By Elina（向清怡） from 2402

Good morning, respected teachers and dear fellow students.

Today, my speech is titled Finding Your Passion.

As international high school students, our daily life is always very busy and full of pressure. We face tight schedules, endless schoolwork, and frequent exams every single day. It is easy for us to fall into a boring and repeated routine, feel physically and mentally tired, and even lose our motivation for study. Most of the time, we only focus on improving our grades and chasing higher scores. We often ignore those small and warm joys in ordinary life. However, passion is exactly the bright light that drives away our tiredness and confusion, and gives us steady power to keep growing on our teenage journey.

Many people have a misunderstanding of passion. They believe passion only refers to special talents, outstanding abilities or great life achievements. But in fact, passion has no fixed standard and no strict definition. It can be any simple, positive and lasting love in daily life that inspires us and helps us become better versions of ourselves. For me, my deepest and longest-lasting passion is the Harry Potter series, including reading its original books and watching its English movies in my spare time.

I have kept this meaningful hobby since my middle school years. It is never just simple entertainment to kill time. Instead, it has become an important spiritual companion during my busy high school life. On busy school days, after finishing all my study tasks and homework, I will spare a little quiet time to read the novel or watch short movie clips to relax myself. On weekends and holidays, I will watch the complete movies and reread the classic stories carefully, quietly thinking about the precious spirit behind every plot and every character.

To me, the world of Harry Potter hides countless valuable life lessons. The main characters in the story often face difficult challenges, huge pressure and even dark difficulties. But they never choose to give up or escape easily. Harry, Hermione and Ron always support and trust each other. They keep brave, stick to kindness, and chase hope firmly even when they are trapped in hard and hopeless situations.

Reading the original books allows me to clearly understand the characters’ inner thoughts and their gradual growth step by step. Watching the matching English movies shows me their courage, friendship and perseverance through vivid scenes and sincere lines. Both ways of enjoying this story teach me precious qualities that cannot be learned only from textbooks.

Whenever I meet difficult knowledge points, confusing questions or feel exhausted from endless exercises and exams, I will think of the spirits of these characters. They always remind me that no difficulty in study and life is unbeatable. Every challenge we face is a valuable chance to build our confidence and make us stronger. Therefore, I learn to stay calm and patient, face all problems bravely, and keep trying steadily instead of feeling frustrated and giving up halfway.

Moreover, this hobby greatly helps my English learning. By reading original novels and watching authentic English movies, I naturally enrich my vocabulary, improve my listening skills, and build a better sense of language. It effectively relaxes my brain after long hours of hard study, removes my learning tiredness, and makes me more focused and efficient when I return to my schoolwork.

Most importantly, this long-term passion teaches me self-management and perseverance. I gradually understand that real strength never comes from natural talent alone. It comes from continuous daily effort and a positive attitude towards life. I learn to reasonably balance heavy study tasks and personal hobbies, and firmly believe that excellent grades and a rich inner world can go hand in hand.

From my personal experience, I truly realize that passion can be simple and ordinary. It can be reading and watching meaningful works, doing sports to keep healthy, learning art to enrich life, or joining volunteer activities to help others. As long as it brings us positive energy and pushes us to keep improving, it is worthy of being cherished and insisted on throughout our youth.

However, finding an interesting hobby is easy, but holding on to it for a long time is quite difficult. Many students give up their passions because of busy schoolwork. They turn their daily life into mechanical and repetitive study, which makes their youth dull and empty.

In fact, real passion will never distract us from our studies. On the contrary, it balances our stressful school life, lights up our boring daily routine, and provides us with lasting motivation to move forward.

Life without passion is just empty repetition. As teenagers with unlimited potential, we should step out of our single study routine, explore our inner interests, and find our own unique passion.

We do not need extremely grand and distant dreams. We only need a simple passion to stick to every day. Let us balance study and hobbies, keep a positive mindset, and move forward with energy and perseverance. Let us embrace our passion sincerely and let our youthful days shine brightly!

Thank you all for listening！