Wow, good afternoon. I didn’t expect such an amazing crowd. And as you can see from the TEDx introduction it says that I’m 9 years old. But just 3 weeks ago I welcomed my first two digit birthday, now you probably know I'm 10 years old. 10 years, Can you imagine? Oh my god!
A lot of things changed. Almost everything. But there is one thing that had never changed and I believe that all kids sitting here should know what I'm talking about --- HOMEWORK! My homework can always be in the way as an African buffalo. And I have never joined the 'I love homework so much' club but still I do enjoy learning.
Well you see, we are constantly learning throughout the entire life, whether as a student, as an adult, as a parent or even your grandparents. Maybe it’s funny but it’s actually true. But most people think it seems sort of a mission impossible. It’s strenuous, arduous and laborious! Who want to learn in that kind of atmosphere. It sounds like a stinky cheese. But it doesn’t have to be like that. And it’s all down to us to discover, share, and retain the joy of learning.
I remember I was this fat boy at school and my home while my mom was online shopping something that are probably like shampoo. While peeping over her shoulder, I thought that’s a bizarrely shaped object! It has a giraffe-like neck and a gigantic body and a long tail. It was, what my classmates call it, a dinosaur.
Well, I was immediately attracted by these prehistoric creatures. And I jumped up and begged my mom to buy one for me. And that became my very first toy in life at the age of 3. Dinosaurs opened up an entire new world for me. Well, I could dive into dinosaur books, seem to never come out again. Well, just joking. And I can go onto (the) internet and search for hours. I can even skip meals just to learn about dinosaurs. And while having fun, I learned about the spiked lizard styracosaurus, vegetarian triceratops and gigantic meat-eating giganotosaurus.
One day, I firmly stood up, walked to my mom and said:
'Mom, I want to be a paleontologist, to study all about the fossils of the dinosaurs.'
She was like: 'What? What did you say?'
'Mom, I want to be a PALEONTOLOGIST.'
'What on earth? Of course son, you can be anything you want!'
Oh seriously. Does she have any idea what a paleontologist was? No! And she was so astonished by how a three-year-old boy so determined to be something she had never dreamed of.
And I didn’t just stop there. I spent hours (in) chatting with my American friend Steven because he was just as passionate about dinosaurs as I was. We would often do dinosaurs’ impersonation like how ugly they looked and how they roared.
As I went into the first grade, my science teacher assigned us a project about ecosystems. Although, I admit, I have no idea what ecosystem was, still my dad and I came up with a great idea: we used a shoe box to create the general scenario; we used toilet paper as brown and green curvy trees and we also painted jewel-blue winding streams and there were eight white dinosaurs, while not alive, but still the very first aid I brought from my mom.
There are Styracosaurus; Ankylosaurus; Triceratops and etc.. I named my project “Creature Park” because it’s full of the dinosaurs that I love. At school, I gave a presentation about my project to the entire class. They all like “wow”, beamed with joy and gave me a big round of applause. Well you see. Their encouragement stimulated my joyous appetite and sent me off on another journey of learning.
At the age of 6, my mother granted me this time a second toy. It was a globe and it shook up my own globe a little bit. I learned that we live in a country called China and the earth is full of strangely named oceans, lakes and countries. They all seem to be brothers and sisters, seem to be related. Don’t you think? Like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. That’s lots of stans. Now, let me be clear with you: I stan for world geography. And I drew mind maps, post post-it notes in all of my room and drew my own world maps.
In the summer holidays, my speech teacher Bobo phoned me and asked me about a country that he has no idea how to spell just because he met someone from that country, Eritrea. The image of Eritrea’s map opened a land in my mind and then I listed every single fact I know to him.
Did you know that Eritrea is a member of East Africa Community which is used to improve the cooperation among the east African States. It is bordered by 3 countries, Sudan in the west, Ethiopia to the south, and Djibouti to the southeast. It’s a multilingual country with no official language. It is the 99th largest country in the world in terms of land area with 117,600 square kilometers. Shishi! I never knew that the stuff I accumulated could actually come in handy even with my speech teacher. Birthday surprise. And that even I want to know more about the country’s rivers, lakes, cities, provinces and traffic conditions!
At school I even started a geo-marathon-pop-quiz with my geography teacher. Every time we meet in the office or the classroom, he will test me on everything and anything on world geography. So far I’m unbeatable and as a winning streak for half a year now but it’s taking a toll on me.
Since I am taking atlas wherever I go, even I am going to the toilet, I still don’t have lots of time in the world 24/7 to learn world geography. Even my homework is taking over the world, I don’t want to stop. But still anyway, I was squeezing 30 minutes every day just to learn about world geography. And that led me to learn about the inter-dependency of the world and the importance of world history. Every day it’s like a treasure hunt. I would discover something new about this world.
Subsequently, the first toy brought me tremendous amount of joy and helped me realize the actual joy of learning. The second toy taught me that learning can be challenging and stressful, but the joy is still there. However, the third toy was different. It was tricky. It’s like a Pandora box. Well, if you know what I mean.
When I was 7 years old, I received a golf club from my Dad. I remember the first time I swung, even though it’s so bad, my dad was like wowed: you are a gifted golf player, son. You know what? I was juiced up and my ego was boosted. I decided to be a dedicated golf-player almost immediately. Officially, I embarked on a roller coaster voyage.
I did not in the tiniest scale understand how hard it was. One scorching summer day, 40 Celsius degrees outside. I was sweating and my shirt was soaked, well, not with blood. I just wanted to take a break. But My dad looked at me dead straight in the eye: son, if you want to be a dedicated golf player, don’t get distracted by the heat. Hang in there, alright? Okay! I kept on but the moment I looked up, I was shocked: he was sitting under the tree, drinking iced-tea, and looking very pleased. Well, I was speechless, so what can I say?
You see, playing golf requires constant focus, prediction and brain power, because every hole is different, every bunker is different and every green is different. Even the weather conditions can make a large difference on where about the ball is actually going. There are days I feel I’m standing on top of the moon, and there are also days I feel that I hit rock bottom.
Last January, I attended the national golf tournament in Zhuhai. It was a chilly Saturday morning, The sun rose in a pool of red, crimson and gold, spilling light over the smooth golf course. I set my foot on it and I came with a significant amount of confidence.
As you can imagine, on the first day, I hit the best score in the record of history but on the second day, the wind went bizarre and was sighing and thrashing in the tree tops and a curtain of rain beat down from the heavens. Even my dear mother nature decided to turn against me. I tried to block it all out but somehow I lost the focus and kept on making silly mistakes. As you can imagine, on the second day, I hit the worst and lost the game. I was embarrassed, devastated and my heart was broken. I cannot stand the pain of losing in front of my parents, competitors and a bunch of spectators.
I tried to hide my frustration and anger, but my joy of learning golf was completely gone! What’s worse, my brain kept on telling myself: You can’t do this! You can’t do this! You’d better quit now. Naturally, my dad tried to talk me out of this pessimistic mindset. “Son, all golfers fail even Tiger Woods. Hang in there, alright?” Honestly, I am a little bit fed up with my dad’s dear pep talk. He basically said the same thing every single time I failed the competition. Is that “hang in there, alright?” the only phrase that he knows?
But still, to play a fair game, he’s a cool dad. He was always there for me when I feel depressed. He would sit with my frustration, listen to my complaints and sometimes try to tell me jokes that are actually pretty funny.
Well, whenever I got better, he took me to the training course and had more training sessions. From that day on, we extended the training hours. We analyzed each movement, and we pushed the boundaries further. And I learned to arm myself with positive self-talk. And I created a kind of positive stream of energy that drove me to higher performances and better skills. And finally, hard work paid off. I won a few competitions. But oh please, don’t get me wrong. Don’t call me god. I still lose games occasionally.
And now, thinking back, I would say I have no rigor of playing golf. And I discovered the joy of learning does not necessarily have to lie in these good times. Sometimes, the road can be bumpy and tricky. But the process of learning to overcome and analyze these obstacles can even allow you to go deeper. And these tiny rewarding successes along the way can bring you more joy.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick moment to think why us kids or even parents don't have much joy in learning nowadays. Is it because we are too deceived in the thoughts we 'thought' we were passionate about? Is it because we are chasing after our parents' dreams instead of our own? Or is it because learning becomes a competitive sport instead of a joyful ride?
From my own learning experiences, the key to maintain the joy of learning is to go deep with your passion, not to meet anyone else’s expectation or treat it as a big competition. As Albert Einstein said, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’s gonna live its whole life believing that it is dump.". Just a kind reminder to all parents, don’t worry about us kids. We are just fine! Perfectly fine! Don’t need to push us. Don’t need to pull us. Don’t need to force us. Because we have our own way.
I firmly believe that learning should be full of happiness and joy as long as you can start from your own passion, continue with execution and fly with your imagination. So three toys sparked my curiosity and enlightened my world of learning. Now I’m getting a little bit curious: what’s my next toy? And the same applies to you all: what’s your next toy?
Thank you!
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