Good morning, President Tang, our dean, teachers, honorable guests, and above all, fellow graduates of class 2022:
This is my honor to represent the Division of Culture and Creativity and share this day with you.
I don’t know whether you have the feeling like you’ve graduated so many times since April, the Final Year Project presentations, graduation photo shooting, or emptying your dormitory…Finally, congratulations, officially, we’re here attending our one last ceremony together.
Ever since kindergarten, I was living and learning at boarding school. So, I grew up making many important decisions on my own, one of which was deciding to attend UIC, almost exactly four years ago around this time. Later, I chose CTV as my major, without any hesitation, I could say. However, this major is not a major that could help you make a lot of money. Instead, it costs a lot. My parents don’t understand my decision. They sometimes would show disappointment in more subtle ways, such as seeming disinterested in what I am doing in college. But anyway, they can’t really stop me.
After gaining full access to professional training in filmmaking and directing, I started to realize how much I enjoy telling stories with visual components that could make the audience laugh and cry.
For this reason, last year I made the second important decision, which is to choose fiction production as my final year project (FYP). Here I want to thank all the CTV professors. Specifically, my supervisor Mr. Derek WAN, though he criticizes me a lot. He always tells us to shoot your “inner scars,” the brightest or darkest moment in your life, because only something that will touch you will touch others.
Then I started to think, what actually touched me? What did I want to express and convey in my Final Year Project? I am only twenty-one years old. I haven’t entered the workplace. I haven’t got married. While I have years of non-communication with my parents. So, the third important decision I made was to insert my real relationship with my parents into my film. I want it not only to be my graduation film but also a bridge to fix the relationship between me and them.
The name of my film is called “One Step Forward.” During the four years at UIC, I have made plenty of decisions, some may be wrong, and some may be full of unknowns and confusion. However, with the support of family, teachers, and friends, I have summoned enough courage to chase what I want. In the end, I just want to tell you that graduation is not an end, it’s just a step forward. Now it’s time for us, the class of 2022, to get out there, to make even bigger personal decisions.
Thank you very much again for all of you being here today.
