning for their future career- be it some lucrative job placements or acceptances to the reputed colleges in China and abroad or even starting their own business ventures. The graduates clad in the graduation regalia - cap, gown with colored strips and tassels-looking sophisticated and dignified. They are tossing their tassels in the air, snapping pictures on the pavilions and famous monuments within the university and sending posts to social networking platforms. The graduates also show their excitement by putting on the identical T-shirts which read - 2016, I was there.
It is also a highly anticipated moment for teachers and parents who have been constantly pushing them to grow and achieve every milestone along the way. Graduation is followed by a deluge of post-graduation parties, exchanges of graduation gifts, heartfelt compliments and tearful hugs before they part their ways on different routes. Through all these years that have gone by, they have bonded well inside and outside the classroom and creating memories that would last a lifetime. As they look back to the past and start reminiscing the old memories - all the experience at WHU that has shaped them and all those lessons they have learnt from peers and professors, they remember how nervous and intimidated they were when they first set foot on campus; how their minds were clouded with all kinds of doubts, fears and worries. It was the teachers who gave them confidence that they were finally at the place where they were meant to be.
Now, they are graduating as adults, well-adapted to face the real world. They will be the catalyst of change and progress in the future. In spite of all the family obligations and rigorous challenges, the graduates have embodied all the WHU’s core ethos and a passion for learning that has permeated in the university environment since its establishment. The foreign students here have incorporated an unparalleled sense of ownership and responsibility during their exchange and degree programs at WHU. With the nurturing teaching environment provided by WHU, they have achieved their goals through the hard work and perseverance of themselves, as well as teachers and parents. WHU has undoubtedly empowered the students with skill, courage, optimism and integrity for their academic and aesthetic pursuits and become responsible for the choices they make. It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say the graduates are capable of carving out their own career, to make an impact on the world against all adversities and set an example of excellence for the next generation.
Hereinafter is part of a valedictory by Gwen Stacy from the movie The Amazing Spider-man 2 which can show our best wishes toward the wonderful class of 2016. CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2016, YOU DID IT!
It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too.
There will be days where you feel all alone and that's when hope is needed most.
No matter how buried it gets or how lost you feel, you must promise me that you will hold on to hope.
Keep it alive! We have to be greater than what we suffer.
My wish for you is to become hope. People need that.
And even if we fail... what better way is there to live?
I know that we all think we're immortal, we're supposed to feel that way, we're graduating. The future is and should be bright, but, like our brief four years in high school, what makes life valuable is that it doesn't last forever, what makes it precious is that it ends. I know that now more than ever. And I say it today of all days to remind us that time is luck. So don't waste it living someone else's life, make yours count for something. Fight for what matters to you, no matter what. Because even if you fall short, what better way is there to live?
As we look around here today at all the people who helped make us who we are,
I know it feels like we're saying goodbye but we will carry a piece of each other into everything we do next...
To remind us of who we are and if we were meant to be.
I've had a great 4 years with you. I’ll miss you all very much.
(Edited by Wu Siying & Hu Sijia)
