2025 Commencement Ceremony | Speech by LLM Student Kivia Ribeiro da Silva Xavier

Today, we gather here to celebrate a long-dreamed achievement: the Master in Laws by Peking University, School of Transnational Law. Our first day feels like yesterday. I arrived here two years ago, my first time outside my country, in search of learning about Law and myself. And how much I have learned. 

今天，我们相聚在此，共同庆祝期待已久的成就——获得北京大学国际法学院LL.M学位。仿佛就在昨天，我们踏进STL的大门，开启了这段旅程。两年前，我第一次走出国门，来到中国，带着对法律的好奇，也带着对自我的期待。如今回首，这段旅程的收获远超想象。

In the classroom, the environment was a rich and diverse community. From South America, through Europe and Africa, to the countless cultural nuances and wonders of the world’s oldest living civilization: China.

在课堂上，我们共同学习、彼此交流。这个多元的学习环境将来自南美、欧洲、非洲的我们和来自拥有悠久历史与文化的中国的你们汇聚在一起，充满了思想的碰撞与交流的火花。

Through this worldwide journey, I am forever grateful for my legal studies at STL, which provided an international perspective and sharpened our intellectual rigor. The STL professors guided us with integrity and purpose, constantly encouraging us to question, to reflect, and to grow beyond the boundaries of the law itself. The friends we made here held our hands so we could arrive, at this day, together, with those we grew alongside, day after day — and with whom we now leave this auditorium looking at each other with pride and admiration for the professional step we have reached today. Our families, even if on the other side of this vast world, were also a central fuel that kept us going through this chapter of our journey.

这段全球化的学习经历，赋予我们国际化的视野与严谨的思维。教授们以专业和热忱引导我们质疑、反思、成长，甚至突破法律本身的边界。而身边这群并肩作战的同窗，无论是晨光熹微时还是星夜灯火下，我们都彼此扶持，走到今天——此刻，环顾四周，每个人眼中都闪烁着对彼此成就的自豪与敬意。当然，还有地球另一端的家人，他们的支持如同永不熄灭的灯塔，照亮我们跋涉的每一步。

To be honest, thank you is an understatement and will never truly express the feeling that forms in our hearts when we remember all the people who live here (in our hearts) and have been part of this experience — whether in STL’s classrooms and corridors, on the green lanes of this campus, or in warm calls from home. Yet, for lack of a better expression, to all of you, my most sincere, our most sincere, thank you!

说实话，“感谢”两个字太过单薄，难以承载我们心中沉甸甸的感动。无论是STL教室走廊的匆匆身影，校园林荫道上的倾心长谈，还是深夜视频电话中亲人的一句问候，点点滴滴汇聚成我们心中最珍贵的记忆。虽然言语无力，但请允许我向所有参与这段旅程的人，真诚地道一声：谢谢！

And what were these paths, and how did these learnings blossom? For me, my journey was divinely paved with golden bricks. I shared my terrible Chinese, which still drew smiles and compliments from my Chinese colleagues, in their kindness and hospitality. I sang what filled my heart — love, and strength — on stages much larger than I could have imagined, opening windows through which international and Chinese students could glimpse one another, speaking the most beautiful universal language: music. I ventured through Chinese cuisine and definitely concluded that I am not a spice-loving Latina, but rather one who fell in love with Cantonese food.

那这段旅程是如何塑造我们的呢？我的故事里满是闪闪发光的际遇：我的中文虽然仍不流利，但中国同学的包容与热情总是让我感到温暖。我站上比想象中更大的舞台，用音乐传递爱与力量，让中外学生在旋律中彼此了解、彼此靠近。我也勇敢尝试各种中国美食，最终发现对我这个“不爱吃辣的拉美姑娘”来说，广府珍馐才是我的本命。

China and PKU have become my second home, where my heart took root and split 一点点 between Brazil and this lovely other side of the world. We lived Peking University School of Transnational Law, and to future students, I suggest you live it too.

中国和北大已然成为我的第二故乡，心灵在此生根，牵挂分作两半——一半留给巴西，一半系于这地球另一端的美好家园。我们真真切切地经历了STL的学习生活，也希望未来的学弟学妹们能在这里全情投入，勇敢探索。

And after all the memories here engraved, what remains inside our hearts is saudade, a word in Portuguese with no direct translation, but which carries a unique emotional weight. For Brazilian author José Antônio Tobias, saudade is “the bitter-sweet feeling of a missing love.” People, places. It is a good missing, a good absence, that, deeply felt, intertwines with love. A paradox that will be felt by us once we walk through those doors — an absence that will be incorporated, not as suffering, but rather as joy.

当所有回忆都在这里悄然镌刻，留在我们心中的，是一种叫作 saudade 的情感。这个葡萄牙语词语没有确切的中文翻译，却蕴含着独特而深沉的情感重量。对巴西作家若泽·安东尼奥·托比亚斯而言，saudade 是“对逝去挚爱的一种苦中带甜的怀念”，是对人、对地的思念。这是一种温柔的缺失感，一种内心深处的牵挂，它并不令人痛苦，反而因与爱交织而显得动人。正是这样的saudade，将会在我们走出这扇门后，在心中悄然生长，成为不舍中的喜悦，离别中的安慰。

Last, but not least, I rub the magic lamp to wish three things to my fellow graduates. First, that your future be bright, that you contribute to your communities with the ethics you have already proven to carry, echoing transformation across the globe. Do not be scared to shine bright. Second, despite the obstacles, the sun keeps rising and shining, bringing a new day, with opportunities as beautiful as the faces I see before me. Third, I wish that you may spread a legal practice that is human-centered, truthful, diverse, and transnational.

临别之际，且让我轻拭神灯，为同舟共济的诸君祈愿三事：一愿诸位前程如朝霞破晓，以淬炼于南燕园的品格润泽四方，让世界听见变革的跫音，莫让星辉敛于云霭；二愿纵使道阻且长，仍信朝阳必越重峦，每个熹微晨光里，都有如你们笑颜般明媚的机遇待启新章；三愿诸君播撒法治星火——以人文为壤，以真理为炬，以多元为帆，以寰宇为疆。

This is only the beginning!

此去，方起华章！

Once again, thank you all. 

再次衷心感谢大家！