第七届希望之星初中组选手陈洁昊：参赛感想

　　参赛感想

　　At the exact moment when Zhao Yinqi announced the winner was me, I felt the same as Rachel Weisz did when she won her Oscar: “It’s probably because I’m pregnant, my mind is a bit like porridge anyway.” Well, clearly I’m not pregnant, but it felt as if my head had just been stirred like a bowl of porridge.

　　The whole game started a long time before the finals in Beijing. As a person who had joined the competition last year, my goal was to appear on the Outlook stage rather than in the hotel meeting room. But still, I had a long road to walk. “May the force be with you…”I murmured to myself.

　　I should probably be considered as a weird piece of talent, because I’m so different from others. Other people get more and more nervous when they get into the higher rounds; I, instead, am most nervous at the first round: the writing test. But thanks to Obi-wan and Yodas’ inspiration, I luckily entered the next round. Some say I was born to talk, so I spent most of my English studying time chatting with my EF foreign teachers, that’s probably why I had no difficulties entering the Beijing final as the Fujian Champion, but still, it was a long and winding road.

　　“I’m back.” With a classic Michael Jordan quote, I returned! One thing that was different from last year’s competition is that they had a talent show which counted for 5 points. After weeks of searching, I reluctantly agreed to do a love speech by Buttercup to her true love Westley in The Princess Bride. I’m probably a bit young to feel the irrational depths of romantic love so I didn’t actually melt into the characters while facing a bunch of judges. But besides that, the written test went far beyond my wildest imagination: I got a 90! To a girl who got a 68 in last year’s competition, this was definitely a tremendous gift from above!

　　I don’t know if everybody feels the same as I did when they go on the Outlook stage, but my only comment after dozens of round is: “Huh.” Just kidding! I felt a bit released because I completed my mission, but that also means I got the chance to go into the next round. So I said: “Why not give it a try??”

　　Now I don’t want to spend too much time telling you how I passed the 12 out of 20, 6 out of 12 and 3 out of 6 rounds, because the TV is much more interesting than my writing, but I do want to tell you about the final round for that was a rare moment in my life that took my breath away.

　　Anyway, in my dad’s opinion, I finally shone in front of the audience for once in the competition, and I was really at my best. But honestly, talking about football is definitely not my cup of tea, I even pronounced Ronaldinho wrong! I did add extra enthusiasm into the speech but Michael (contestant No.14) even took his clothes off! I was totally…speechless. Back to the topic, besides the manic and creative competition, I also made a lot of friends during the contest. (Michael, Cindy, Christie, Orlando, Brittney, Kevin, Eric, blah blah; if you ever read this, please link the bold-faced letters together and it will spell out…it’s the Lucy Chen Code)

　　Last but not least, thanks to my parents for loving me. Without them, I wouldn’t have gone this far.

　　Thanks to CCTV and Common Talk for giving me wings to fly.

　　Thanks to all the judges and hosts who continued on working even though it’s way past bed time.

　　Thanks to everybody who worked in the backstage, you are the real heroes of this competition.

　　Thanks to Jack and David Stevens for your timely suggestions.

　　Thanks to David Powell for he encouraged me to follow my dreams.

　　Thanks to all my friends for letting me know what true friends are like.

　　Thanks to Kimberly Finch and everybody else in EF for helping a small town girl become the champion.(Is it Thanksgiving today? I don’t remember buying turkeys…)

　　Well, I’ve already talked too much. May the force be with all of you in next year’s competition, I’ll wrap this up with a quote:

　　“Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”