Not long ago, a writer friend was invited to give a speech in his alma mater of primary school, telling me that during the time he communicated with students, some students handed in a lot of notes. There was a note saying: What was your ideal when you were in primary school?
This writer friend was very honest in front of the students. He said with a smile that his ideal when he was in primary school was not to be a writer, and he didn't expect that he would become a writer now and make a living by writing. He told his classmates a lesson when he was in the fourth grade of primary school. In that class, the Chinese teacher asked the students what their ideals were? The students stood up one after another and said happily. Some say that being a scientist needs to invent many useful things for people; some say that being a singer needs to sing many beautiful songs; some say that being a writer needs to publish many books that people like to read; some said that they would be painters and draw beautiful pictures; some said that they would be glorious soldiers to protect the country; some said that they would be astronauts and fly to the moon ...... At that time, he stood up and said confidently: I want to go to junior high school. A writer friend told me that immediately, the students under the podium burst into laughter. The writer's friend said to me with a smile. I remember that in the primary school class at that time, Chinese teachers and classmates also smiled, thinking that what he said was too unsatisfactory.
Then, a writer friend told me that the reason why he said that was because his peasant parents educated him when he was young. At that time, his family was in a bad condition, and his parents asked him to go to school well, hoping that he would go to junior high school after finishing primary school, senior high school after junior high school, university after senior high school and work after college. Therefore, his parents have educated him since he went to school. No matter what he will do in the future, he must work steadfastly like farmers planting crops. There is no way out without harvesting crops in natural disasters, but we can wait for the next year. No matter what difficulties you encounter in the future, don't blame others, but have the energy to march forward bravely. At that time, he thought that the ideal at that time was to be admitted to junior high school. Only when he was admitted to junior high school could he be counted as reaching a new stage. Nobody knew what the future would be like, he firmly believed that only climbing up one step after another could lead to a bright future. Later, he indeed came over step by step. Although he failed in the first college entrance examination, he was admitted to the university through hard work when re-studying. Later, he grew up to be a writer through hard work.
The writer's friend also told me that at the end of the speech, he put the words in Xunzi's "encouraging learning" that "if you don't accumulate small steps, you won't reach thousands of miles; if you don't accumulate small streams, the sentence "can't become a sea of Rivers" is given to the students as a gift. "From your growth, I now understand a profound truth that ideal is good, but not the most important. Having a steadfast, peaceful, steady and aggressive heart is more important than ideal. This valuable attitude towards life will benefit people for a lifetime ." After hearing what he told me, I said with infinite emotion.
