Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Tientsin, September 18, 1931
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Tientsin, September 18, 1931
Subject
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Thomas Sun, Tientsin, September 18, 1931
Transcription
Dear Tommy:
Your wonderfully interesting letter of August 19 reached me just in the midst of the opening rush of the new school year. I am not going to try for a minute to answer the letter now as it deserves, for it is just impossible to do so. I do want to tell you, however, that I am delighted at the reaction you have experienced on your return to your native land, and confirming what I have always said to you, I hope with all my heart that you will be able and eager to render a real and lasting service to your country, especially in these days of its great heed, and will find that your American training and experience have not after all been of any real hindrance, but rather a help in the big and appealing work ahead.
And so this is just a brief note to let you know that I am thinking of you, tremendously interested in you as always, and hoping and praying that your life may be one of great usefulness to your country and so to the world. Don’t let yourself get into the rut that so many of our returned Chinese students have slumped into through chafing because they have not been able to secure important positions and attained unusual prestige at the very outset of their careers. You will doubtless have a long, hard fight ahead of you, and a man isn’t worth much unless he makes it, and he is worth a lot if he makes it with his head up and his eyes fixed on ultimate victory. Your old football experience at Middlebury ought to help you here, for you learned, as all of us did in our athletic days, that the victory that really left a sweet taste in our mouths was the one attained only after the hardest kind of fighting and the temporary pain of hard knocks.
And so all kinds of good luck and every highest success to you. Keep me posted, please, for no one will be more keenly interested in your progress then I, and no one, I think, will be rooting harder for you all the time.
Ever sincerely yours,
Your wonderfully interesting letter of August 19 reached me just in the midst of the opening rush of the new school year. I am not going to try for a minute to answer the letter now as it deserves, for it is just impossible to do so. I do want to tell you, however, that I am delighted at the reaction you have experienced on your return to your native land, and confirming what I have always said to you, I hope with all my heart that you will be able and eager to render a real and lasting service to your country, especially in these days of its great heed, and will find that your American training and experience have not after all been of any real hindrance, but rather a help in the big and appealing work ahead.
And so this is just a brief note to let you know that I am thinking of you, tremendously interested in you as always, and hoping and praying that your life may be one of great usefulness to your country and so to the world. Don’t let yourself get into the rut that so many of our returned Chinese students have slumped into through chafing because they have not been able to secure important positions and attained unusual prestige at the very outset of their careers. You will doubtless have a long, hard fight ahead of you, and a man isn’t worth much unless he makes it, and he is worth a lot if he makes it with his head up and his eyes fixed on ultimate victory. Your old football experience at Middlebury ought to help you here, for you learned, as all of us did in our athletic days, that the victory that really left a sweet taste in our mouths was the one attained only after the hardest kind of fighting and the temporary pain of hard knocks.
And so all kinds of good luck and every highest success to you. Keep me posted, please, for no one will be more keenly interested in your progress then I, and no one, I think, will be rooting harder for you all the time.
Ever sincerely yours,
Creator
Alfred E. Stearns
Publisher
Phillips Academy
Date
September 18, 1931
Rights
All Rights Reserved by Phillips Academy
Language
English
Type
Correspondence