不要放弃寻找你的激情（节选）

【推荐理由】

本文节选自著名教授兰迪•波许(Randy Pausch)在母校卡内基梅隆大学毕业典礼上的最后演讲。2007 年9 月18 日,身患胰腺癌、生命还剩几个月的兰迪教授做了一场风靡全美、题为《真正实现你的童年梦想》的讲座,感动鼓舞了无数的美国青年。与前者不同,在此篇演讲中,兰迪教授给出了更加朴实的人生建议,读后让人受益匪浅,是真正意义上的“最后一课”。他告诉大家,要听从心灵的召唤,追随激情,最终赢得无悔的人生。2008年7月25日,兰迪教授于家中去世。

以下是本次演讲的精彩节选,网站音频节目中刊登了本次演讲和《真正实现你的童年梦想》演讲的全文以及视频,读者可登陆下载。

【先记住关键词句】

1. in all likelihood

意为“十有八九、多半、可能性很大”。

例句:In all likelihood, we shall be away for a week.

我们很可能离开一个星期。

In all likelihood the meeting will be cancelled.

会议十之八九要取消。

2. push-up

意为“俯卧撑”,在著名讲座《真正实现你的童年梦想》中,兰迪教授幽默地表现自己“体力好”,曾现场做俯卧撑。

例句:He overdid it last night when he did 100 push-ups.

他昨晚做了100个俯卧撑,做得过头了。

3. the Grim Reaper

意为“死神”,也可写做the Reaper。

例句:The Grim Reaper is an imaginary character who represents death. He looks like a skeleton, wears a long, black cloak with a hood, and carries a scythe.

死神是象征死亡的虚构人物。他酷似骷髅,身穿黑色连帽斗篷,手持镰刀。

4. And what I said without even thinking about is we don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully.

意为“我毫不犹疑地回答他:仅靠多活几天是不能战胜死神的。战胜死神最好的方式是活得更好,更有意义” 。

5. get round to

意为“设法找到足够的时间去做(某事);说服”。

例句:I promised to repair the doorknob, but I had never got round to it.

我答应要修门把, 可我抽不出时间修。

We should have very little difficulty getting him round to our way of thinking.

要说服他接受我们的想法不太难。

6. …it is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not.

意为“临终时我们不会后悔做过某些事,而是后悔没有去做某些事”。

7. grab for

意为“试图抓住”,文中意为竭尽全力争取。

例句:The climber grabbed for the rope.

那位登山者试图抓住绳索。

8. be thought well of

意为“被尊敬、被高度评价”。

例句:She is very well thought of in England.

她在英国的口碑很好。

The book is thought well by the critics.

评论家对这本书的评价很高。

【原文朗读】

[…]

Last August I was told that in all likelihood I had three to six months left to live. I am on month nine now and I am not gonna get down and do any push-ups… but there will be a short pick-up basketball game later.

Somebody said to me, in light of those numbers, wow, so you are really beating the Grim Reaper. And what I said without even thinking about is we don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully.

For the Reaper will come for all of us, the question is what do we do between the time we were born and the time he shows up. Because when he shows up it is too late to do all the things that you're always gonna kind of 'get round to.' So, I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember, it's a cliché, but I love cliché, 'it is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not'.

Because I assure you I've done a lot of stupid things and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, all the dopy things and all the times I was embarrassed they don't matter. What matter is that, I can kind of look back and say, 'pretty much anytime I got a chance to do something cool, I tried to grab for it.' And that's where my solace comes from.

The second thing I would add to that, and I didn't coordinate on the subject of this word but I think it's the right word that comes up, is passion. And you will need to find you passion. Many of you have already done it, many of you will later, many of you will take till your 30s or 40s. But don't give up on finding it. Alright? Because then all you're doing is waiting for the Reaper. Find you passion and follow it.

And if there's anything I have learned in my life, you will not find that passion in things. And you will not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more money you have, the more you will just look around and use that as the metric, and there will always be someone with more.

So your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside. And honors and awards are nice things but only to be the extent that they regard the real respect from your peers. And to be thought well of by other people that you think even more highly of is a tremendous honor that I've been granted.

Find your passion, and in my experience, no matter what you do at work or what you do in official settings, that passion would be grounded in people. And it will be grounded in the relationships you have with people, and what they think of you, when you time comes. And if you can gain the respect of those around you, and the passion and true love, and I've said this before, but I waited till 39 to get married because I had to wait that long to find someone where her happiness was more important than mine. And if nothing else I hope that all of you can find that kind of passion and that kind of love in your life.

Thank you!