There’s a reason why a good article, a film, or even a seemingly random remark from someone can keep influencing you long after the fact.

A junior from my undergraduate program told me that after attending a hackathon I organized, he went on to participate in many more — and did really well in all of them.

That truly moved me. When I decided to organize that Datawhale campus event before graduation, I never expected such an outcome. I simply wanted to do my part to breathe some life into the stagnant atmosphere at my university. Looking back, the result was far beyond what I’d hoped — it genuinely helped people. Moments like these make me really happy. I don’t help others expecting anything in return, but I do hope they benefit from it and, eventually, pass that help along to others. That has always been my wish.

One sentence has been echoing in my mind these past few days. It’s from a blog post by Manjusaka, someone I started following shortly after I first got involved in the open-source community. He wrote: Be a role model, but don’t become an idol. I’m sure I hadn’t visited his blog for a long time after that, yet the phrase just surfaced out of nowhere — as if it were a cry from somewhere deep inside me.

Since middle school, I remember students calling each other “gods” and worshipping other “gods” — and it was still the same in college. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that; it’s even a little endearing. But I think it reveals something. We never lack idols — there are countless more behind our screens. What has gone missing, at some point, are role models. These role models aren’t found among the “postgrad dorm rooms” or “straight-A students” featured on school media, nor among the “paper-churning machines” or “Vibe Coding geniuses” on social media. They live in the answer you once wrote in an elementary school essay: Who is your role model? What kind of person do you want to become?

This finally made me realize that many of the things I’ve done — regardless of the original motivation, even if it was vanity — ultimately crystallized into something genuine: the desire to be a role model.

Being a role model means shouldering a sense of responsibility: speak up when you can, do what you can, help who you can…

A friend recently put it well: “You help those you’re meant to cross paths with.” After all, every encounter is a once-in-a-lifetime meeting. Going forward, this might be the starting point behind everything I do.

Thank you to my role models. I hope someone reading this will also want to become a role model for others.