喬布斯在斯坦福大學的演講稿
我在Reed大學讀了六個月之後就退學了,但是在十八個月以後——我真正的作出退學決定之前,我還經常去學校。我爲什麼要退學呢?
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.
故事從我出生的時候講起。我的親生母親是一個年輕的,沒有結婚的大學畢業生。她決定讓別人收養我, 她十分想讓我被大學畢業生收養。所以在我出生的時候，她已經做好了一切的準備工作，能使得我被一個律師和他的妻子所收養。但是她沒有料到,當我出生之後,律師夫婦突然決定他們想要一個女孩。
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電話:“我們現在這兒有一個不小心生出來的男嬰,你們想要他嗎?”他們回答道:“當然!”但是我親生母親隨後發現，我的養母從來沒有上過大學,我的父親甚至從沒有讀過高中。她拒絕籤這個收養合同。只是在幾個月以後,我的父母答應她一定要讓我上大學,那個時候她才同意。
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。但是我很愚蠢的選擇了一個幾乎和你們斯坦福大學一樣貴的學校, 我父母還處於藍領階層，他們幾乎把所有積蓄都花在了我的學費上面。在六個月後, 我已經看不到其中的價值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什麼,我也不知道大學能幫助我找到怎樣的答案。
