我在Reed大學(xué)讀了六個(gè)月之后就退學(xué)了,但是在十八個(gè)月以后——我真正的作出退學(xué)決定之前,我還經(jīng)常去學(xué)校。我為什么要退學(xué)呢?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college 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 at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

故事從我出生的時(shí)候講起。我的親生母親是一個(gè)年輕的,沒(méi)有結(jié)婚的大學(xué)畢業(yè)生。她決定讓別人收養(yǎng)我, 她十分想讓我被大學(xué)畢業(yè)生收養(yǎng)。所以在我出生的時(shí)候，她已經(jīng)做好了一切的準(zhǔn)備工作，能使得我被一個(gè)律師和他的妻子所收養(yǎng)。但是她沒(méi)有料到,當(dāng)我出生之后,律師夫婦突然決定他們想要一個(gè)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?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out 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 someday go to college.

所以我的生養(yǎng)父母(他們還在我親生父母的觀察名單上)突然在半夜接到了一個(gè)電話:“我們現(xiàn)在這兒有一個(gè)不小心生出來(lái)的男嬰,你們想要他嗎?”他們回答道:“當(dāng)然!”但是我親生母親隨后發(fā)現(xiàn)，我的養(yǎng)母從來(lái)沒(méi)有上過(guò)大學(xué),我的父親甚至從沒(méi)有讀過(guò)高中。她拒絕簽這個(gè)收養(yǎng)合同。只是在幾個(gè)月以后,我的父母答應(yīng)她一定要讓我上大學(xué),那個(gè)時(shí)候她才同意。

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.

在十七歲那年,我真的上了大學(xué)。但是我很愚蠢的選擇了一個(gè)幾乎和你們斯坦福大學(xué)一樣貴的學(xué)校, 我父母還處于藍(lán)領(lǐng)階層，他們幾乎把所有積蓄都花在了我的學(xué)費(fèi)上面。在六個(gè)月后, 我已經(jīng)看不到其中的價(jià)值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什么,我也不知道大學(xué)能幫助我找到怎樣的答案。