Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Please visit us at stanford.edu Thank You.

请访问我们的网站 stanford.edu，谢谢。

I am honored感到荣幸的 to be with you today at your commencement毕业典礼 from one of the finest universities in the world.

今天我很荣幸能来到这所世界顶尖学府之一的毕业典礼现场与大家相聚。

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

说实话，我从未大学毕业，而这是我最接近毕业的一次。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.

今天我想和大家分享三个我的人生故事。

That's it.

就这些。

No big deal.

没什么大不了的。

Just three stories.

只有三个故事而已。

The first story is about connecting the dots.

第一个故事关于串联点滴。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.

我在里德学院读了六个月就退学了，但之后又旁听了大约一年半才真正离开。

So why did I drop out?

那我为什么退学呢？

It started before I was born.

这其实始于我出生之前。

My biological mother was a young, unwed未婚的 graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption收养.

我的亲生母亲是一位年轻未婚的研究生，她决定将我送人收养。

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted被收养 by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted被收养 at birth by a lawyer and his wife.

她非常坚定地认为我应该被大学生收养，所以一切都安排好了，让我一出生就由一位律师和他的妻子收养。

Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

然而，当我呱呱坠地时，他们却在最后一刻决定真的想要个女孩。

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?"

于是，排在我父母前面的那对夫妇在半夜接到电话：‘我们有个意外出生的男婴，你们要吗？’

They said: "Of course."

他们说：‘当然。’

My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.

后来，我的亲生母亲发现我的养母从未大学毕业，养父甚至没读完高中。

She refused拒绝 to sign the final adoption papers.

她拒绝签署最终的收养文件。

She only relented让步 a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

直到几个月后，我的养父母承诺我会去上大学，她才勉强同意。

This was the start开端 in my life.

这是我人生的转折点。

And 17 years later I did go to college.

十七年后，我真的上了大学。

But I naively天真地 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学费.

但我天真地选了一所学费几乎和斯坦福一样昂贵的学校，我工薪阶层父母的积蓄都花在了我的学费上。

After six months, I couldn't see the value价值 in it.

六个月后，我看不到它的价值了。

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.

我不知道自己将来想做什么，也不知道大学如何能帮助我找到答案。

And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

而我当时却花光了我父母毕生积蓄的所有钱。

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.

于是我决定退学，相信一切最终都会好起来的。

It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

当时这确实很可怕，但回首往事，这是我做过的最好的决定之一。

The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required必修的 classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

我一退学，就能停止上那些不感兴趣的必修课，开始选修那些看起来有趣的课程。

It wasn't all romantic.

但这并不全是浪漫的。