In Gossip,We Grow up

About 1000 years ago on Mongolia’s magnificant grasslands, a hero rose from obscurity to conquer the Asian world. He was brave, masculine and ever-victorious. He was Genghis Khan, the founder of Mongolian Empire.

Genghis was not born ever-victorious. Once, in a major battle, his tribe was defeated, and his beloved wife, Borta, was abducted and taken away to a hostile land. To save her, Genghis fought like a lion. Battles after battles, he finally got her back. But their story was not as happy as the fairy tale, such as Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White, or the modern version, William and Kate.

Soon after Borta’s rescue, people noticed that she was pregnant. Instead of celebrating, people began to gossip about one thing, when did Borta get pregnant? After Genghis rescued her? Or before? And was Genghis the father of her son Joky? The mean gossip continued to swirl through the tribe even after Joky’s birth.

Genghis Ghan, throughout whose life, had fought numerous battles. But the hardest one was this battle in his heart. Hearing gossip about his wife’s infidelity, he endured something worse than most men could bear. Suspicion, humiliation, irretation, every sensation was challenging, torturing and even killing this Flying Eagle of the Grasslands. However, after unimaginable suffering and chilling pain, his faith in Borta, in their mutual love, in humanity saved him from death to rebirth. And he was reborn with the wisdom of a real man that gossip was only gossip, which is never sufficient ground for doubting or judging a person, especially a loved one.

The reborn Ghengis did everything a man could do to shield his family from shame and slander. For Borta, he was a considerate husband, caring and loving till the end of his life; For the kids, he was an affectionate father and grandfather, to Joky, and Joky’s son, the legendary Kubla Khan; For himself, he was a wise king, with a more benevolent mind and stronger determination, winning every heart on the grasslands. Together with his son, his grandson and his tribe men, Genghis built up the Mogolian Empire.

Luckily, gossip was not enough to destroy the life and cause of the conqueror. Instead, it made him grow from a tribe head into a great emperor. The painful lesson Genghis learned 1000 years ago told us that words are not enough to defeat a person.

In our lives, we all sooner or later encounter gossip about our loved ones, friends and ourselves. We may feel embarrased and insulted. But showing our weakness and doubts only fans the fire of gossip. We need to stand by the ones we love in their hour of need, to give them a shoulder for comfort and be an unwavering friend to rely on. We need to open our hearts to trust, love, and humanity when surrounded by gossip. We need to be strong enough to hold our own beliefs no matter what we hear.

A couple of days ago, I heard several schoolmates whispering, “Why does she bother to compete in London even without a standard British accent?” Yes, what they said about the accent is true. But I wonder how did Genghis Khan march in the English literature world by taking up the longest page in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? I’m sure he couldn’t make any speech in English, even with a Mongolian accent. If words,1000 years ago, were not enough to prevent Genghis Khan from building up his empire, from taking care of his family, from becoming the hero of Chaucor; then words, today, are also not enough to stop me from competing here, from growing up to be a better speaker, from holding the belief that it is just accents of all kinds that make this International Public Speaking Competition truly internationalized.