How Do We Want to Become?我们想如何成长？

文/萨布丽娜·因布勒 译/张爽

By Sabrina Imbler1

In her book “The Argonauts,” Maggie Nelson writes, “Evolution strikes me as infinitely more spiritually profound than Genesis.” That is, how the process of becoming is far more important than any simple act of creation. This strikes me as especially relevant to our time at Brown. Right now, none of us has quite grown up, but we’re also not kids anymore. We’re drifting somewhere inbetween—unsure yet overconfident,always sleepy yet somehow limitless.

2 In Greek mythology a ship called the Argo was rebuilt each year until all of its parts had been replaced. This resulted in an entirely new ship sailing under the same name. In this way, Brown reminds me of the Argo. How even though the students cycle through every four years we can still come back to feel instantly and immeasurably at home.

2 在希腊神话中，一艘名为阿尔戈号的船每年都在重修，最终所有部件都被替换了。于是它成为了一艘带着原有名字航行的新船。在这个方面，布朗大学让我想到阿尔戈号。即使每四年就轮换一届学生，我们还是一回来就有浓烈的归家之感。

3在布朗大学的四年教会我批判地思考——去质疑、去梳理、去解构——却未必曾教导我去成为什么样的人。所以，与其问自己想成为什么样的人，我想知道，如果问自己“我们想如何成长？”，会得到怎样的答案。

3 My four years at Brown have taught me to think critically—to interrogate,to unpack and to deconstruct—but they haven’t necessarily taught me to be anything. So instead of asking ourselves who we want to be, I wonder what answers we might get if we asked instead“How do we want to become?”

4 At Brown, we learn how to become.We learn that no one comes here fully formed, that we all have our baggage and memories of that time someone shamed us for doing something we loved. At Brown, we learn to become ourselves and more than ourselves.

5 This becoming, I’ve realized, can’t happen without the love we feel as a Brown community. This love means not only watching out for each other, but holding each other accountable.

6 These have been four years of us trying to have our voices heard. Of people calling us hypersensitive when we ask for trigger warningsand safe spaces. They say our dreams are the fruit of a naïve idealism that is loudand reckless and unfamiliar with how the world works.

7 But these have been four years in a world that, again and again, tells us that some people matter and that others do not.They look at our skin and our bodies, how we move and think and fall in love, and they tell us who is valuable and who is not.

（5）动物疫病防控和畜产品质量安全形势严峻。由于各地畜禽调运频繁，加大了输入性疫情风险，养殖场（户）投入不足，只重视重大动物疫病的防控，忽视了普通病的防控，在一定程度上造成动物疫病的传播风险。

4 在布朗，我们学习如何成长。我们知道这里的人都不是完全定型的，我们都背负着自己的包袱，记得那些因为做自己喜欢的事而受到羞辱的时日。在布朗，我们学着成为自己，并超越自己。

5 我认识到，如果没有布朗这个集体带给我们的爱，就不会有这种成长。这种爱不仅意味着相互照顾，也意味着互相负责。

6 四年来，我们一直努力让人听到我们的声音。当我们要求敏感警报和安全空间时，人们会说我们过度敏感。他们说，我们的梦想是天真的理想主义的产物，这种理想主义喧闹招摇，不计后果，不谙世相。

7 这四年，世界一再向我们展示了有些人重要而有些人不重要。时光见证了我们由内而外的变化，见证了我们成长、思考、恋爱，告诉了我们哪些人必须珍惜而哪些人不值一提。

8这四年，我们在校园里进行过非同寻常的抗争。当我们在学生刊物上读到令人不安的文章时，我们会高声疾呼。当我们与全国其他大学并肩而立时，我们看清了各种压迫方式。我们见到很多错误的事，但我们主要还是看到了自己如何能变得更好。

8 These have been four years of remarkable resistance on campus. We spoke out when we read troubling articles in student publications. We saw patterns of oppression as we stood in solidarity with other colleges across the nation. We saw many things that were wrong, but mostly we saw how we could become better.

9These have also been four years of dreams. We entered heated discussions about the protests on campus that shook some of our friendships to the core,then we built them back up again stronger. Months of demands, protests and solidarity resulted in the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.

10Like many other first-years, I came to Brown with little conception of how the world works. But I got better. I stopped talking and started listening.I listened to my professors. To Kate Schapira, who taught me that there must be an ethics and accountability to all that we write, from petitions to poetry.To Françoise Hamlin, who showed me how social change can be untidy, disappointing and triumphant all at once. And to Ralph Rodriguez, who taught me that we are all beautiful for the simple and profound reason that we are born to make the world better.

11 I listened to student activists and minority peer counselors and slampoets who poured their entire selves into helping us understand and care for each other so much more.

9 这也是充满梦想的四年。我们对校园抗议展开热烈的讨论，与一些人的友谊被彻底动摇，而后我们又重新建立友谊，使其更为牢固。数月的要求、抗议和团结促成了《多元化与包容性行动计划》。

10 和许多大一新生一样，我来到布朗大学时，对这个世界懵懂无知。但我变得更棒了。我停止言谈，开始倾听。我听取教授们的意见。感谢凯特·沙皮拉，她教会我，我们的一切书写，从请愿书到诗歌，都要包含伦理与责任。感谢弗朗索瓦丝·哈姆林，她让我懂得，社会变革既能带来欢欣鼓舞，也会伴随混乱和失望。感谢拉尔夫·罗德里格斯，他教会我，我们都是美丽的，只因我们生来就是为了让世界变得更好。

11 我聆听学生活动家、少数族裔同辈辅导员和诵诗擂台赛选手的声音，他们倾其全力帮助大家更好地理解和关爱彼此。

12 No one ever said becoming was easy. It’s hard, so hard, to look at someone or something you love so much and see how it could be different, how it could be better. But it’s precisely because of this love that we continue to protest, to hold sit-ins and teach-ins,to engage with people over coffee, in office hours or even over Facebook.Because we can imagine everything Brown could become.

13 This is a place drenched in infinity,where we can become not only what we never dreamed possible, but also what we were always meant to be. Where my peers can create an organization to empower first-generation students at schools like Brown. Where we can travel to the United Nations’ climate talks in Paris and advocate for countries hardest hit by global warming. And just as we become our own selves within these gates, Brown too becomes something more because of us.

14 Looking around right now, at some of the best friends we’ve ever had, the orientation friends we never saw again after the ice cream social and every beautiful soul we never got the chance to meet—when I look at all of you, I’ve never felt more in love. And to Brown—thank you for teaching us never simply to be, but rather showing us how to become. ■

12 没有人会说成长是容易的。看着你深爱的人或事物，意识到其可以有所不同、可以变得更好，不是一件易事，甚至很难。但正是因为这种爱，我们不断抗议、静坐和宣讲，在咖啡时间、办公时间甚至在脸书上与人们互动。因为我们对布朗大学有无限展望。

13 这是一个浸润于无限之中的地方，在这里我们不仅可以成为从未梦想过的可能，而且可以成为我们一直想成为的人。在这里，我的同龄人有能力创建组织来帮助像布朗这样的学校的第一代学生。我们可以前往巴黎参加联合国气候大会，为受全球变暖影响最严重的国家代言。我们在校园内成长为我们自己，布朗大学也因为我们而变得更有影响力。

14 现在环顾四周，有我们最好的朋友，有那些在冰激凌联谊后再也没有见过的迎新朋友，还有那些我们从未有机会相识的美丽灵魂——当我看到你们，我感到前所未有的爱。感谢布朗——谢谢你教导我们永远不要仅仅是游走于世间而已，更让我们明白了如何成长。 □