President Tang, teachers, parents and fellow graduates.
I am Zhai Bojuan, a graduate of Communication. On this special day, thank you for celebrating it with us .
Today, I am here to talk about my life at UIC. It’s short, just a one year program, but it has totally changed my life.
I know some classmates think I am a Xue Ba. In English it means a nerd. In case you don’t know what a nerd is, it is someone with a GAOKAO score of over 700 or a GPA of just under 4. Frankly speaking, I did study hard at UIC, but actually I never thought I could be a Xue Ba before coming to UIC. You see, I did a really bad job on my bachelor degree. Nobody, not even my parents, know that I failed two subjects as an undergraduate and almost couldn’t graduate. Thanks to Covid, they are not here today .All of these failures were just because I didn’t know what my passion was and chose the wrong major. To be honest I had had a tough and disappointing time in college, and I used to think maybe my whole life will be like that, to be an ordinary person without passion and without success in any field.
But now I have found my passion and rebuilt my confidence at UIC, I realize I have a huge interest in Communication and Marketing so I study really hard in these two fields. I not only got a really good grade but I have also found a great internship at a great German company Siemens. I never thought I could work in an international company before. Suddenly, my whole life has been changed, and it started right here at UIC, I have become super confident and passionate, and I strongly believe I now own my future.
I would like to thank my family, professors and classmates who gave me unconditional support. You have made a miracle happen.
Finally, I want to share a quote with you. Someone wise and super-successful in the US said “you can’t connect dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
UIC is definitely a big dot in our life and I hope all of us can connect this dot to our bright and unlimited future.
Thank you and the best of luck to all of us.
