Master's HOME Letter
Hopes for our Home
A Letter Written to Myself
At the Orientation Camp for freshmen in early September, I sang a song together with another student – A letter written to myself by Sherman Chung. This song is about a person who have received a letter written by him/herself about a decade ago while he/she was still young with many hopes about his/her future. Although a decade later, some of the hopes could not be realized, the writer of the song still encourages us to dare dreaming while we are young. Although I was not young at all, as a new Master, I also have hopes for our “Home away from Home” for our students. Maybe, it is a good idea to jot down my Hopes now and see many of them can be realized by the end of my term.
My first Hope for our Home is “Peace”. Our Home is a shadow of our society that houses students coming from diverse cultures and ethnicities. Hence, it is a perfect place to learn how to live in peace with one another. Peace is particularly precious amid this unusual period of history when there are increasing conflicts around the globe. My second Hope is for our students to learn to be “Professional”, that is, to work hard in order to achieve the competence and ethical standards (for example, honesty) that are required from your programmes or assigned tasks. We can bring solid positive changes to our society only if each of us can carry out our unique duties with professionalism. Sadly, today, many talented people compromise professionalism because of personal gains. My third Hope is that we can also be “Playful”. Our minds and bodies are created with the need to engage in enjoyable activities (for example, sports, music, arts, movies, etc.) especially after periods of hard work. We may even discover our talents that we are born with, yet we are not aware of it simply because of lack of exposure. My fourth Hope is that our students can learn to be “Philanthropic”. The word philanthropy means not only to give out money, but it also means “active effort to promote human welfare”. I hope our students can see the needs around the College, University or our Society and take the initiative to serve these needs. The saying that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Book of Acts 20:35, the Bible) can only be realized if we can venture out to serve for a good cause. My last Hope is that on the day of graduation, not only that we can acquire a certificate, but we can also grow in “Personhood”. The word Confucius means “people who study”. In Confucius time, it is the study of how to become a better person in all aspects, i.e. “holistic development”. So my last hope is that you can become a better person with respect to “Culture, Moral, Devotion, and Trustworthiness”. These are the Mottos of our College.
Well, among all the “Ps”, probably the first “P” (i.e. Peace) is the most important. I admire the wisdom of our Chinese culture saying that “Peace at Home brings Prosperity in all things”. With Peace as our foundation, all other “Ps” can be developed healthily, and our Home will become prosperous. My hope for each of you and for our Home is Peace and Prosperity in years to come! Let’s work on it together!
Yours,
Master Mok
