但让我们把这点弄清：人生最好的年华不在未来，而是当下——此刻我们的一部分，今后只会不断地重复，我们搬到纽约，搬出纽约接着后悔我们来过或没来过纽约。我三十岁时还想开派对。我老了之后还想精彩地活着。任何时候我们提起最好的年华，总离不开那几个老掉牙的前缀：“早知道就…”“如果我…”“要是我…”
But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re part of us and they are set for repetition as we grow up and move to New York and away from New York and wish we did or didn’t live in New York. I plan on having parties when I’m thirty. I plan on having fun when I’m old. Any notion of THE BEST years comes from clichéd “should have…,” “if I’d…,” “wish I’d…”
确实，有很多事我们都后悔没做：该读的那些书，那个住在隔壁的男孩。我们对自己相当苛刻，正是为此才这么容易让自己失望。偶尔睡过头。偶尔拖延。偶尔投机取巧。我不止一次回想去高中时的自己，不禁感叹：我怎么可能做成那些事?那么刻苦，我是怎么做到的?内心隐隐的不安全感和我们形影不离，也许会伴随着我们一生。
Of course, there are things we wish we’d done: our readings, that boy across the hall. We’re out own hardest critics and it’s easy to let ourselves down. Sleeping too late. Procrastinating. Cutting corners. More than once I’ve looked back on my high school self and thought: how did I do that? How did I work so hard?Our private insecurities follow us and will always follow us.
但你要明白，我们都不完美。没人在他们想醒来的时候起床。没人完成该做的阅读(除非是那些获奖的狂人....)我们对自己的要求那么高不可攀，也许一辈子都没法成为想象中完美的自己。但我们都会平安无事。
But the thing is, we’re all like that. Nobody wakes up when they want to. Nobody did all of their readings (except maybe the crazy people who win prizes….).We have these impossibly high standards and we’ll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves. But I feel like that’s okay.
我们这么年轻。如此年轻。我们才二十二岁。我们有大把大把的时光。有时我会有这样的感觉，派对之后孤身一人躺下，或是选择放弃之后把书本打包走人时，我们都有这样的感觉——那就是太迟了。别人早已遥遥领先。比我们更有前途，更有潜力。在拯救世界这条路上比我们走得更远，他们在创造，在改进。现在再开始一个开始实在太迟，因为我们早该坚持下来，早该启程。
We’re so young.We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective consciousness as we lie alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out—that it is somehow too late. The others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.
我们初到耶鲁，还有一丝可能性。我们还拥有这股巨大而无法被定义的潜能——而如今它却在一点点消逝。一直以来我们无需在人生中做出选择，但突然之间我们必须这样做。有些人因此选择局限自己。有些人因此清楚地知道自己要做什么，也顺利地上路了：要去医学院，要去那家光鲜体面的公司工作，要去作研究。对你，我只有两句话相送：一是恭喜，二是——你没救了。
When we came to Yale, there was this sense of possibility. This immense and indefinable potential energy—and it’s easy to feel like that’s slipped away. We never had to choose and suddenly we’ve had to. Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it: already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck.
是的，对于绝大部分的我们，都被淹没在这“文理学院”的通识教育之下，对于自己要走的路、或是已经选择的路都有些迷茫。要是当初我学了生物…要是我大一时就走新闻这条路…要是我当初申请了这个或者那个…
For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it.If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…
但我们必须记住，我们还能做任何事。我们还能改变主意。我们可以重新再来。去读个博士，甚至是开始写作。那个认为一切都已经太迟了因此我们无能为力的想法简直是滑稽无比。可笑至极。我们不过从大学毕业而已。我们还这么年轻。我们不能，我们绝对不能丢了这份怀有一切可能的心，因为到头来，除了它，我们一无所有。
What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating from college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lost this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.
大学毕业感言(三)
College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?
大学是你一生中最美好的时光。什么时候你的父母还会一年花几千块供你去一个陌生的地方天天晚上喝醉。
Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates。
大学当然是个有很多知识的地方：大一的带进来一些，大四的带不走多少，知识便积累起来了。
A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep。
教授就是别人都睡了他还在讲话的人。
As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools。
只要有考试，学校里就会有祷告者。
The things taught in colleges are not an education, but the means to an education。
大学里学得不是知识，而是学习知识的方法。
Never get married in college：it’s hard to get a start if a prospective employer finds you’ve already made one mistake。
千万不要在大学结婚：一旦你未来的雇主发现你已经犯下一个错误，你就很难起步了。
Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself。
学习不是为生活做准备，学习就是生活的全部。
The university brings out all abilities, including incapability。
大学能培养人的各种能力，包括无能。
The chief value in going to college is that it's the only way to learn it really doesn't matter。
上大学的主要价值是：只有上了才知道真的不值啊。
80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn't read。
期末考试中80%的内容都来自你翘掉的那节课和你漏读的那本书。
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