英语

乔布斯辍学原因

I am honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.

Truth be told, I never graduated from college. And this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

辍学原因

今天我很荣幸能和你们一起参加毕业典礼，毕业典礼是世界上最好的大学之一。

说实话，我从未大学毕业。这是我离大学毕业最近的一次。

今天我要给大家讲三个我生活中的故事。就这样。没什么大不了的。只有三层楼。

第一个故事是关于连接点。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.

So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption.

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided for the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We've got an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course."

My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers.

She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college. This was the start in my life.

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.

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.

我在里德学院的头六个月后就辍学了，但在我真正退学之前，我又在里德大学待了18个月左右。

那我为什么要退学？在我出生之前就开始了。我的生母是一个年轻的未婚研究生，她决定把我交给别人收养。

她非常强烈地认为我应该被大学毕业生收养，所以一切都准备好了，让我一出生就被阿拉维和他的妻子收养。只是当我出来的时候，他们在最后一刻决定他们真的想要一个女孩。

所以我的父母，他们在等待名单上，半夜接到一个电话，问：“我们有一个意外的男婴，你想要他吗？”他们说：“当然。”

我的亲生母亲后来发现，我母亲从未大学毕业，我父亲也从未高中毕业。她拒绝在最后的收养文件上签字。

几个月后，当我父母答应我上大学时，她才让步了。这是我人生的开始。

17年后我上了大学。但我天真地选择了一所几乎和斯坦福大学一样贵的大学，而我的工薪阶层父母的所有积蓄都花在了我的大学学费上。

六个月后，我看不出它的价值。我不知道我想在我的生活中做什么，也不知道大学将如何帮助我找到答案。我在这里花掉了我父母毕生积蓄的钱。

所以我决定退学，相信一切都会好起来的。当时这很可怕，但回头看，这是我做过的最好的决定之一。

从我退学的那一刻起，我就可以不再去上那些我不感兴趣的必修课了，开始去看那些看起来更有趣的课程。

阅读

㈠和大众站在一起，你呼我应，山呼海啸，虽然不高明，但是多安全，多保险，多轻巧，多温暖啊。

这种庞大的“我们”，会带给你一种幻觉：你不是一个人，你有一群伙伴。这多么令人有归属感！

可是，马克·吐温刻薄地说：当你发现自己站在了大多数人一边，你就该停下来反思了。

王小波说：追求智慧的路上还有人在走，想到这一点，我就很高兴……

是啊，正是因为这些不听话，不屈服，逆水行舟的人，今天的我们，才能活在自由与丰饶之中。

一个人就像一支队伍，对着自己的头脑和心灵招兵买马，不气馁，有召唤，爱自由。这，或许是从虚无中寻找意义的唯一方式。

㈡我们各自生活，春花秋月，往事如烟，生生不已。在时间里穿梭，或者说时间在我们的生命里穿梭，各不相防。

对面的山上是一个自足、丰赡、神秘、沉敛、祥宁、毓秀，自成一体的世界。

对于对面的山上来说，我们就是对面的山上。

㈢人的生活方式各不相同，很难一言以蔽之。最好还是不要拿心理学家说的话“套用”自己的人生，而是用来“参考”并思考即可。思索一下落日秋风坊将如何度过后半生也是挺有趣的。

过了人生中第一个教师~纪念一下。