On December 29, 2006, Yuan Yuan's high school held an "18-year-old adult ceremony". The school gave parents an assignment in advance: to write a letter to their children. The letter was opened by the child during the ceremony.
Here is the letter we wrote to Yuan Yuan.
Dear child.
Thanks to the school for providing such an opportunity to speak to you in such a way as writing a letter. When we picked up the pen, we couldn't help but be slightly surprised by the subject matter - how that little baby born in 1991 had become an "adult" in the blink of an eye. Although we have been together since you were born, we have watched you grow up day by day, from the time you could smile, roll over, call out to your mommy and daddy, learn to walk, go to elementary school, enter secondary school ...... all your growth, we have witnessed it all, but you have "grown up The fact that you have "grown up" still leaves us in awe!
Before writing this letter, mommy and daddy discussed what to write about, and we coincidentally thought first of all of our appreciation for you. Baby, that's what we really wanted to say to you, we appreciate you!
We don't know why you have been so smart and understanding since you were little. As far as we can remember, you almost never cried, and your little mouth was often happy like a trumpet flower. You were the only one who told the nurse, "Auntie, I'm not going to cry," when other children cried in a pile during kindergarten checkups because they were afraid of needles. You are also like a little poet, when your mother took you two years old to walk through a tree shade in the hot summer, you said "we put on a big tree straw hat". When you were seven years old, you were able to hold back the incense and consciously give the only piece of cake to your little brother who was visiting the house. Still an elementary school student, you were more sensitive to safety awareness than your mom, alerting her to avoid possible dangers ...... You have so many funny things for us to look back on. You often joke with your dad, each patting his own stomach and saying "full of knowledge", and then patting the other's stomach and saying "a bag of shit", laughing with joy. Normally you are so calm, even though you have always excelled from elementary school to middle school, you never think you have anything better than others, which is exactly what we appreciate: humility. Your humility is really in your bones, not a gesture at all. We are glad for that and believe that you will have a lot of room for development in the future.
You are only 16 years old now, and you have more than two years to go before you turn 18 in terms of age, but you have such maturity in your values, the way you do things, your level of thinking, and your ability to judge, which we have to admire. We will often seek your opinion on some issues, and this kind of seeking is also from the heart, because you always analyze with great atmosphere. This made us realize that maturity is not only an age, but also a virtue.
A "rite of passage" is a remarkable sign, a tribute to all your previous days and a warm reminder of the years to come. It is a sign that your wings have hardened and you are ready to fly into the blue sky on your own. You used to live under the care of your family and school, but in the future you will have to take responsibility for yourself and your family and contribute to society. Dad and mom hope that in your future life, you will first be a good person, a kind, tolerant and decent person; learn to solve the conflicts and unhappiness in life, don't take things too seriously, and make yourself happy in life. At the same time, I hope you will have good habits and participate in sports as much as time allows to ensure your health.
I have a lot of hopes for you, so I'll just write these two here for now.
The last thing I want to say is that in such a ceremony, you have to thank all the people and things you met, your parents, teachers, classmates, close friends, as well as school and society - it's all of them that made the lovely you. Mom and Dad also especially want to say to you here: Thank you, our baby!
Hope you are happy every day!