Category: student life

I do think about what it will be like on the day I come of age a million times. I have also more or less attended the 18th birthdays of friends older than me. Some of them had a passionate and boisterous time, while others had a bland time and didn’t even have a birthday cake. I still remember two years ago, a friend and I were sitting on a park bench at 4:00 a.m. for his 18th birthday, looking at the dark night sky and talking. He told me that he had been looking forward to his 18th, but today he realized that the transition from adolescence to adulthood doesn’t seem to be something that has to be a rite of passage, and that for him, other than the fact that he didn’t go to bed at 4 a.m. and chatted with me in the park, everything else was pretty normal. When the weekend was over, he still had to go back to the place where he was training to live the life he was repeating every day. That was the first time I expressed skepticism about my arrival at 18.

So it’s actually a blessing that I came to be curious, and I’ve experienced a lot of things that I once felt didn’t fit with me, including this bar mitzvah. The experience was amazing, even if I had fantasized about all sorts of Bar Mitzvahs before, I never imagined that there would be one like today, where I would be surrounded by my family, friends, teachers, and classmates who would be attending in formal attire, and sitting down to listen to me prattle on stage.

I still feel a little surprised when I look back on my short 17 years. The old me never thought I would be where I am now. Although as a person with an extremely competitive spirit, I never thought my life would be anything less than bumpy, I never expected it to be this bumpy either. From the beginning, when I was studying hard for junior high school, and constantly in conflict with my parents, to finally getting into the middle school I wanted to go to before, to being isolated in school, being coldly violated by the campus, suffering from depression, taking a break from school, and constantly searching for a cure, and finally coming to Curious, each and every thing seems to have happened yesterday. I’ve bumped into a lot of people along the way, some of whom have made me realize that there are all kinds of outrageous things in the world, some of whom have given me a clearer idea of where I stand, and some of whom have made me learn more.

I’ve been asked this question many times: why did you come to Curious? I can honestly say that I was really desperate. At that time my mind was filled with all sorts of depressing things and it felt like life was pointless. I tried to do everything during the years I took off from school, I took guitar lessons, I took dance lessons, I took painting lessons, I took all kinds of crafts. I tried going back to school, I tried getting in shape, I tried being a teacher. After I realized that all my efforts were in vain, I lost my passion for everything, I didn’t want to do anything, I couldn’t die even if I wanted to, and I muddled through life repeating myself every day. I was beyond desperate for such a life, but there was nothing I could do about it. Until one day, my mother came to me with a cell phone, pointing to the above curious information on the recruitment of teachers and asked me to try, I just saw that there is no educational requirements above and agreed. To me at the time, it didn’t matter what I did, life was just a different way of continuing to keep me uninterested. So my mom called the bottle, and after inquiring about it, she got the answer, “Your child would be better suited to be a student here”. My mom asked me again, and this time I hesitated. The reason was simple: if I said yes without giving it much thought as I had done before, there was a good chance that I would be wasting my time and my parents would be wasting their money. Time hasn’t been important to me for a long time, but money is different, and I don’t think anyone would have a problem with money either. After thinking it over, I decided to check it out.

When I first visited Gamer’s Delight, I thought the environment there could only be described as “dreary”. The dilapidated house, overgrown shrubs, and the gate that could be tumbled into with a single hand left me at a loss for words. I looked at Duan Haoyuan and Zhang Zijie’s long hair and She Zuyue’s misanthropic face and fell into a deep thought, I thought this is more than a little bit different from what I had imagined ah. But I’m a person who honestly does not pay attention to the environment, so I did not have any excessive waves in my heart, but also told the bottle: I think it’s fine, it’s quite good, I kinda like this style, but I don’t know why it was later rumored to be a curiosity for me to come because I like the environment of the player’s music. Although I admit that I did get hooked in by the bus library, and nowadays I’m not afraid to say that I love to read, but at the time I did have my attention drawn to the bus library, especially after I heard that it was remodeled by the students themselves, and my interest came immediately.

After a heated discussion with my parents, I decided to give it a try. During the two weeks of my trial period, I didn’t attend any morning classes, and I couldn’t live a normal life because of my upside-down routine. One day I heard Tianyu Li say, “You’re just paying to sleep here. I was devastated, and at the end of the two-week trial I resolved to be hospitalized to adjust. Until then, I had never been one to say no to hospitalization, but I did feel it was time to make a change.

I stayed in the hospital for half a month, met some of my “sick friends” and started to get interested in things again. My sleep became more normal and I felt like I could go back to being curious, except for the nightmares I had day and night. Back to being curious, I started attending classes on time, signing up for classes, working as a scriptwriter for a theater class, writing original songs, etc., and life started to get better from there.

But I actually started to get anxious about the future at the beginning of this year, and I’m a person who has never had the courage to step out of my comfort zone on my own accord. However soon I’m going to be forced to step out of the comfort zone I’ve nestled in for 17 years, I’m terrified of what’s to come and I feel like I’m in deep shit. I try to force myself to face reality, but the reality is that I just want to escape. I ask myself a lot of questions but frustratingly I can’t seem to answer any of them. My mood and state of life has been high and low at times, and this has had certain not-so-good effects on those around me and myself, and I would like to thank you all for your tolerance and understanding.

Until the home visit three weeks ago, I was so overwhelmed being sandwiched between my parents that I didn’t even dare to look up at the expression on Chi Xiao’s face across the room. It seemed like the first time I had ever had a serious discussion about my future with Ji Xiao outside of tutor time. Prior to that, even if Ji Xiao had just mentioned it to me, I would have wanted to run away. I was on pins and needles that day, and I felt a strange feeling in my heart that I couldn’t describe. But I truly realized that I was a very lucky person. Mom and Dad kept mentioning between the lines that they would support my choices, and even when I was very upfront about the fact that I didn’t want to go to college, they didn’t react as I expected, but continued to discuss the ways in which I could find my own goals.

It was at that point that I began to seriously think about why I was hesitant to move into those areas when I clearly had hobbies. I realized that what I was afraid of was that going down that path would be something I would regret and something that I wouldn’t be able to eat because I didn’t think I had that ability to turn my ideals into reality. I also realized that I was overlooking something very important, and a mistake that many people often make – worrying before they’ve even done it. I remembered a quote from a blogger I really like: you don’t have to think about it, you just do it, your head is empty, and it’s easy to do. I began to think seriously about the ways in which I could accomplish what I wanted to do if I chose a certain path – a path by which I could eat. Putting aside my assessment of my own abilities and the various external factors I was worried about, I finally realized that my future was not actually a lost cause. I realized that, in fact, even after graduation, with my parents’ support, I still have quite a bit of time to study. But I still had to grab the time and resources to do more studying, and I started to keep track of my day to day life, looking back at the end of the day to see if I had wasted any time, and where I had wasted it. The stress is still there of course, but I at least have a general idea of what my future holds.

I’m grateful to my mom and dad for quietly supporting me through the hardest times in my life so far, and they never gave up on me from start to finish. I know they feel guilty about what happened to me in middle school, but I can tell them with certainty: I don’t blame you, all parents want their kids to be good, but everyone has a different definition of good. The fact that you were willing to do what it took to get me out of the muck, whether it worked or not, was enough. I never hated you guys, and, well, I love you.

Looking back at my life now, it’s still quite emotional. I don’t realize that I’m almost an adult and I’m a world away from my past self, but I don’t care anymore. After all, people don’t necessarily live their lives for stability, and I think I’d rather have variables in my life, life goes on all the time. I will choose to live my life well, no matter how hard the process is.

Kexin’s mother’s speech at the coming of age ceremony

Parents, teachers and students:

Good morning, everyone!

Thank you Curionesty College for organizing such a ceremony to document the growth of our children. This moment today means that our children have become adults, and I am very happy about that.

First of all, I would like to thank Curious for accepting, accommodating, respecting, and encouraging our children over the past year and a half. I remember fondly that when our children first started school, I worried every day and asked the teachers about our children every day. I often went to Ms. Bottle to talk to her, and she always analyzed and answered my questions in a very calm manner. Although she didn’t say much, after communicating with me, I slowly learned to reflect on myself, comfort myself, and finally chose to let go, believing that my child would get better and better.

As a parent, I witnessed my child’s failure to attend classes on time, and then she made a conscious effort to change, rationalize her work schedule, and then slowly find her way in her favorite field of music, and then actively complete the various tasks assigned by her teacher. Although there were still moments of confusion during the process, as well as pressure due to the time constraints, my child was able to overcome all of the challenges. What makes me feel very happy is that when my child encounters these difficulties, she is willing to call me to talk, communicate and discuss. This feeling of being trusted warms my heart.

What I appreciate most about Curiosity is that it allows children to utilize their talents in a team, to undertake, to discover, to coordinate, to create, and to accomplish in the process of working together, so that they can continue to learn and grow themselves. Every time I listen to my children share with me curious things, from their own teachers to classmates, to activities, full of happiness, I am from the bottom of my heart, this feeling is so good.

Dear child:

From today, you are stepping into the ranks of adults, mom and dad sincerely bless you! Youth and joy fly together, ambition and struggle together, 18 years old, a magnificent age, a new milestone, you have entered the ranks of adults, which means that from now on will take on greater responsibility, and continue to mature, in the future stage of life to realize your dreams. The road to happiness in life you have come to the ten-minute stage, the future life experience will gradually increase, the future road of life will be long and colorful.

In the future, we must learn to be contented and give up, everything must not go to extremes, no matter what will find a point of satisfaction, which is contentment; and the so-called give up, is to give up and get the dialectical relationship, firmly believe that “those who do not do anything, nothing to do”, savor the “get is blessed, to give up is blessed, to be contented is happiness! It is only happiness when one is contented.”

Ke Xin, the process of raising you, from toddler to babbling to entering the school, my father and I accompanied you every moment is full of happiness, over the years, many of my mother’s educational style mistakes, let you hurt, mom is very sorry, but at the same time, we are trying to change. Feel Ke Xin from arbitrary digging strong to now take the initiative to communicate, I hope that we from love each other to the future only love and harmony and happiness.

The road ahead is long, but we firmly believe that you are fully capable of pursuing your life path, a road of happiness belonging exclusively to you, free to fly, we will always guard our princess, mom and dad will always be your strongest backing, go for it! Ride the wind and waves of the teenager.

May your heart’s desire be all as you wish.

Love, mom and dad.

Ke Xin’s mentor, Ji Xiao, at the Bar Mitzvah ceremony

Mr. Zhang Kexin:

I remember when you first came here, it was as if you had just returned to your home country. Although you hadn’t been abroad at all, your routine made every student think that you were living in the Western Hemisphere.

On the day of the orientation talk, you were at war with your parents sitting across from you. This should be the only time I’ve ever had to interrupt a freshman orientation talk to separate you from Mom and Dad.

Since you’re often so emo, everyone couldn’t agree more with your new nickname, Zhang emo.

You’ve only been here for a little over a year. When you first came here, you were actually quite old compared to the other students. It takes time for a person to grow, and I was actually worried about whether you would be able to successfully grow to a mature and stable state in Curious in such a short period of time.

I was not at all sure whether you would leave because of your credit score or because of your own emotional breakdown.

However, you quickly showed us how much a person’s determination can make a difference. Your abilities began to unfold in many, many, many ways, as many as the hair colors you’ve dyed.

When you resolved to adjust your routine, in less than a month you had successfully reversed your jet lag and returned from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere. You also consciously began to control the negative effects of some of your vices on yourself.

You started reading a lot and came close to winning the reading league. You also showed your understanding and hard work in the VOC music composition program and soon composed the first song of your life. We all often see you practicing the piano.

You have the ability to create, you can quickly write good words, basically the heavy responsibility of adapting the drama script falls on your head, the last semester’s improvisational writing about “love, what is it?” is also very outstanding, which is inseparable from your basic skills of reading.

At the same time, you also showed your sense of justice and public concern. You also presented your research on teenage depression very clearly at the final exhibition in the first half of the year.

You have had helpless bumpy experiences in the past, and these experiences can make you more able to empathize with people in need. The dilemmas within you that only you understand will be a great asset when you have the ability to find a solution for yourself.

Rabindranath Tagore said that the world kissed me with pain so that I would sing in return. This quote has inspired me deeply before and I want to share it with you.

This year is your Bar Mitzvah, and I have a few final reminders for you.

First, stigma is the biggest obstacle in our way, and the reason stigma is stigma is because we usually have a hard time noticing it. It requires you to be self-reflective and to actively listen to the feedback of others. If it’s different from what you expected, don’t be quick to refute it, but think about the validity of the disagreement.

Secondly, you often mention that you like Marquez, but you can’t quite put your finger on why. In fact, you have been touched, but the specific thoughts need to be organized, and the best way to organize them, is to go writing. The fact that you showed me the manuscript for this Bar Mitzvah twice is actually a process of self-organization. I hope you’ll stick with it for the long haul. If Marquez can write those scenes, you must be able to write why he appeals to you.

Third, be patient with yourself and with others. The most flavorful soup is made with patience, and the most classic works are honed with patience. You have a long road ahead of you, and more wonders are yours to discover with patience. The changes you were able to make in the past can surely be reproduced in the future.

Last but not least, I would like to sincerely thank Ke Xin’s parents for their trust and commitment to us. Your growth is the best education for her. I wish you all peace and happiness as a family.

Good morning everyone! Today is November 11, 2021, our Curionesty College’s fourth Independence Day, and we are celebrating the Bar Mitzvahs of three 17 year olds, Wu Han, Wu Yishen, and Zhang Kexin. Thank you all for taking the time to witness it with us.

Many people ask why the curious Bar Mitzvah is at 17 and not 18.

Socrates said that an unreflected life is not worth living.

First of all, we need to realize that there are actually a lot of things that we take for granted that we don’t think hard enough about why it has become what it is today. Not everything is so deserved.

So why is 18 adulthood? Is it the same all over the world? Has it been that way since the beginning of time? Does this setup make sense? If it should be changed, how should it be changed?

Coming of age at 18 is a mark given to us by law and social convention. What does adulthood mean for ourselves?

Legally, we are suddenly adults on the day we turn 18.

But adulthood as a state is not a linear outcome, but a complex process.

We often criticize many adults for not acting like an adult. That’s why writer Wu Zhihong satirizes them as giant babies, and writer Yu Shicun calls them humanoid children. Mr. Peng Xiaohua once translated a book called How to Make Children Adults and Adults. What we at Curionesty College keep reminding you to think about is this question: How to make yourself an adult?

Adulthood means that the law no longer restricts you from smoking, drinking, going to nightclubs, bars, dance clubs, and internet cafes.

Your parents, as your guardians, can also legally stop caring about whether you have any of these worrisome habits or hang out in these worrisome places. Yes, they can stop caring about you, and of course, at the same time, they can stop giving you pocket money.

It is the basic responsibility of every adult to be self-supporting, and the power to govern yourself will really transition from your parents to you.

No one else can control you, but you honestly ask yourself, do you need someone to control you? And who can govern you? The sovereignty to manage you is in your hands, are you up to the job? Are you prepared for it? How are you going to get started?

We all aspired as children to a state of unfettered freedom as adults, but the reality is that freedom may not be as romantic as you think it is to be able to do everything you want to do. Our time and energy are very limited, as are our will and ability. What adulthood will bring you is not the freedom to indulge, but largely, the freedom to choose not to.

The truth of freedom is sometimes closer to the fact that you know there are many things you can do without. And what can be done is to go ahead and invest your full capacity in the limited options you have chosen out of your own peace of mind and settle in. Enter a state of disciplined self-discipline.

This will be a long process of discovery.

I hope that in this process of exploration you will keep your heart and remind yourself to be careful what you say and what you do, so that you do not let your impulses lead you to regret.

I hope that in this quest you will encourage yourself to go higher, to explore places that no one else has ever explored.

You are going to have to make many, many choices to determine where you go.

My hope is that in making your choices, you will keep your heart safe.

Choose to lean in when you can muddle through.

When you can be disingenuous, choose to be honorable.

When you can be complicit, choose to stay out of the mud.

When there are extenuating circumstances, choose to bite the bullet.

To be able to make these decisions, you will have to go through trials. This is not an easy area to muddle through.

So why do we have a Bar Mitzvah at 17?

It’s because we want you to start preparing ahead of time. The countdown to adulthood began long ago and never stops, and you must remind yourself that you must begin to hold yourself to the standards of true adulthood from this day forward to continue learning.

I hope that while you are learning, you will keep your heart.

When you can be uninformed, choose to be humble and ask for guidance.

When you can stop growing, choose to keep learning.

This year, we were fortunate to have Mr. Fan Xiao as our Bar Mitzvah speaker. Mr. Fan Xiao is an experienced learner whom I respect very much. We have had him give lectures at Curious before, and he took us on a full day tour of Jianmen Pass during Chuan Yue. We say that we should read ten thousand volumes of books and travel ten thousand miles, and he is practicing what he preaches, and he really does it.

I often read Mr. Fan Xiao’s public website “River and Mountain Without Words”, and I can see his love for geography between the lines. He was the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geological Corps, and the map of China is a four-dimensional three-dimensional map in his case, and he has personally traveled to many mountains and rivers. He has done in-depth research on the Three Gorges issue and the earthquake issue. He walks in space, also walks in time, trillions of years of geological landscape evolution, paleontological fossil exploration and protection, he is an expert. He looks up at the size of the universe and down at the abundance of categories.

He is a senior writer and photographer for National Geographic and has a unique sense of beauty. He is also not untouched by the world; he has had a column and a long history of soccer commentary.

I hope that all of you will put your love into action as Mr. Fan Xiao did, which is why we invited him.

I hope all of you will keep your hearts and listen carefully to Mr. Fan Xiao’s precious life experience. Finally, I solemnly congratulate the three students on growing up, and I am sure you will become the people you want to be! Thank you all!

Hello, teachers, students, and parents, my name is Yishen Wu.

Bar Mitzvah is an annual ceremony organized by Curionesty College for students who have reached the age of 17. Participating in this ceremony means that the students are saying goodbye to the “childish” stage of their lives and are moving towards maturity. The Polynesian Tiguan Piñon people will paint the bar mitzvah boy with a blood-like mixture of turmeric and coconut oil to symbolize the boy’s “death”.

I’m not a big fan of formal events myself, probably because I’m a very spontaneous person who doesn’t like to be tied down by rules and regulations, which is one of the reasons why I chose to come to Curionesty College.

At the age of 14, just entering puberty, I came to Curious with rebellion and impulsiveness. At that time, I was anorexic, addicted to games, socially inactive, and often quarreled with my parents, which was almost the darkest period of my life. First of all, I would like to thank all my teachers for not giving up on me, and thank you all for putting up with my little temperament, and also thank my parents for being tolerant of me, and thank my tutor, Mr. Bo, for his teachings to me.

That semester in ’18, I attended my classmates’ bar mitzvahs for the first time, and on that day, I put on a suit and tie, looked at my outfit in front of the mirror, and imagined that by the time of my own bar mitzvah, I might have solved some puzzle of the century, or I might have been able to travel the world without a care in the world, and unfortunately, I had done none of those things. Until a few weeks before my bar mitzvah, I was still scratching my head over what to write for my speech, still worrying about the future, always feeling like everything was ethereal, and never finding meaning in my seventeen years of life.

When I chose to come to Curious, it was more like entering a utopia, where there were no mountains of homework, no boring classes, and no need to get up at 7:00 a.m. in most schools, but to this day I realize that I was actually wrong. In Curious, although there is no system of all kinds of restrictions, but we need to face the difficult problems of life earlier than public school students, but also more personal independence, to be completely separated from parents, alone to face life.

Here, all learning is done on your own, and if you don’t follow the rules and deduct to the appropriate credit score, you have to leave. And you need to do more planning for your future, and where to go after graduation. This is one thing I don’t want to face, I don’t want to grow up, I don’t want to face these “problems of the century”, I used to think that when I reached that age, I would naturally be able to see the direction of the future, or at least have a plan, but the reality has dealt me a heavy blow, none of these things have come, the future is still a mystery. Because of this confusion, I especially envied the public school students who had no other worries except for homework, while I myself had all worries except for homework.

During this time of confusion, I wanted to escape from the reality of my impending adulthood – the uncertainty of my future, the need to earn my own living, and the fact that I could no longer use my age as an excuse for doing something wrong. Maybe it was to “get back” for growing up, or maybe it was to have fun and vent in my short-lived “childhood”. At that time, I ate after waking up, ate and played with my cell phone in bed, and then in the evening, when my friends from the public school got out of school, I went out to ride with them, usually from the evening of the first day to the early morning of the second day, trying to forget my inner anxiety through the physical exertion.

Also because I had no qualms about playing by myself at that time, I would often run around the country with a few friends carrying my bike on my back, got to know more seniors in the circle, and participated in a lot of national competitions. It was the fastest time for me to grow my skills, and it was a special joy to start from the bottom of the pack and end up with a championship. But even with such passion, I still didn’t want to take it as my future career. I was afraid that I would hate it after turning my hobby into a career, and it was a painful transition from spontaneous to forced, and to put it more vulgarly, I didn’t have 100% confidence in myself, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to earn any money by relying on the hobby. This fear gradually became a burden for me, and every day when I opened my eyes, I started to worry about what I would do in the future. But I’m grateful that I have this hobby, at least it keeps me from becoming a social asshole.

Of course, I asked many of my former classmates about their plans for the future, but I got the same answer: maybe I’ll go to work in some organization. So the whole 2020, I have been outside the social mixing, also went to do a number of jobs, have done supermarket logistics, also into the Western restaurant, through these to experience, to see if working is really a particularly good life. However, during the working period, every day I was very tired and tormented, standing and working for eight or nine hours a day, only one day of rest a week, and living a life that could not be seen to the end, and the wages I got in the end were not even enough to support myself.

That year’s experience really changed me a lot, I don’t want to be like those people, working from nine to five to support the family, by the mortgage, car loan pressure dead, don’t want their future is so boring. In contrast, learning can be too happy. After thinking about this, I returned to Curionesty College again this year, hoping that through my own efforts, I can change my friends around me, no longer narrow-minded, and not just because I don’t want to study and go to work.

Maybe by the time I turn 18, I will be forced by life and financial pressure to do those jobs and things I hate to do, but I hope I will always have the drive and courage to pursue my hobbies. At the same time, I will be able to let go of the fear of the future, no longer choose to run away, but to turn around and embrace it openly. Thank you all!

附：邬懿珅妈妈的成人礼寄语

Dear Yi:

In the blink of an eye, you have grown into an adult. In our eyes, you are a thoughtful, individualistic child who is becoming more and more understanding and is slowly transforming into an adult.

Adults, to have responsibility and value. Responsibility, is the most important sign of adulthood, is to have to bear in life, learning. When you have the ability to choose and act independently, you also have the corresponding responsibilities and obligations. Only those who know how to be responsible and can be responsible can become a truly respected person.

Value, every life in the world, have irreplaceable meaning and mission, everyone has their own value. Whether in school, at home or in society, I hope that you can give of yourself, dedicate yourself and do good deeds. A person with values lives a happy and fulfilling life.

Son, in your future growth path, we are still your strong spiritual support. No matter where you go, no matter you succeed or fail, happy or sad, we will always love, support and trust you.

Cheers for your today and blessings for your future.

–Love you forever, mom and dad.

–Bat Mitzvah Message from Mrs. Yishen Wu

Writing：Wu Yishen&Wu Yishen’s mom

Editing & Typesetting: Gege

Photo：Bottle

Good morning, teachers, students, and parents!

First of all, I would like to thank Ms. Chi Xiao for inviting me to participate in Curionesty College’s 2021 Bar Mitzvah Ceremony and to give a speech. Then, I would like to express my best wishes to the main protagonists of today’s Bar Mitzvah: students Wu Yishen, Wu Han, and Zhang Kexin.

With regard to the Bar Mitzvah, people always think and discuss what it really means to a person or what it really means in life.

In many countries, the age of 18 is taken as the age mark of adulthood, and since then one can enjoy the political rights that adult citizens have, such as the right to vote and the right to be elected. In democratic elections in democratic countries, 18-year-old citizens who get the right to vote for the first time are called “first voters”.

In this sense, adulthood means the autonomy and independence of a person, who is free from the guardianship of his elders to choose and control his own social behavior and way of life. A similar behavior can be seen in many animals, where young individuals are pushed out of their original family circle once they reach adulthood, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Of course, Curionesty College has no problem choosing 17 as the age point for adulthood. For in reality, human adulthood is a process, not simply a point in time. The law’s provisions are simply there for convenience. Generally speaking, roughly from the age of 16 to 18 is the main time period when a minor gradually transitions to adulthood.

If we take whether a person has his or her own independent value judgment and ideology, and whether he or she is able to decide independently on his or her own course of action as a sign of adulthood, then the difference may be great for people in different social environments and for people with different personalities. This standard may be even higher if it is measured against the words “independent spirit, free mind”, which Mr. CHEN Yinke inscribed for Mr. WANG Guowei.

Perhaps, some people have become adults before the legal age, which may or may not be related to those sports stars, music stars, literary stars and so on who become famous at a young age; in addition, perhaps some people are not yet adults even after the legal age, or even throughout their lives. Therefore, being older does not mean that one can be qualified to give so-called guidance to young people, and this is also the reason why I am addressing this Council today, and at the same time, I am also apprehensive about it.

As I held the 17th Bar Mitzvah Ceremony for three of my classmates today, I also thought about when I was 17 or 18 years old. When I was seventeen or eighteen, I was in junior high school in Chongqing during the Cultural Revolution. Because of the Cultural Revolution, after graduating from elementary school in 1966, I was suspended for about three years, and it was only in 1969 that all schools resumed teaching, so I entered junior high school at the age of 14 or 15. When I graduated from junior high school at the age of eighteen, I went to the countryside as a Young Knowledge Worker and settled down in the rural area of Tongjiang County in the Daba Mountains in northern Sichuan. Being settled in the countryside alone, I was basically independent in my life. Although unlike local farmers, the intellectual youths were given a monthly food ration of 30 pounds to buy, but that was not enough, they had to participate in labor to earn work credits, and in addition, they had to grow their own vegetables, cut their own firewood in the mountains, and burn their own firewood for cooking.

But it was not considered independent in thought, because the education we received from childhood was monolithic ideology. We also learned English in junior high school, but the only phrase we remember now is “Long live Chairman Mao! In school, every morning study hall was filled with Mao’s writings, and we read Mao’s “Old Three Stories” over and over again: “Serving the People,” “The Fool’s Duke Moves the Mountain,” and “In Memory of Baekchun. Not only the political class, but also the language class was basically filled with political and ideological education, the main theme of which was to bear in mind the hatred of the class and the nation, and to be loyal to the leader and to the party, and so on.

At that time, the only bookstore was the Xinhua Bookstore, and the number of books available in the bookstore, as well as the number of books that could be read, were very, very limited. Apart from the writings of the leaders, there were only a few types of other books that were used in conjunction with the political propaganda. The single source of information and propaganda indoctrination created a solidified way of thinking and conceptual model for several generations, including me.

After the Cultural Revolution, the reform and opening-up period of the 1980s can be considered the most important period of ideological liberation and renaissance in China’s modern history, during which I had the opportunity to come into contact with all kinds of information from the outside world, and was able to have a preliminary cognition of human thought and cultural deposits. During that period, when I was in my thirties, I had just stepped into adulthood in terms of thoughts and ideas.

So, today, forty years after the reform and opening up, in the age of information and network, when people can receive a wider variety of information, and when there is an educational system that seems to be more systematic and complete, is it true that the kind of confusion and perplexity that characterized people’s thinking several decades ago has been completely eliminated? Of course not. That’s why there are explorations of education and human development like Curionesty College.

China’s ideological liberation and renaissance in the 1980s didn’t really last, and the confinement of thought, culture, and education wasn’t completely broken. But in an age of information explosion and networks, it is no longer possible to return to the completely closed situation of the past. That’s why the Curionesty College undertakes courageous and unique explorations, and that’s why students have the opportunity and good fortune to discover themselves and realize themselves in the Curionesty College.

One of the dimensions of independence and autonomy that is a hallmark of human adulthood is the self-discovery and full development of the human being as a special personality. Just as there is no grain of sand in the world that is exactly the same, there is no person in the world that is exactly the same; each person’s nature, purpose, preferences, and talents are all different, but all are valuable. If one can keep overcoming obstacles and difficulties, and keep discovering oneself, exploring oneself, and realizing oneself in freedom and happiness, then one is a true adult and a success.

I learned through Ms. Chi Xiao that the three students receiving their Bar Mitzvahs today all have their own favorite things to do.

Wu Yishen is good at all kinds of sports, especially mountain biking, which is his strong point. I loved playing soccer when I was in elementary school, and from elementary school, middle school to university, I was the main player of the class team or the school team, but I didn’t have the chance to realize a bigger dream of playing soccer. I envy Wu Yishen’s current sports environment and conditions, and wish him the best in his sports endeavors;

Wu Han is a master of cartooning. I also loved drawing when I was a child, and was called one of the two best drawers by my art teacher at the school with thousands of students where I attended junior high school. Entering an art academy to specialize in art was also one of my unfulfilled aspirations, but the skill of drawing helped me a lot in geological sketching at work. I also envy Wu Han for being able to freely utilize his drawing talents and wish him a more brilliant career;

Zhang Kexin has a talent for music and art. She not only plays the guitar, but also composes her own lyrics and music, and even writes and performs plays. Unfortunately, I have not been able to learn a single musical instrument so far, and I don’t know if I will have the chance to do so in the future, so I also envy Ms. Zhang Ke Xin very much. Of course, I also wish Zhang Kexin will fully develop her talent and give herself and everyone else a bigger surprise in the future.

Another thing that comes to my mind is that adulthood is not about saying goodbye to the underage past, and adulthood is not about becoming “old-fashioned”. The most valuable trait of a human being is the childlike heart that is full of curiosity and exploration of things in the world. The most valuable trait of a human being is a childlike spirit of curiosity and exploration of the world, and even more valuable is to be able to maintain this curiosity and exploration throughout one’s life, which is probably why the Curionesty College was named “Curionesty” in the first place.

In closing, I would like to thank the teachers, students, and parents for attending this Bar Mitzvah ceremony, and once again, I would like to extend my blessings to the three students receiving their Bar Mitzvahs.

Thank you all!

November 11, 2021

Writing: Fan Xiao

Photo: Bottle & Doodle

Editing & Layout: Gege

Teachers, parents, students:

Good morning! I am now speaking on behalf of myself and Chien-Wei Lee’s mom.

Thank you to Curionesty College for organizing such a ceremony to commemorate and inspire our children’s growth. Today’s ceremony signifies that our children have grown up, and we are pleased about that.

Raising children requires a great deal of effort from parents, as well as from various parties such as the school and the community. The teachers at Curious have been putting in a lot of energy, effort and dedication in the last few years, for which we are very grateful!

As parents, we have witnessed and experienced a lot during the four years that our children have been attending Curionesty College. What I appreciate most about Curiosity is its spirit of defying hardships and being good at making changes. Curiosity moves forward through ups and downs, and our children grow through experience. Over the past few years, our Qianwei has changed from a timid and crying little girl to a brave, strong, hardworking, opinionated and understanding big girl. I think that in the important stage of life of adolescence, encountering such an environment and a group of young and progressive teachers, the child’s gains are enormous. When the child talked to us, she also expressed her gratitude for coming to Curious and the impact it has brought to her. We noticed that the child always said that she wanted to talk to Ji Xiao first when she had a big problem. During the teachers’ home visit, we also saw that she had posted a final letter from Ms. Zhang Xu on the wall of her room. The word she used most often when talking about each of her curious teachers was “good”. We have a deep sense that children are loved and supported here. It is clear that when a child feels loved, it is also when she is determined to love and learn how to love. We believe that she has realized something about the relationship between individual life and the world.

In fact, human growth is a lifelong learning process in which there is no specific point in time to mark the completion of the process. Confucius said, “When we learn the Way, we can die at the end of the day”. That means that we are in the process of growth until the end of our lives, and it is never too late. From this perspective, today’s ceremony is just a symbol that reminds us not to forget the growth of life. As the seventeen year old stands, we see all of her past. It is not a stand-alone moment, but an accumulation of all the times in the past. From this perspective, today’s ceremony also reminds us that every moment of life is equally important, that yesterday made today, and today influences tomorrow, so that how life will be in the future really depends on the choices we make and the actions we take in the present.

As growing beings, we don’t dare to say that we have much to teach our children, but we just share some of our own insights with you and look forward to hearing from you more often. Chien-Wei, in the process of raising you, we often feel how blessed we are to raise a child, and how happy we are to accompany the growth of a life. You have truly made us want to raise many, many children. From your experiences over the past seventeen years, you are fully capable of pursuing your own life and living it to the fullest. You are free to just go and fly! As parents, our only charge is this: remember, whether you are seventeen or seventy, you will always be our most loving daughter. No matter how far you go, we are at your back. Wherever you go, our hearts are there.