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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.
今天与你们一起参加世界上最好的大学之一的毕业典礼，我感到很荣幸。我从来没有从大学毕业。说实话，这是我离大学毕业典礼最近的一次。今天我想向你们讲述我生活中的三个故事。就是这样。不是什么大不了的事情，只是三个故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一个故事是关于把点串连成线的故事
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?
我在里德学院（Reed College）只读了六个月就退学了，但是我还经常去学校旁听，又过了大约18个月，我才真正离开校园。那么，我为什么要退学呢?
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. 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.
这要从我出生前讲起。母亲怀上我时，她还是一名年轻的未婚在校研究生，于是她决定把我送给别人来收养。她非常强烈地希望我被上过大学的人收养，所以，我的一切都被安排好，等我一出生就由一名律师和他的妻子收养。哪知我刚一出世，这对夫妇突然改变了主意，他们真正想要的是一个女孩。这样，我的养父母——当时还列在登记的申请人名单中——突然在半夜接到了一个电话：“我们有一个不期而至的男婴，你们想要他吗？”他们回答道：“当然要。”但是我生母后来发现，我的养母并没有大学学历，而我的养父甚至没从中学毕业。她拒绝在最终的收养文件上签字。但几个月之后，我的父母承诺将来一定送我上大学，我的生母就松口了。
