President Mellow, distinguished faculty, friends, family, and the Graduating Class of 2013.
麥羅校長，各位尊敬的老師，朋友，家人以及2013年的畢業生們：
It is a great honor for me to share in your accomplishment and pride today. But I must admit that I approached this address with some trepidation. I suppose that more commencement speeches have been delivered more seriously, listened to more attentively, and forgotten more promptly than any other form of human communication.
我很榮幸能在今天分享你們的成就和榮耀。但是我必須承認，我是帶着一些不安來參加這次活動的。我想，曾經有更多更認真的畢業典禮發言，收到更加用心地傾聽，但是相比其他任何溝通形式，也更加迅速地被遺忘。
So I will try to be brief and practical. My advice is grounded in my own experience. And my own experience, in many respects, is not that different from many of yours.
所以，我會盡量簡短而實用。我的全部建議都是來自我自己的經歷。而我的經歷，從很多方面來看，和你們當中的很多並沒有什麼不同。
I grew up with the idea that college was more an aspiration than an expectation. I saw my parents struggle most of their lives and the daily battle to keep afloat sometimes even drained what hopes and dreams they had for me. They didn't go to college and neither did my only, older sibling.
在我成長的環境中，大學更多是一個美好願望而不是理所當然的事情。我見證我父母大半生的奮鬥，每天僅爲了維持生計而努力工作，有時甚至會打消任何他們對我的期望和夢想。他們都沒有上過大學，我唯一的兄長也沒有讀過大學。
My father sorted mail for the post office. He worked nights because it paid 10% more than a day shift. My mother was a receptionist at a burglar alarm company — one of the few growth industries in our neighborhood. I grew up in the Linden Houses, which, as some of you know, is a housing project in East New York.
我的父親在郵局整理郵件。他選擇夜班工作只是因爲報酬比白班多了10%，我的母親是一個防盜警報公司的接待員——這也是我所在社區爲數不多的增長行業之一。我在林登小區長大，你們當中的很多都知道，這是紐約東區的一個住宅項目。
It was and is a tough neighborhood, though it produced some accomplished people who, despite or because of their background, did well. I attended Thomas Jefferson high school, which has since shut down as a high school and operates different training programs for various skills. Up until high school, I shared a small apartment with my extended family, which included my grandmother, my sister and my nephew.
它一直都是一個貧窮的社區，但是也產生了一些有成就的人，有些是因爲這一背景而成功，有些是因爲克服了這一背景而做出了成績。我在托馬斯-傑斐遜高中畢業，學校在之後關閉了高中部，僅僅提供多種技能培訓項目。直到高中畢業，我一直和我龐大的家庭分享一間小小的公寓，包括了我的奶奶，我的妹妹和我的侄兒。
But looking back, I grew up in a world of unlimited opportunity. Each night I would read, and reading opened up the world to me. I love reading history and especially biography. In biographies, you are almost always reading about people who started out unimportant but ended up having a significant life.
但是回過頭看看，我是在一個有着無限機遇的世界長大的。我每天晚上都會讀書，閱讀向我展開了整個世界。我喜歡讀歷史，尤其是傳記。在傳記裏面，你總是能看到一個似乎是無足輕重的人，最終如何擁有與衆不同的人生。
What I liked most about biographies then and now is that the person you are reading about is in his or her early life on page 50, doesn't know about the success he or she will achieve on page 300. They couldn't see the greatness that lay ahead.
不管是過去還是現在，傳記最吸引我的'一點是，書中的人物在自己生命的初期，也就是前五十頁當中，是不會知道他或者是她會在第三百頁的時候取得的成功。他們並不知道將會出現在自己面前的偉大。
If you think about it, that's a great justification for the optimism that you should have for the life ahead of you. All of you are only on about page 50 of your biography, with hundreds of pages to go.
仔細想想這點吧，這是對你們自己未來的生活保持樂觀的一個極好理由。你們所有人都僅僅在自己那本傳記的前五十頁，還有幾百頁的路要走。
Growing up, my biggest goal was just to get out of East New York. I took the college entrance exam and committed myself to getting into college. I did. The day I left for college was one of the first trips I made out of New York City.
在漫長的成長中，我最大的目標就是走出紐約東區。我參加了大學入學試，發誓一定要進大學。我成功了。我去讀大學的時候也是我第一次離開紐約市。
College was an intimidating place for me. The other students seemed naturally confident; many had traveled and seemed to understand the world. To this day, I can't forget how insecure I felt, but it made me work harder.
大學是一個令我心生敬畏的地方。其他學生似乎很自然的充滿信心，很多人都曾到處旅行，看起來對這個世界十分了解。直到今天，我還是沒有辦法忘記我當時的不安全感，但是這種感覺讓我更加努力地工作。
Once I realized I belonged, I became more ambitious. Ambition is your inner voice that tells you you can and should strive to go beyond your circumstances or station in life. You have overcome obstacles, pressures and self-doubt and you have done it because you have ambition.
當我認識到自己的定位時，我變得更有野心了。野心是你內心的聲音，告訴你可以而且應該努力去超越人生的處境或者是限制。你必須克服障礙，扛住壓力，打消自我懷疑，你能做到這些都是因爲你有足夠的野心。