2009 Prepared speech contest: script

The 11th Edition
小修正不成一版，大修正(改超過一百字以上)就另存新檔，大修正共十次。

Hoping for Uncertainty
- Haishuo Lee-

“Certainty is beautiful, (pause) but uncertainty is more beautiful still.” (pause) The quote was by 1996 Nobel Prize winner, the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska. I did not understand the meaning of it at that time, no, not until I fell into desperation from predicted certainty, and found hope again in future’s uncertainty.

Mr Contest Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, 2 years ago, I met an old, wise-looking man in my friends’ house. He said he was a Master of the ancient art of Chinese fortune telling, Chiwei. To my surprise, the Master began to state many secret facts about me. As I was still amazed, he offered to tell me more. So, I told him the exact date and time I was born, and he closed his eyes and started to calculate. Moments later, he frowned and muttered: “No good, no good.” I stared at him in nervous anticipation, receiving nothing but silence. Suddenly he opened his eyes and proclaimed with authority: “For the next thirteen years, your life will be miserable, you will fail at everything, and great misfortune will be yours.”

Desperately destroyed by his prediction, I began to shout, “What can I do?”, “What can I do?” Again he closed his eyes. Again the answer came. “To change your fateful fortune you must become a monk, in a temple, until you are forty. Then, great fortune will be yours.”

I could remember nothing later said on that day. The only thing that I could remember was: “be a monk”, “in the temple”, “until 40”. 27 to 40! They’re the golden years of my life. I should be making money, chasing girls, and starting a great family. But now, someone’s telling me to be a monk! Me, monk? NO!

I was preparing for my graduate school entrance exam back then, and his words certainly crushed my confidence. I went home about midnight with all those “being a monk” sentences echoing in my head. I could not fall asleep, let alone study. I dragged my tired body and mind to the living room, sitting on the sofa, turning on the TV, hoping to find some comfort. To my great surprise, I found the solution to my miserable fortune on television. Where did I find it? “HBO, your home movie theater.”

A movie called “Paycheck” was playing on HBO. It’s a story about a scientist inventing a machine that could foresee the future. There were some lines in the movie that truly blew my mind and shone a whole new light. They went: “Knowing future would take away all other possibilities. You may think it’s good in the beginning for it provides such a sense of security, but you are wrong. Because if there are no other possibilities, there is no hope, and hope, is what we humankind can truly rely on!”

Like the spring wind that gently replaces winter chill, those lines took away my desperation at the thought of finding myself trapped in the predicted certainty. I stood up from the sofa and looked out of the window. I saw lights from many buildings glimmering in the darkness of the night. There seemed to be so many uncertainties should I choose my own destiny, and face the possibility of failing at everything before forty. However, those lines reminded me: as there were possibilities, so was hope, and hope, would be what I can rely on!

Starting from the very next day, I studied in the library from 8 in the morning to 10 in the evening. 2 months later, I not only passed the graduate school entrance examination, I championed all test-takers. Starting from that moment, I lay the compass of my destiny not on others, but on my own hand. Step by step, my destiny has led me here today, heading toward higher dimension. Whatever the result is, it’s not failure nor desperation, but success and glory!

I am not saying that being a monk is bad. Some girls like bald men. (Pause) But it’s just not for me right now. I am not telling you that “HBO” can always give you the answer, because I may have become a monk if the movie I saw had been “7 years in Tibet”. When we set our goals and strive for them, somehow the light of hope shall lead us to good fortune. “Certainty is beautiful, but uncertainly is more beautiful still.” Why? Because in those uncertainties, we can still hold fast to hopes! Yes! Uncertainly is more beautiful! Join me in embracing uncertainty and meeting the challenges and opportunities of this unpredictable world. Contest chair!