Two years ago, on the stage of "Super Speaker: Youth", a high school junior was scolded for a speech on the hot search.
The student's name is Zhang Xifeng, and he is from the famous Hengshui Middle School in Hebei Province.
In his speech, Zhang Xifeng shared his experience of struggling to change his life and wanted to justify the "Hengshui model".
He almost choked up and expressed his determination not to be ordinary:
"I am a local pig from the countryside, and I also have to aspire to arch the cabbage in the big city. ”
This may sound harsh at first, but in the context of the whole speech, it is not a literal vulgar meaning. At best, it's an inappropriate metaphor.
But unexpectedly, in the 11-minute speech that brought countless viewers to tears, only this sentence was spread all over the Internet.
This sentence not only sent Zhang Xifeng to the forefront of public opinion, but also made him change from a small town with a cold window to a "phoenix man" who couldn't be washed away even if he jumped into the Yellow River.
Now that two years have passed, what has become of the boy who was powerless to fight back in the turmoil?
01.
Some people live in high-rise buildings, and some people are in deep ditches
On the podium, Zhang Xifeng described himself as a "soil pig", not a joke and self-deprecation, but his self-confirmation after frustration, and his long-standing inferiority complex.
Zhang Xifeng was born in a remote village in Hebei Province, and his childhood life can be described as carefree.
But this carefree comes at the expense of the quality of education.
Zhang Xifeng spent the first three years of primary school in the town. "Two rooms, three grades" is the whole picture of this elementary school.
The facilities are poor, and the teachers are even more scarce, and the teachers often need one person to "play multiple roles".
Zhang Xifeng's Chinese teacher, after the Chinese class in the morning, went back to the office to listen to the recording for half a day, and waited until the afternoon to give English lessons to the students.
Teachers who are not sure about pronunciation often helplessly ask students for pronunciation of words in class.
Zhang Xifeng's parents knew that such backward educational conditions were destined to block their children's way out. So after working hard to save a sum of money, they immediately transferred their son to another school.
That year, Zhang Xifeng was only ten years old and couldn't even speak Mandarin well.
As the saying goes, "Dog meat can't get into Shanghai." This is probably the first impression that Zhang Xifeng left on his classmates after transferring to another school.
Walking into the bright and spacious classroom for the first time, Zhang Xifeng stood on the podium and introduced himself with a red face. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he spoke in an earthy dialect, and before he finished speaking, the whole class burst into laughter.
It's just that he can't keep up with the progress of learning Xi in the classroom, and even Zhang Xifeng can't fit into the physical education class.
On the playground, Zhang Xifeng, who was in contact with football for the first time, couldn't tell the difference between the enemy and the goal, and kicked several "own goals" one after another. Amid the accusations and ridicule of his classmates, he was so ashamed that he couldn't hold his head up.
After trying to fit in again and again, but could only become the laughing stock of the class, Zhang Xifeng clearly saw the gap in education for the first time.
It turned out that when he was rolling wheat fields, fighting crickets, and shaking a fan with his grandparents to enjoy the coolness, his peers were asking for private tutors and signing up for interest classes, and he was held up by his parents, and he saw a broader world early.
"The starting line of that group of people is probably my finish line. ”
This is one day when he was walking home alone after school, Zhang Xifeng suddenly "woke up". At that time, his classmates had already been picked up by their parents one after another.
This cruel perception made the young Zhang Xifeng feel hopeless, and he stood in front of the familiar traffic light, not knowing where he should go for the first time.
Looking at those passers-by, Zhang Xifeng seemed to see his future self - no matter how much he struggled, he was destined to end up as an ordinary person with a hard life.
But he is only a teenager, does he have to accept his fate like this?
02.
Willing to be ordinary, but not willing to be mediocre
At the beginning of his speech, Zhang Xifeng borrowed the words of Haruki Murakami and repeatedly emphasized that he was an ordinary person.
"Born in an ordinary family, raised in an ordinary family, with an ordinary face, ordinary grades, thinking about ordinary things. ”
Every time he reads "ordinary", the unwillingness on Zhang Xifeng's face becomes more obvious.
When he was discouraged, it was a sentence in the documentary "Aerial Photography China" that awakened Zhang Xifeng's unwillingness to bury deep in his heart-
What kind of China have you seen?
Hearing this, Zhang Xifeng involuntarily began to recall. But he wandered through his pale memories, but found only a few lackluster images.
At this time, Zhang Xifeng raised his head and saw the great rivers and mountains of the motherland spreading out like a picture scroll, and an impulse suddenly surged in his heart.
The world is vast, why is he like a frog at the bottom of a well, guarding every inch of land and willing to fall?
At the very least, we'll have to get out there and have a look.
Life has just begun, the future is not a foregone conclusion, and the opportunity to change one's life against the sky has always been in his hands.
Thinking of this, Zhang Xifeng no longer felt sorry for himself, he had the courage to peel off the rust all over his body for the first time, and dreamed of being able to fight for a future for himself like those glamorous classmates.
When he was in high school, Zhang Xifeng entered Hengshui Middle School. In this school, which is known for its "militarized management", Zhang Xifeng has completely changed as a person.
He is no longer the "local child" who does not dare to raise his hand in class, but has transformed into a young role model who dares to express himself in front of the whole school and even the national audience.
Zhang Xifeng, who was standing on the stage of "Super Speaker", still had a trace of an inconspicuous northern accent in Mandarin, but his eyes were firm, his aura was down, and his gestures were all high-spirited.
Recalling his closed childhood, he is not ashamed, he does not complain when it comes to the battle-like life in Hengzhong, and when it comes to the future and ideals, his eyes are full of light.
"We are not college entrance examination machines, just a group of children from poor families who want to be the pride of their parents. ”
Zhang Xifeng, who was about to step into the college entrance examination room, felt for the first time that the future was close at hand and within reach.
Looking at Zhang Xifeng's hoarse appearance on the podium, Dumb Dad remembered another familiar figure.
It was Fu Wendi, who spoke on behalf of all the senior high school students at the senior swearing-in meeting of Sangzhi Middle School.
In the school's stadium, Rune Wendi's thin body burst out with a shocking sound-
"It's dark on campus at six in the morning, but the score of more than 600 points is really dazzling. ”
But Fu Wendi, who inspired his classmates with his heartfelt shouts, encountered a menacing cyberstorm.
Some people ridiculed her distorted expression, some sarcastically mocked her hideous posture, and some people labeled her as "arrogant and utilitarian", defining the inspirational speech written by Fu Wendi as worthless poisonous chicken soup.
Dumb dad doesn't understand why keyboard warriors have so much malice towards a young man full of fighting spirit.
But Camus's sentence accurately sums up the distorted psychology of cyberbullies: "Losing patience with reality, but hostile to the past and giving up on the future." ”
Maybe they are crushed by reality, and they also need to choose to spend their lives, so they will be easily stung by Rune Wendi's positive and fearless appearance.
We all know in our hearts that no matter how narrow and crowded the single-plank bridge of the college entrance examination is, it is the only way for the children of poor families to rewrite their destiny.
The teenagers firmly believe that they are Honghu, and they are moving forward in the dark with the dream of "Dapeng rises with the wind one day and soars to 90,000 miles", what is there to be ashamed of?
But looking back, why can the inspirational narrative in the past ignite blood, but now it can only detonate hot searches?
The problem is by no means with the "Zhang Xifeng".
03.
After the watershed, life is a long way
After the scores of the 2021 college entrance examination, Zhang Xifeng's results were quickly exposed: 674 points, 228th in the province.
With such a good score, Zhang Xifeng was admitted to the engineering experimental class of Zhejiang University.
But he achieved such excellent results, but public opinion at that time was "applauding".
"Why didn't you get into Qingbei?"
"That's it, where are you going to arch cabbage?"
But two years later, those passing-like public opinion can no longer affect Zhang Xifeng in the slightest.
After being admitted to Zhejiang University, Zhang Xifeng stood on a new platform to fight against the bigger world, and he had already obtained the entry ticket to change his fate.
In the recent news, Dumb Dad saw Zhang Xifeng as a role model and accepted some high school lecture invitations.
Back on the high school campus, Zhang Xifeng used his personal experience to answer questions and cheer for the younger students.
Like him, Rune Wendi of Sangzhi High School also scored 645 points in the liberal arts and was finally admitted to the Chinese People's University.
Perhaps, the reality is the same as Zhang Xifeng's self-deprecation at the crossroads many years ago, even if a poor student gets a high score and is admitted to a prestigious school, he cannot be compared with those who were born in Rome.
But when they look back at the way they came, they must also really feel that they are amazing: they have come so far before they know it.
From a small mountain village to a big city, from a local school with incomplete desks to a 985 school with top educational resources, who can deny the significance of their efforts?
From "Cold Gate" to "Dragon Gate", Zhang Xifeng confirmed better than anyone that every step he took in the past counted, and a cyberbullying would never end his struggle.
Those who face the sun will only leave the shadows far behind.
But behind the ridicule of Zhang Xifeng, it is not just an outlet for personal emotions, but a reflection of a collective anxiety.
Under the current situation of intensifying involution, depreciation of academic qualifications, and lowering of knowledge thresholds, it is often difficult for children who have reached the end of the ivory tower to accept the huge gap of returning to a mediocre life.
Undergraduates, graduate students, and Ph.D. students, after getting out of the ivory tower, the salary they get still can't keep up with the prices.
But such a reality should not be a reason for us to be negative about life.
Do you still remember Li Song, a senior in Hengshui who shouted "take one more point and kill a thousand people"? Ten years later, he has become a permanent diplomat to the United Nations.
Such an earth-shaking life situation is not as simple as the word "counterattack". When he was in middle school, he was ridiculed as an "exam machine", running forward in everything he did on campus, making 20,000 papers a year.
I don't know how many weeks it takes to circle the earth in a row, coupled with self-sharpening day and night, to achieve this diplomat Li Song who goes international.
These small-town students, who change their fate by doing problems, tell us with their own experiences: even if the Roman mountains are high and the roads are far away, we will always arrive one day.
Just like Hu Shi said: "What are you afraid of, the truth is endless? ”
So, don't be intimidated by falling behind at the starting line. What really determines the direction of your life is every step you take from now on.