张行健

我是张行健，来自清华大学生命学院生02班。我的理想是成为一位科学家。

我从小学起就这么想。记得小学的时候有次老师问大家的理想，全班大部分同学都想做科学家，当然也包括我。这种想法来自父母的灌输，那时候“科学家”对于我们来说只是一个又高又模糊的概念，说“我想做科学家”能够得到老师的表扬和父母的赞赏，所以我们这么说。后来我上高中的时候，有节英语课，老师偶然问道这个问题。同学们本来还昏昏欲睡，或者偷偷玩手机看小说，此刻却都认真起来，左顾右盼想看看谁举手。全班六十多人，只有两三个人举手，当然也包括我。高中生相比小学生就成熟了很多，当我们举手，我们都是认真的。我很高兴的是即便现在，如果有人再问起这个问题，我还能举手，因为“做科学家”仍然是我的追求。虽然对于现在来说，“科学家”本身又成了一个比较模糊的概念，“做科学家”似乎听上去也有点幼稚可笑，但是我仍然更愿意这么形容我的理想。

之所以“做科学家”能成为我这十几年来罕有的几件坚持得这么好的事之一，其原因在于我总能在学习科学的过程中获得新鲜有趣的信息，而这是一件很让我满足的事情，所以我就希望能自己投身到科学中去。现在我的兴趣主要集中在神经与认知科学，我在钟毅老师的神经与认知科学实验室学习工作，在这里我每天都能获得新知，每天都觉得离理想更近了一步。这种感觉真是美妙极了。

另外出于类似的原因，即尝试新鲜事物，篮球和摄影是我的两个主要爱好。在球场上，我既可以通过不断的练习提高老动作的熟练度，也可以自己一边琢磨一边尝试各种新动作。端起相机，我就需要考虑视角、构图、光线和色彩，我喜欢尝试各种没有使用过的拍摄技巧。这两种活动就像科研一样，总能挖掘出无穷无尽的新鲜感，所以我对它们一直保有很高的热情。

My name is ZHANG Xingjian. I’m an undergraduate in Tsinghua University, School of Life Sciences. My dream is becoming a scientist.

I’ve got this dream since elementary school, many years ago. Once the teacher asked about our dream. Most of the students, including me, gave her the answer: Becoming a scientist. Actually this was due to the parents. For elementary students, scientist was just an ambiguous and lofty concept indoctrinated by adults, and we said so only because it could make teachers and parents happy. A few years later, when I was in high school, the same situation happened to occur in an English class. The teacher asked if there were any student wanting to be a scientist. Everybody looked around to see who would raise the hand. This time, only two or three of the entire sixty hands were raised, also including mine. Compared with elementary students, high school students are much more mature. When we raised the hand, we really meant it. Now I’m really happy that if anyone ask the same question at this moment, I could still raise my hand without any hesitation. Although once again “scientist” becomes an ambiguous concept for me and it may seems a little ludicrous to claim my dream like this, I prefer to state it in this way.

The reason for my persistence is that I really enjoy obtaining fresh and interesting information through studying science. As a result, I would be a science devotee. Now I’m interested in cognitive and neural science. I’m an associated member of Prof. ZHONG Yi’s laboratory, where I learn new information every day. Now I feel like every day is one step on the way towards my dream, which is really wonderful.

Additionally, out of the similar reason: Try fresh things, basketball and photography are my major hobbies. On basketball court, I could think and try new moves as well as practice iteratively to improve old skills. When I pick up the camera, I have to consider the visual angle, hue, light and composition of the picture. I love trying every new method, every new angle to make my picture special and impressive. It is because like scientific study, the two activities also have infinite freshness that I always stay enthusiastic to them.