大学会改变人吗？哈佛大学优秀毕业生分享学习生活

MICHAEL PHILLIPS: Freshman year, when I was launched into another universe, my only grounding point was the gravitational pull of a question,"Will Harvard change me"?
大一的时候，我来到了另一个世界，那时唯一吸引我的问题就是，"哈佛能改变我吗？"
That question mingled with the heartfelt gifts and the parting words of my parents.
和这个问题一起的是我收到的走心的礼物和父母的赠言。
My mom was placing a set of keys around my neck, each key engraved with a word, believe, fearless and inspire.
我母亲把一串钥匙挂在我脖子上，每把钥匙上都刻着词：信任、无畏和鼓励。
My dad said,"I've always imagined life for you like a canvas, and I hope to have had one big enough for you to imagine new possibilities.
我父亲说："我一直把你的生活想象成一幅画布，也希望它足够大，能够让你创造新的机遇。
I'm proud to see Harvard become your canvas".
看到哈佛成了这幅画布我为你感到很自豪。
Minutes later I walked into my dorm room, and on my desk I found a list of alumni that held the keys to that room before me.
过了几分钟，我走进了宿舍，在我的桌子上，我瞥见了已毕业校友的名单，他们曾在这间屋子里住过。
The first name I read was Henry David Thoreau, the prophetic essayist and abolitionist.
我读到的第一个名字是Henry David Thoreau，一个预言散文家和废奴主义者。
It was a glimpse into the greatness of what the surreal world was capable of.
这一瞥让我意识到了这个超现实世界的伟大之处。
"Maybe,"I thought,"it just might change me for the better".
"也许，"我想，"这里能让我变得更好。"
Perhaps you had a similar experience on move-in day, but the chronicle of what we could become predates that moment.
也许你在入住宿舍的那天也有过类似的经历，但究竟我们会成为什么样的人要取决于在那之前的时候。
When the class of 2020 was still scattered across the world, our first connection came from a story that we heard.
在2020届毕业生还分散在世界各地之时，我们首次建立的联系源于我们听到的一个故事。
From TV punchlines to political institutions, the name Harvard reverberated across the canyons of culture with an infinite echo.
从电视节目到政坛，"哈佛"这个名字响彻在文化之巅，回响不绝于耳。
It permeated the boundaries of class, Cree, country and continent.
遍布了阶级、北美印第安克里族、国家和大陆的边界。
Like kids reading a bedtime story, we inserted ourselves into this narrative arc of a galaxy of greatness.
如同孩子读睡前故事，我们把自己融入到了浩瀚宇宙的叙事弧（指小说或故事中具有时间性的剧情结构）中。
In 2016, we converted those dreams into essays and traded them for tickets to the new frontier.
2016年，我们把这些梦想揉碎进散文，用它们换取了前往新世界的门票。
We landed on campus eager to perform our own superhuman feats, from pulling all-nighters in Lamar basement, to breaking the laws of the universe with great inflation.
我们来到校园，渴望大展拳脚，从在拉马尔地下室通宵达旦到打破宇宙膨胀论法则。
The more we progress the more we pursue.
我们精益求精。
Freshman year, we spent our energy writing viscerally scribbled applications to social lords.
大一的时候，我们把精力都花在了给社会贵族写申请书上。
Sophomore year, we exchanged our space suits for business suits so we could rush to networking events.
大二的时候，我们把"太空服"换成了商务装，这样我们就能火速去参加社交活动了。
Though with every superhuman attempt, some shortcomings were revealed.
尽管每一次的出格尝试都不甚完美。
By junior year, many of us remained agitated by the persistent presence of imposter syndrome.
到了大三，我们许多人还在为持续的"骗子综合症"而惴惴不安。
It felt like the incessant pain of a paper cut or worse than that.
那感觉就像被纸划伤一样痛，亦或更甚。
The place that we had imagined as kids, a place defined by the pursuit of passion, the place became troubled by the fear of rejection.
那是我们孩童时梦想的地方，一个追求激情的地方，但那时却因害怕被拒绝而变得不安。
Our community of collaboration converted to one of crippling comparisons.
我们此前团结协作的集体变得残败不堪。
Suddenly our aspirations to pursue progress, were limited by our desperation to preserve status.
突然之间，我们对保持现有状态的绝望取代了我们追求进步的渴望。
We began believing that our purpose lay in our importance, but we forfeited our power.
我们开始相信我们的意志存在于对自身的认同，但我们失去了那种力量。
We saw our galaxy of greatness stripped of the light of possibility, subdued by the darkness of self-doubt.
我们浩瀚的宇宙因自我怀疑而变得黯淡无光，与成功的可能性相剥离。
At that confusing junction, many were asking themselves, "Is this all I really came to Harvard to become"?
在这个迷茫的十字路口，许多人自问，"我来哈佛就是为了成为这样的人吗？"
But what if we open the door to a different reality?
但如果我们打开一扇通往另一个世界的大门呢？
What if we already have the keys?
如果那扇门的钥匙就在我们自己手里呢？
The first key from my mom said "Believe".
母亲给我的第一把钥匙上刻着"信任"。"
Could she have been asking us to believe that we never really came to Harvard to acquire accolades, but that success is second rate to soul saved and lives made better?
她是不是想让我们相信，我们到哈佛来并不是为了获得荣誉，而是为了拯救灵魂，让生命变得更好呢？
The second key said "Fearless".
第二把钥匙是"无畏"。
Did she know that the path to purpose might be unpopular, but if we clung to that fear of rejection, we might fail to offer the world what was ours to give?
她是否知道实现目标的道路荆棘丛生，但如果我们坚持害怕被拒绝，就可能无法向世界奉献自我？
The last key said "Inspire".
最后一把钥匙上刻的是"鼓励"。
Might she have understood that if we did not become leaders of sacrifice, we would become leaders of selfishness but we would be leaders either way.
她或许明白，如果我们不带头奉献，就会带头自私，无论如何，我们都是带头的。
When my dad said Harvard is your canvas, was he not giving us the confidence to emerge from the college, and the Kennedy School, and the business school, and the divinity school, and the design school, and the law school, the medical school, the education school, the extension school, the dental school, and every other school at Harvard, painting portraits with our presence as a community of artists and not imitators of key makers and not gatekeepers.
父亲说哈佛是我的画布时，难道他对我们没有信心吗？让我们走出大学，走出肯尼迪学院、商学院、神学院，还有设计学院、法学院、医学院、教育学院、拓展学院，牙科学院和其他学院，以艺术家团体而非模仿者或信息传递者的身份去描绘我们的图画。
As I stand here today, my answer to all of these questions is a resounding Yes.
今天我站在这里，对所有问题的回答都是肯定的。
And if yours is too, then we can leave our galaxy of greatness and land back on Earth with such an unyielding collision that the paradigms of broken systems and mediocre standards might splatter like gas and dust in a supernova.
如果诸位与我一样，那我们便可以从这浩瀚的宇宙出发，以一种不可抗拒的方式重返地球，让那些支离破碎的体系和平庸的标准像超新星中的气体和尘埃一样逃逸出来。
In the midst of this historic global pandemic, this message carries more weight than it ever has before.
在这一历史性的全球疫情中，这一信息比以往任何时候都更有分量。
Use our powers for good.
让我们全力以赴，以求最好。
That by those deeds we might demonstrate that our gifts are not a solemn path to importance, but a promise for another person.
通过这些行动可以证明，我们的天赋并非走上自我认知的庄严道路，而是对他人言出必践。
Harvard will change you, but let it continue to change you.
哈佛不仅可以改变你，还会继续影响你。
Let it make you keenly sensitive to injustice.
它让你敏感于不公。
Let it make you more empathetic to struggle.
它让你共情于斗争。
Let it embolden you to make change.
它让你勇于改变。
Let it make you all of these things because to become anything else would be to forfeit any meaning in being a Harvard graduate.
让它成就你的全部，否则将失去作为哈佛毕业生的所有意义。
We were fortunate to fly high enough that we might grab the moral arc of the universe itself.
幸运的是，我们飞得足够高，能够引导这个宇宙本身的道德趋向。
May we bend it in the right direction.
希望我们能把它引向正确的方向。

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