演讲原文

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

十七年后，我真的上了大学。但是当时我幼稚地选了一所学费几乎和斯坦福大学一样昂贵的学校，而我的养父母只是工薪阶层，他们倾其积蓄为我支付了大学学费。过了六个月后，我却看不出上大学有什么意义。我既不知道自己这一生想干什么，也不知道念大学是否能帮我弄明白这一点，而且在那儿我会花光父母一辈子节省下来的钱。

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out ok. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

所以，我决定退学，并坚信日后会证明我这样做是对的。当年做出这个决定时心里很害怕，但现在回想起来，这还真是我有生以来做出的最好的决定之一。一退学，我就可以不再选那些我一点儿都不感兴趣的必修课，开始旁听一些看上去有趣得多的课。

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned coke bottles for the five cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
那种日子一点儿都不浪漫。我没有宿舍，只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。我去退还可乐瓶，用那五分钱的押金来买吃的。每个星期天晚上我都要步行七英里，走到城那头的黑尔·科里施纳礼堂去吃每周才能享用一次的美餐。我喜欢那里的饭菜。我凭着好奇心和直觉所做的许多事情后来都证明是无价的。我来给大家举个例子。
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.
当时，里德学院的书法课大概是全国最好的。校园里所有的公告栏和每个抽屉的标签上的字都非常漂亮。因为我已经退学，不用正常上课，所以我决定选修书法课，学学怎么写出漂亮的字。

热词空间

naively
adv. 幼稚地，天真地
eg. They naively assume things can only get better.
他们天真地以为情况只会变好。

tuition
n. 学费
eg. Is the money sufficient to cover the tuition?
这笔钱付学费够吗?

figure out
弄清，理解；解决；算出
eg.Father is trying to figure out his tax.
父亲在设法计算出他的税额。

scary
adj. 害怕的，惊慌的
eg. They put up scary decorations outside their houses.
他们在屋外放恐怖的装饰品。

stumble
vt. 蹒跚
eg. She nearly fell down by stumbling over my stretched leg.
她绊在我伸出的腿上，险些跌倒。

calligraphy
n. 书法
eg. His calligraphy is vigorous and forceful.
他的书法苍劲有力。