给下一届苏世民学者的一封公开信_时事

给下一届苏世民学者的一封公开信

Know what you are coming here for

明确未来一年的目标是什么

"You get one life, so do it all."

– Bobby Axelrod (Billions)

A few of us have a weekly “Billions” watching club at the college and Bobby Axelrod is no doubt one of our favourite characters from the hit TV series. Yet in our context, his philosophy is hard to put into action by the simple fact that time will always be limited, trade-offs have to be made and for that you need to know where your priorities are. One year will go by quickly and unless we have a clear awareness of what we are hoping to get out from our time here.

在书院中，我们有群美国电视剧《Billions》的粉丝，而剧里的男主角一向都很强调生命短暂，因此什么都要奋斗的一种理念。可是，我们要记住的是，时间永远有限，难免要做出取舍，而明确的做出这个决定是基于你是否了解自己的核心目标是什么。一年将会很快过去，而如果你没有一个清晰的目标，时间将不知不觉地流失。

How then can we think of what those priorities should be? One framework that came from our discussions was to see it as 3 balls to be juggled- career development, personal learning, building friendships. Career development focuses on both long-term career exploration and skills/ experience building such as through attending workshops or working part-time. Personal learning revolves around wider knowledge accumulation and personal reflections- specifically by virtue of being in China, we may want to think about specific aspects of China that we would want to learn more of. The final bubble on friendships is self-explanatory but the art is in thinking of the myriad of activities, interactions and groups that we would form (because choosing how and who we spend our time shows where our priorities are). Note that these are only directional areas to guide thinking, but it’s up to us to set out what our specific objectives in each of those areas. Thinking of those objectives will only be the first step, discovering what means or ways to achieve those (be it external events, travelling, self-initiated projects) will be the next important thing to consider. To this point, remember that the programme will not spoon-feed us with opportunities, it’s up to each of us to actively initiate and pursue the things that we want to see and do. (For starters, quite a few of the most memorable activities have all been student-driven)