【校长寄语】Dr. Paul Andrew：面朝阳光，抒写自己的人生故事

by admin-JOYINTL

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I’ve recently seen several graduation speeches online as they are happening around the world at the moment. I noticed that often the speaker tells a story about their experience as an inspiration to the graduates. On my first day at the school, I shared some of the stories of my journey coming here. I shared my story so you could understand a little of who I am and why I am here.

我最近在网上看到几场发生在世界各地的毕业演讲。演讲者们经常会讲他们自身经历的一个故事，用这个故事鼓舞激励毕业生们。在到达学校的第一天，我分享了一些自己加入嘉洋的故事。我和大家分享我的故事，是想让大家了解我是谁，我为什么会在这里。

Part of my story I shared includes how shortly after we were married, my wife received word that her father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and we decided that it would be best if we returned to Hong Kong to be with him. While in Hong Kong, I met the librarian at the International Christian School, and he introduced me to the school; and I stayed at the International Christian School in Hong Kong for 18 years.

在分享中，我提到了在和妻子结婚后不久，我们就收到消息，我岳父被诊断为癌症晚期。我们决定回到香港，和我岳父在一起。在香港的时候，我认识了国际基督学校的图书管理员，他把我介绍给了学校。我在香港的国际基督教学校工作了18年。

Then, when my son graduated high school, we decided it was an excellent opportunity to try something new. So, I started to look at different schools to see what a new challenge might look like. When I was invited to come to mainland China to start a school, I saw this as a crazy idea, as a new challenge. So, I found myself just north of here in Suqian at Peking University Experimental School, starting an international division at a school like this one.

后来，当我儿子高中毕业时，我们觉得这是一个尝试新事物的绝佳机会。所以，我开始了解一些别的学校，去寻找新的挑战。当有人邀请我到中国大陆开办一所学校时，我认为这是一个疯狂的想法，同时这就是我在寻找的那个新挑战。然后，我接受了这个挑战，去了淮安北面宿迁市，在当地的北京大学实验学校分校成立了一个国际部。

Now I find myself here at JIS, a new chapter of my story. I did not expect to come to JIS; I had never heard of JIS until a friend heard I was looking and introduced me to JIS. I hope that I can be a blessing here to enable people to grow and be what they are called to be.

现在我来到了嘉洋国际学校，开启了我自己故事的新篇章。以前我没有想到自己会来淮安，因为在我朋友给我介绍之前，我还不知道嘉洋在这里。我希望我的加入能够帮助同学们成长，帮助你们成为应该成为的理想中的样子。

I am not an adventurous person, and so as I share my story I feel a sense of amazement that I have been on such a journey; but also at times also feelings of regret that I allowed my life to pushed by what is happening around me.

我不是一个爱冒险的人，所以当我分享自己的故事时，发觉自己踏上了一段这样的旅程时，我感到一阵惊讶。但有的时候，也会感到遗憾，因为我让自己的生活被周围环境所推动。

I once heard a quote that said, “Life is what happens when you are making other plans”, and in many ways, this is true of my journey through life. I let things that happened around me to direct my path; whether it was for good or for bad, I just responded to what was happening. From an early age I had a dream, a calling, a vision for what I wanted to do, but I was not always proactive enough to follow that. Instead I let life push me around and maybe I would react and pull myself back toward my dream.

中国有句俗话，计划不如变化大，其实生活就是发生在计划外的事情。从很多方面来看，人生旅程也是如此。在我们身边发生的许多事情有好有坏，根据发生的事情，我们作出回应。从很小的时候起，我就有一个梦想，一个使命，一个关于我想做什么的愿景，但我并不总是一直积极主动地去追逐。相反，有时我让生活推着我走，也许未来某一刻我会再去转头追寻当初的梦想，有所行动。

But I don’t want to talk about my story, I want you to think about the story that you are writing for yourselves. Up to now, much of that story has probably been written by your parents or maybe your teachers or others in your life. However, now is the time when you are transitioning to a new phase of life where you are heading off  to a new place, probably by yourself, and need to begin to take full responsibility for your story.

其实我不是想谈论我的故事，我是想谈论你们的故事，就是你们正在为你自己所写的故事。到目前，那个故事的大部分可能是由你的父母、你的老师们或你生活中的其他人写的。现在你正在过渡到一个新的人生阶段，你要去一个新的地方，很可能是只身前往，那么现在你需要开始为自己的故事负责，负全责。

I would challenge each of you who are graduating, and as you begin to write your own story, you do not allow life to just happen. Instead, commit to keeping what is important to you as your goal and not allow distractions to pull you away from achieving that goal. Ask yourself, what is your calling, and commit to being faithful to that.

我想对你们每一个即将毕业的人提出挑战，当你们开始书写自己的故事时，不要让你们的人生随波逐流。相反，把重要的事情作为你的目标，不要让分心的事情影响你实现那个目标。认真问问你自己，你的使命是什么，确保忠实于它。

So it is important to focus on your goal, your vision, your calling. However, I want to remind you that it is often said that it is the journey and not the destination that is important. Because we are defined by our story, our journey, and how we respond to those events, I would encourage you to be open to surprises, be willing to take a risk, and look for new challenges. You will be surprised about how your journey will change you, make you stringer, and be a blessing to others.

所以，专注于你的目标、你的愿景、你的使命是十分重要的。不过，我想提醒你，重要的是过程，而不是目的地。因为我们的故事、我们的旅程以及我们的所作所为定义了我们是谁，我鼓励你对意想不到的事保持开放的心态，愿意冒险，并继续寻找新的挑战。你会惊讶于你的旅程将如何改变你，使你更坚强，并成为他人的祝福。

Living our lives is like writing a story, so we can think about how we live our lives in the way we might write a story. It is important to understand the difference between the plot and the story when writing a story. We can understand this difference in terms of conflict.

生活就像写故事，所以在思考我们该如何生活时，可以换一个角度思考，未来我们将如何介绍我们自己的故事。在写故事时，故事环境和故事本身之间是有区别的。我们可以从冲突的角度来理解这种区别。

External conflict, or the plot, is all about what happens to the characters, and often these things are beyond our control.Internal conflict, or the story, is about why it matters to the characters and relates to how we respond.

外部冲突或故事环境，是故事中的人物遭遇的的事情，而这些事情往往是无法控制的。内部冲突或故事本身，是关于为什么故事对这些人物很重要，关于我们的反应和故事之间的联系。

So, the story is not about what happens; it’s about how what happens affects and transforms the characters—a transformation created by the internal tension as revealed in the story.

所以，这故事不在于发生了什么，而在于发生的事情是如何影响和改变故事中的人物的——这种改变是由故事中揭示的内在冲突造成的。

In a story, the internal conflict arises in the tension between what we desire and what we fear. So, it is critical to ask questions such as what will bring you true happiness or contentment? How is your fear stopping you from going after that? What is your misbelief about what you can do, and what happened in your past to create this misbelief? What I am doing to help or hinder my story, so for example am I reading good books or am I hurting my thinking by spending too much time on social media.

在故事中，我们所渴望的东西和我们所惧怕的东西之间产生了内在的矛盾和冲突。所以，重要的是问自己: 给你带来真正的幸福和满足的是什么?你的恐惧是怎么阻拦你去追求这种真正的幸福和满足的?你在哪方面低估了你自己？过去发生的什么事情让你低估了你自己？你现在做的事情，是在帮助你还是阻碍你写出你想要的结局？我是在读好书，还是在社交媒体上花了太多时间？

As the main character, don’t let you be the punching bag for the plot. Instead, the story must be character-driven. Because it’s you, the character in the story, who is going on a journey to realize the truth about something – the truth that you want to scream from the rooftops

作为主角，不要被故事环境控制。相反，我们的故事必须是由我们自己驱动。因为你才是故事的主角，你在探索你生命中一些事情的真相，一些你想跟全世界分享的真相。

So as you leave this place to begin the next chapter of your story, think carefully about what you truly care about in this life, your vision, your calling. Maybe it is not something that will happen right now, but start to ask yourself what do you need to do now and in the future to make sure your journey, your story leads you to achieving that vision. Then commit yourself to that, and learn to discern when to change or ignore distractions around you that will pull you away from achieving your dream.

所以，当你从嘉洋高中毕业，开始人生的新阶段，请仔细想想你真正在乎什么，你的愿景是什么，你的使命是什么。也许这不是现在就会实现的事情，但你要开始问自己：你现在和将来需要做哪些事情，以确保在未来实现目标。然后你才能够投身其中，明辨干扰，专注于你的目标。

All this might sound daunting, difficult, impossible even, but it is not. We are not alone, and we have family, and friends to walk the journey with us to help us keep what matters our focus. As long as we keep our focus in the right place, our journey will be successful.  Walt Whitman gave us a key to being successful in this when he said, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”

所有这些听起来可能有些难，甚至不可能，但，没有不可能。我们并不孤单，因为我们有家人、有朋友与我们同行，帮助我们专注于重要的事情。只要我们把注意力放在正确的地方，我们的人生旅程就会成功。沃尔特·惠特曼给了我们成功的钥匙，他说:“永远面朝阳光，阴影就会被甩在后面。”