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 新学期，由于居住地变化，接送变得非常不方便，女儿住校便成了唯一的选择。
 

开学前一天，我左手提着行李箱，右手拎着铺盖卷，腋下还夹着衣架和卫生纸，噌噌噌往宿舍楼四楼爬。女儿捧着蚊帐，跟在后面赞叹：“我的老母亲真是个女汉子！”

我想起18岁去上大学，爸爸、妈妈、姐姐拎着大包小包走在前面，我空着双手、摇着马尾，高高兴兴地走在后面。那时我和她一样，是千娇百宠的小公主，现在我是老母亲、女汉子。

开学的那个早晨下着大暴雨，爸爸送她去学校。我想到，下了车之后，她要拖行李箱和书包，还要腾出手去刷健康码，哪还有手...

As for the starting point…

The brightly-lit nighttime skyline of Hong Kong, viewed from the Peak itself, where I sat calmly to write down some thoughts on this matter? 

Initial confusions caused by being thrown in a black-and-white world of two sides, where one is destined to win and the other, to lose; fast and comprehensive thinking; rationality and logic? 

Remember that laughing judge? Or the two advocates sitting side by side, referring to each other without looking at ...

刘彪 | 微思客传媒维护部部长，北京706青年图书馆发起人

月初的时候回去看了我的学生。

2013年我被派到新疆去支教一年，那会儿我的学生刚刚初一，教他们历史，今年他们刚好毕业考高中。几个孩子没读了高中，有成绩太差没考上的，有成绩还行，打架被开除的，我都觉得很惋惜，不过他们告诉我一件事儿，更加惊讶。

那就是念怡和狗力谈恋爱了。

念怡和狗力都是我班上的第一名，一个顺数，一个倒数。

狗力叫苏力，但是特别调皮，上课捣蛋，下课疯玩儿，而且跑的很快，追不上，大家都叫他狗力。

他在过道里喊着，“刘老师，刘老...

I landed on a chair whose smooth texture and tough hardness I once knew so well. Approximately 50 pairs of eyes were starring at me, as I placed my non-recyclable lunch box and chopsticks on the equally familiar-looking desk. 

Time machine? It felt surreal yet so real. So familiar yet so estranged. Even the pair of cheap, un-environmentally-friendly chopsticks have rendered themselves part of a rather distant past, though appearing infrequently from time to time. In a similar manner do I...

I feel its weight in my hands. Its interesting texture. The unique scent. That feeling of flipping each page with pride and joy — each page that is equally thought-provoking, and each crystalizing memories of all of those precious moments that we have shared collectively, as we carefully pondered over each detail, discussed our thoughts with each other, and made decisions that would define our ever-evolving identity and shape our future…

The release party was wonderful. As we handed ou...

If you were to dive into my iCal or folders, you would be sure to find tons of documents labeled “OH”. It’s not an exclamation, as much as I am always excited about it. Instead, “OH” is my abbreviation for Office Hours, a particularly defining element of my college experience.

Somehow, I’ve always had a romanticised picture in my mind of what Office Hours would be like: a cozy afternoon where the sun shines gently into a book-filled office, an erudite scholar sitting behind a wo...

2015年10月22日傍晚，全美顶尖文理学院波莫纳学院（Pomona College）的2200名学生、教授、校友及家长同时起立，用热烈的掌声迎接美国联邦最高法院 (Supreme Court of the United States) 大法官索尼娅·索托马约女士（Sonia Sotomayor）到访该校。

波莫纳学院每年会向被录取的新生推荐一本“大一读物”。新生入学前都会阅读此书，并在开学的第一周与教授和同学共同探讨和分享他们阅读此书的感悟。与此同时，“大一读物”也在校园里向其他学生及老师免费发送，鼓励全校师生阅读并广泛深入讨论。2015年入选的读物正是索尼娅·索托马约...

Scene Two: The 2,200-People Community

When you have 2,200 people sitting together in an auditorium, you bring a community together. Sure, out of the 2,200, the percentage of people who know their neighbours at the venue is relatively insignificant. As a liberal arts college that takes pride in our close-knit community and close interactions with faculty members, Pomona has a student population of 1,600. That evening, everyone — Pomona College students, faculty, alumni, family and sta...

Flashbacks

Reading Days just prior to Finals’ Week, May. Admittedly, I was in full nerd mode®, hectically studying for my exams at the Romance languages library. That was when an email that excited me for months arrived in my inbox. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was to visit Pomona College on the 22nd of October this year. Thrilled, I got up immediately to pick up my free copy from the Dean’s office.

Each year, Pomona College selects a “first-year book” that the inc...

SETTING: Our Beloved World

CHARACTERS: All the people in it

Prologue

Thursday, 3:30 pm. I walked out of my international relations class, trying to put aside the heaviness sparked by the discussion on the Rwanda genocide and other ethnic conflicts. The first floor of Carnegie Hall — that classy building resembling the White House to some degree, and home to the politics and economics departments at Pomona College — was quiet. I slipped into the pair of dark blue heels re...

When the sky is rinsed in that cathartic, faint blue hue; when the soothing pools of raindrops cleanse the dryness of this land; when the only sounds that echo around our ears are the gentle “drips drops” that flow and grow over time…

That shall be when, perhaps, those words will come back to me. I shall gather the faded memories from an earlier chapter of my life, and smile at the effort, faith, love, joy, gratefulness, and excitement that I had put into this project. Perhaps, one day...

“ZZzz…z-i-ao Yeee?” 

“Here. Please call me April.”

And here we go again. Admittedly, my given name is difficult for Westerners to pronounce. While most Chinese names are badly pronounced in terms of their tones, my name usually causes a even greater struggle, to such an extent that some of my course instructors, on the first day of class, would hold their breadth for a second, and then say “I will give this a try, but…apologies in advance if I say it wrong.” or the equivalen...

Before we explore what transitioning from secondary school to university is like, let me briefly present myself to you through this virtual platform. Some interesting (okay, perhaps weird too) facades of my personality:

• I tell my friends the books that I recently borrowed / bought to read outside of class, somehow hoping that they would ask follow-up questions about the specific content of the books. This could motivate me to read when there are so many priorities that are equally exci...

*本文为乐成教育集团内刊的内容。我在五月接受了该杂志的采访。

《乐成》 ：你是何时来到国际学校就读的？与之前的国内学校相比，你觉得都有哪些不同？

许筱艺 (April Xiaoyi Xu)：我是九年级来国际学校就读的，那时我刚刚上完八年级。之前就读于北京市重点中学二中的数学实验班，分数被视作最为重要的，所以功课特别紧，我每天回家都要面对做不完的试卷。

我觉得国际学校的不同之处在于：鼓励学生从参加各种课外活动中挖掘出自己的潜能。我创立的“根与芽”环保社团尤其强调这一点，“每个个体都是不一样的”。在全校范围...

Of all the items in my walk-in closet, my favourite is a plain DIY T-Shirt from Greece. It has Plato’s quote, ‘Thinking: the Talking of the Soul with Itself.’ and my name in Greek.

I wore it to our Orientation Adventure at Sequoia National Park, a four-day hiking-and-camping trip that marked the start of real college life: as my parents returned to China during my time at Sequoia, I was to begin living in my home away from home as a young adult.

If I were to graph my mood with ti...

Gender agreements. Subjunctive tense. Imperatives. Conjugations. Words that look easy but turn out to be weird - Lo, Se, Te, Os…

They are all staring at me. Voiceless, yet resolute.

If that’s the attitude Spanish had towards me, then why not respond proactively? With resolution. When first presented the options of continuing to study Chinese at the native speaker’s level or starting to speak a completely new language at the start of one of the most rigorous secondary school educa...

So adorable is the nature, and so challenging was the journey. It was full of obstacles, challenges and fun. Within the short twenty-eight hours, an awareness of environmental impacts, friendship, leadership and team-working and surviving skills were greatly improved.

All packed, we left school at about eight. A neat assembly line was formed in order to take the bags inside. Sitting on the bus and chatting with my walking, cooking and sleeping partner Anthea, I felt generally r...

On the Fleeting Moments and Vivacity

Why wait? Creative inspiration flees, as does youth. As does life. Love. Blossoming emotions. Flowery language. Petals. Vivacity from the nature… 

Beneath a cherry blossom comes a chanting group of young children, cheerfully chiming the wedding march. Next to them, I have been wondering about the fleeting moments of life, and the very vivacity of life.

How stubborn we are, how fragile we are… Those thoughts just swam in my head, partly tr...

Pounding with exhilaration was her heart, as she rushed to the platform to the Eden of her mind. With ample confidence did she step into the ancient campus, which incessantly guided her in her midsummer night’s dreams… Step, step, step. Steady and sophisticated did she greet her host. 

     Blossoming petals, bushy plethora;

     Sweeter than perfume is the scent

     Of optimism with no oppression.

     Softened hearts, soaring whispers,

     Songs of life’s mirage… For the

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