这是第九届海淀区英语风采大赛初赛的演讲题目。前天得知进入复赛，没有惊喜，如果没有进入，那才叫新闻。说说比赛的那天，是12月5号，周日上午，碰到好几个认识的人，师大的子弟和班上的同学。遗憾的是，对话的同伴水平太差，她说的我基本听不懂，考官似乎也听不懂，我说的她好像也听不懂，于是，对话几乎无法进行下去。说起来，这个比赛还曾经有过一个海选，不知道海选的标准是什么，如果这个水平的孩子都能进入的话，海选大概没有什么作用。

既然比赛已经结束，我在这里晒一晒我的参赛讲稿。首先声明，这个讲稿不完全是我执笔的，我没有那么高的水平，也不是老妈执笔的，老妈不想做，而是在我的私人老师Alonzo的指导下完成的。过程是这样的，我先写个草稿，读一遍，Alonzo听了，然后提出修改意见，并且帮我修改，我再读一遍，再修改，如此反复了好几次，反正花了将近两个小时就做了这一件事情，文章才定稿了。不得不说，这个文章的主题很好，比老妈的水平高，尤其最后一句，“只有接受变化，我们才能成长”，颇有哲理，现在经常被老妈拿来教导我。所以，在这里要好好感谢Alonzo，虽然他不会看到，心存感恩就好。

Growth and Change

In January 2009, I went to the USA to study English. At first I was scared and nervous because at that time, I could not speak English very well and frankly, I didn’t like to speak English. Also I had very few friends in the USA in the beginning. I felt lonely and bored. I missed my friends in China. But slowly I began to make friends and my English began to improve. I felt like I was growing and changing. It wasn’t that my body was growing and changing but rather I was growing as a person, I was learning to adapt to a new country, to a new environment.

By the time I left America three months later, I not only learned to love English but I also made many wonderful friends. Making these new friends taught me I could survive and thrive in a new place. Why is that lesson important? For me, it shows that anyone can live well in a new place, if they have courage and if they are willing to accept change. It is only when we accept change that we begin to grow.