The small ships of ‘captains’ born in 2008 have received orders to set sail. If you have completed your preparations but still feel distant worries stirring inside, what should you do with the hidden waves in your heart?
The thoughts of a ‘captain’ before the high school graduation exam
There is a strange kind of fear: the fear of having prepared everything.
Not the fear of not having studied. Not the fear of not knowing. But the fear like a captain who has meticulously prepared for a voyage across the ocean yet still stands on the deck, looking ahead, and feels waves stirring in his heart. Before the ocean, even the most thorough preparations seem so insignificant. Haven’t ships once deemed unsinkable met with disaster on the high seas in world maritime history?
The small ships of ‘captains’ born in 2008 have received orders to set sail. There are captains who are confident and at ease because they are seasoned through city, national, and international student competitions. There are captains who have already secured a berth at a certain university, and there are also lucky captains who do not need the voyage on June 11 and 12 because they have already docked early by being part of international competition teams.
But the majority of the remaining captains are rushing day and night to prepare for what is perhaps the most important voyage of their lives: the 2026 High School Graduation Exam and university admissions.
If you have completed your preparations but still feel distant worries stirring inside, what should you do with the hidden waves in the captain’s heart?
Write down your worries
First, you need to answer the question: Why are you afraid? What exactly are you afraid of? Is that fear truly something to be feared?
Psychologists call this emotional identification. Research by Matthew Lieberman on the UCLA Health website shows that if you can name a negative emotion, the activity in the brain region responsible for anxiety decreases.
It’s like when you’re scared of a strange noise at night, just turning on the light and seeing, “Oh, it’s just the puppy dreaming and bumping into the curtain,” immediately halves the fear.
Naming your fear is not admitting defeat; it is the first step for your brain to start controlling it instead of being controlled by it.
For fears with a concrete form, like knowledge you haven’t mastered in a subject; some uncertain question types; grammar points you often confuse; a strict proctor; or an exam room as hot as an oven in the sweltering weather…
Take a pen and write it down. What is the name of that fear? Not to complain. Writing is to “settle accounts” one by one.</
