朱华：上海纽约大学学生，第十九届中国日报社“21世纪•可口可乐杯”全国英语演讲比赛一等奖获得者。

演讲稿：

To feel happy, be like a child

Usually at this time, I should be standing in the front of a classroom at Zhen Xing Primary School, facing the happy faces of over 50 pupils from the second grade. I’m working with a volunteer English teaching program every week, and teaching those kids on Mondays makes my depressing Sunday nights full of anticipation. I guess the reverse might be the same, so I hope those kids are not missing me too much right now.

Among the people I know, those kids are possibly the happiest people on earth. They laugh when I greet them; they laugh when I’ve made a mistake; and they even laugh when I tell them to keep the flash cards I gave them. Their minds are like sponges, so willing to learn and soak up new information. Their simplicity and innocence make them the first people I think of when I talk about happiness.

Kids can always feel delight for the smallest and the most trivial things, just as we once did. Last year, for our school’s candidate event, we, as candidates, were asked to bring an object that had a sentimental value for us. It’s surprising that most objects were just everyday items. It’s so hard to imagine that these objects could actually bring people such a strong sense of happiness. However, what most objects had in common was that they all carried a piece of someone’s childhood memory. I saw a toy basketball that sparked a boy’s lifelong hobby. I saw a pair of ballet shoes with which a girl learned to dance. And of course, I saw many family photos that were taken when those candidates were young. Does this mean that we can hardly find anything from our current life that is able to make us feel happy? But there is no difference between the world we live in and the world children live in. Then, perhaps it’s because that as we age, we become numb to some of the simple joys in life. There’s nothing wrong about changing as a person, but it seems like the world we see now is far from the one we pictured from our childhood, so the memories from the past become increasingly precious and unique as we’ve become so-called, “mature.”

I’m not sure how much I’ve changed or if my personality is altering in a positive way. However, because our school has provided me with a broad exposure to English, it motivated me to give back and participate in this teaching program. Later, the purely genuine smiles reflected on those children’s faces sparked a curiosity within me. How could those kids feel such ecstatic joy from such simple things like learning English! I then realized that though we are supposed to be slightly more sophisticated in order to deal with real world problems, we do not need to sacrifice our inner child.

When we talk about happiness, we should first talk about not losing some innate qualities like innocence and simplicity. So don’t confine the child inside you, you can always feel free to be who you once were, and you will find happiness all around you.

Thank you.