黄建鸿 厦门大学嘉庚学院

                                Dreams Warm up My Life

Ladies and gentleman:

Do you still have the passion for realizing your dream with the increasing burdens of daily life? Sometimes, a dream is like the shining star hanging in the sky, beautiful but untouchable. However, my own experience has taught me that preparation, confidence and persistence are the three keys to the door of your dream.

I will tell you what happened.

My father loves winter swimming. Every time I watched him jumping into the cold water like General Patton marching into Berlin, I was so eager to follow him. At that time, winter swimming was my dream. However, although I mastered the swimming skills quickly, I never got the chance. Usually my father was concerned about my health and the lack of winter swimming practice. In order to achieve my dream, first, I should swim in the warm water during winter to see whether I could stand the cold wind. And I did it.

Since then, I found that I could be a fighter like my father. Sitting on the poolside, I touched the water with my feet. Freezing cold! My confidence began to fade away and I was even scared to move my body. I asked myself “is it worth trying?”
 
Just at that moment, my father jumped into the water, and the splash hit my body. Yes,  so cold but it was the reason why I came here. If my father could make it, why couldn’t I ? I should have confidence to conquer the cold water. Then I took a deep breath and plunged into the water without any hesitation.

My fight for survival began. At first, the pressure of the cold water squeezed my head to the point of explosion. I couldn’t hold my breath but keep my mouth open to take in air greedily. My legs and hands were numb and out of my control. But gradually, my breath became stable and warmth flowed through my whole body.

Eventually, I survived to tell this story. Although it was still cold on that day, my whole body was warmer than ever before. Since then on, I fell into a habit of winter swimming. Not only is it my goal, but it gives me a healthy body to pursue my dream in the future.

My fellow dreamers, our life is like winter swimming, a journey from cold to warm. In our life, we may have many dreams as well as many difficulties and pressures. Some dreams are as magnificent as being a president, while others are as small as being a winter swimmer. But the way to our dream is the same. Only when you are well prepared before you start, will you know the ingredients required for realizing your dream. Only when you get self-confidence, will you pursue your dream bravely. Only when you stick to your dream when suffering difficulties, will you find the value of the dream.

Now, whenever I have troubles or pressures on the way to my dream, I will be better prepared, more confident and persistent. With these three ingredients, we can escape from the cold winter of our life and then embrace the warm spring of our future.