王瑾 西安翻译学院

                           A time to struggle for our dreams

Ladies and gentlemen! Good morning!

Half a century ago, Martin Luther King struggled for a dream that people of different skin colors could live peacefully together. So today, we can see players from different races fight for a common goal in NBA.

Ten years ago, China struggled for a dream that people all over the world could get together in her own land to enjoy an unprecedented sports meeting. So in 2008, the whole world witnessed the great Beijing Olympic Games.

And Ladies and Gentlemen, in the modern times, what we young generation is always dreaming about is that one day we will be successful; that one day we will make our nation the strongest; that one day we will turn the world into a paradise. As you can see that how great our dreams are, but in the face of the modern society which contains so many opportunities and choices for us, we, the young generation, are quite puzzled about how to realize the dreams. And it wasn’t until I reached the top of XiYue Western Great Mountain that I learned the most important lesson——without struggle and endeavor , dream would never come true no matter how easy it is.

So now let me tell you what happened to me.

The Great Mountain, which is also known as the most unique and steep mountain, is located in Shannxi Province in China. To reach the top of the Great Mountain is always my dream. It is the precipitousness that I had dreamed for quite a long time, but never thought about conquering it.

However, in the early spring of 2009, I decided to pluck up all my courage to conquer the great mountain of nearly 2000 meters in height. At first, I was full of confidence and quite enjoyed the refreshing feeling. In my eyes, every stone stair on the way up to the top had no difference from the one that I climbed in the teaching building. However, after some time, I started to feel tired, thirsty and short of breath. My shirts were soaked by sweat, and my bag was just like a huge rock pressing on my back. So I slowed my pace down and began to look around. In front of me, there were hundreds of thousands of stairs waiting for me to climb, while I could see nothing but steep slopes behind me. For the first time in my life, despair and loneliness deeply pierced my heart. I really wanted to give up. I supposed I could never reach the top.

However, when I was sitting on the stairs, feeling pathetic for myself, a very thin figure came into my sight. From the appearance I could tell he was one of the manual labors who carried goods up to the mountain every day. I saw him slowly approaching with a very heavy pole on his shoulder. I stared at him, dumbfounded, wondering how strong he was that he could bear such a heavy burden climbing such a long way. Compared with his four dozen mineral water, I was really ashamed of being unable to carry even a single bag. Then, without any hesitation, I set off once again.

Time always passes silently. I paid full attention to the long way so that I even lost the track of time. I wasn’t aware of how many meters I climbed, and how many hours I spent but one thing I knew that the sun was setting in front of me.

Even till now I can still remember the moment when I arrived at the highest peak. I was standing on the edge of the cliff, allowing the wind to rumple my hair. I saw the color of the sky which gently touched my heart. I saw the shadow of the mountain that silently filled my mind. It seemed that the sun was smiling at me as if she finally met the last visitor of the day. I could never hold my tears anymore. At that moment I knew, I made it!  That was the first time in my life, I felt a great sense of achievement, the sense could erase all my pains and sufferings, the sense could grant me all my pride and content. On the top of the Great Mountain, I asked myself, what did the Great Mountain mean to me? My experience of Great Mountain told me that we must struggle for our dreams no matter how difficult they are.

A man with a dream is like a warrior armed with ambition, foresight and gallantry, daring to step into an unknown domain to make a journey of adventure. It is a dream that adds fullness, variety, and spice to our life.

And we want to be the generation who are struggling for our dreams.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The world can be changed by our struggling, and that this struggling can lead to something newer and better. We must ever have sufficient courage and skill to novel facts and to struggle for them.

　　Hold fast to dreams，
　　For if dreams die
　　Life is a broken-winged bird
　　That can never fly.
　　Hold fast to dreams，
　　For when dreams go
　　Life is a barren field，
　　Frozen only with snow.

Thank you for listening.