Two impulses, as always, are at work. One is to build a firm, safe structure for the future by making strong commitments, to "be set." Yet people who slip into a ready-made form without much self-examination are likely to find themselves locked in.
这个年龄段的人通常会有两个极端。一种人按照设计好的人生规划“定下来”，试图为未来建立一个牢固而安全的框架。但是一旦人们陷入某种现成的模式而又缺乏自省的话，他们很可能会陷入窘境而无法脱身。
The other urge is to explore and experiment, keeping any structure tentative and therefore easily reversible. Taken to the extreme, these are people who skip from one trial job and one limited personal encounter to another, spending their twenties in the transient state.
另一种人则不断探索实验，每一种人生规划都不会长久坚持，而是变来换去。极端的情况则是，这些人从一份工作很快换到另一份工作，与一个人交往没多久就分手与另外一个人交往，二十几岁的时光一直处于过客匆匆的状态。
Although the choices of our twenties are not irrevocable, they do set in motion a Life Pattern. Some of us follow the locked-in pattern, others the transient pattern, the wunderkind pattern, the caregiver pattern, and there are a number of others. Such patterns strongly influence the particular questions raised for each person during each passage...
14虽说二十几岁时的选择不是不可改变的，但它们毕竟是我们生活轨迹的开端。有的人固守自封，有的人变化无常，有的人少年得志，有的人步步为营，还有许多其他的生活方式。不同的生活方式对每个人在每个人生阶段遇到的特定问题都有很大影响。
Buoyed by powerful illusions and belief in the power of the will, we commonly insist in our twenties that what we have chosen to do is the one true course in life. Our backs go up at the merest hint that we are like our parents, that two decades of parental training might be reflected in our current actions and attitudes.
踌躇满志加上对意志力的笃信使得二十几岁的我们狂妄自大，常常会坚持认为自己选择的道路是生活中唯一正确的。只要有一点迹象表明别人认为我们像父母，认为家长二十几年的教育在我们如今的处事行为和生活态度中有所体现，我们就会极为不满。
Not me, is the motto, "I'm different."
“才不是呢，我跟他们可不一样”成了座右铭。
Catch-30
而立之年的困境
Impatient with devoting ourselves to the "shoulds," a new vitality springs from within as we approach 30.
奔30的人们已经没有耐心去管“该做的事”，他们内心萌生了一种新的活力。