Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.
我很荣幸在这个全世界最好之一大学的毕业典礼上和你在一起。

Truth be told I never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.
说实话，我从来没有从大学毕业过并且这是我离大学毕业最近的一次。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.That’s it.
今天我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事。就这样。

No big deal.Just three stories.
没什么大不了的，仅仅是三个故事。

The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一个故事是关于连接点的。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,
最开始的6个月过后，我从里德大学退学了，

but then stayed around as drop in
但后来作为顺便来访的人留了下来，

for another 18 months or so before I really quit.
在我真正离开之前，又待了大约18个月。

So why did I drop out?
那么我为什么要退学呢？

It started before I was born.
这在我出生之前就开始了。

My biological mother was a young,unwed graduate student,
我的亲生母亲是一个年轻、未婚的研究生，

and she decided to put me up for adoption.
她决定将我送人收养。

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,
他非常强烈地认为我应该被一对大学毕业生收养，

so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.
所以一切都为我安排好了，出生时被一个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.
但是当我出生时，他们在最后一刻决定他们真正想要的是一个女孩。

So my parents,who were on a waiting list,
所以在等待名单上的我现在的养父母

got a call in the midle of the night asking:“We have an unexpected baby boy;do you want him?”
在半夜接到了一个电话询问：“我们现在有一个在意料之外的男宝宝，你们想要收养吗？”

They said:"Of course."My biological mother later found out that
他们说道：“当然。”我的亲生母亲后来发现

my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high scholl.
我的养母没有从大学毕业并且我的养父没有从高中毕业。

She refused to sign the final adoption papers.
于是她拒绝在收养协议上签字。

She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
几个月后，当我的养父母承诺会送我上大学，她才妥协。

This was the start in my life.
这是我人生的开始。

And 17 years later I did go to college.But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,
17年后我确实上了大学。但是我天真地选了一所学费几乎和斯坦福一样贵的学校

and all of my working-class parents’s saving were being spent on my college tuition.
我的大学学费花光了我的工人阶层父母的全部积蓄。

After six months,I couldn’t see the value in it.
6个月后，我看不到上学的价值。

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life
我不知道自己想干什么

and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
也不知道上大学将如何帮助我弄明白这些。

And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved
在这里我花光了我父母攒下的所有钱

their entire life.
他们的整个人生。

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.
所以我决定退学并且相信一切都会变得好起来。