I still remember the first time I heard this phrase in my freshman year of high school... At that moment, it felt like a sudden enlightenment, along with an infinite admiration for that generation. Every time I think of this phrase, it's like a baptism of the soul and a struggle against desire. They restrained themselves for the sake of a meaningful life and fulfilled their duties faithfully. Their actions are worthy of respect because they did what ordinary people couldn't do. This can be considered their powerful response to philosophical questions like "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" A weak country needs its citizens to have ambition.
To this day, school education and family education rarely bravely guide young people to think about these propositions... It might be due to the development or decline of the social environment, or perhaps due to the insincerity of educational institutions. But as the country becomes stronger, it needs ambitious citizens even more.
Not attending the school anniversary made me feel like it would inevitably be a farce of the materialistic era. I miss the simple days with classmates and alumni. Wishing you all well.
On a side note, I want to vent my disdain for that Nobel laureate who claimed to have worked for America for 50 years. There's really no need to mention that he is of Chinese descent because his true homeland is America. China's reluctantly tolerant attitude provided him with the best environment for retirement, but compared to his classmate Deng Jiaxian, who devoted himself entirely to his motherland, Yang Zhenning is nothing but excrement. An annoying extra, shamelessly flaunting his ignorance everywhere.