I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
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. So why did I drop out?
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. 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.
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. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
乔布斯斯坦福大学演讲 难点注释
commencement毕业典礼
Truth be told说实话
graduation毕业
a big deal--SPOKENsomething that is very important大事
NO big deal.我不准备讲大道理。
dot点；小点；小圆点。喻指生命中的点点滴滴
drop out辍学
Reed College里德学院，位于俄勒冈州波特兰东南的私立大学，始建于1908年。其博士所占毕业生比例在美国大学中排名第三，仅次于加州理工学院和哈维穆德学院。
drop-in不速之客
stay around as a drop-in常常不请自来到里德学院走走看看
or so大约
quit离校
biological mother亲生母亲;
unwed未婚的
graduate student---In the United States, a graduate student is a student with a bachelor's degree from a university who is studying or doing research at a more advanced level. 研究生
put sb up for adoption把某人送人收养
feel very strongly 深感
adopt收养
college graduate大学毕业生
everything was all set 一切都准备就绪
at birth出生时
except that......---If it were not for the fact that; only:如果不是
pop out呱呱坠地
on a waiting list在候补名单上
unexpected不期而至的
final adoption papers最终收养协议
relent变温和
naively幼稚地
Stanford斯坦福大学的
working-class身为工人阶级的
savings储蓄
tuition学费
figure sth out解决
save节省
scary可怕的
look back 回忆起来
decision决定
The minute ....一...就
take the required classes上必修课
drop in on sth旁听
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