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Being a high school senior also meant thinking about college. I wanta be applying to Smith and Wellesley. My mother thought I should go everywhere I wanted. My father said I was free to do that, but he wouldn't pay if I went west of the Mississippi or to Radcliffe, which he heard was full of beatniks. Smith and Wellesley, which he had never heard of, were acceptable. I never visited either campus, so when I was accepted, I decided on Wellesley based on the photographs of the campus, especially its small Lake Waban, which reminded me of Lake Winola.
上了高中也意味着要认真思考升学问题。我想申请史密斯与韦尔斯利。母亲认为，只要我喜欢，去哪里都无所谓；父亲也尊重我的选择，但我若到密西西比河以西的大学或拉德克利夫女子学院，他不会帮我出学费，因为在他的印象里，这些学校充满了“垮掉的一代”。他没有听说过史密斯学院和韦尔斯利学院，不过如果我去念，他没意见。不管是史密斯或韦尔斯利，我都没去过，所以获知被两校录取后，根据两校提供的照片，我决定选择韦尔斯利。韦尔斯利的校园美丽如画，校内的瓦班湖让我想起家乡的维诺拉湖。
I arrived at Wellesley carrying my father's political beliefs and my mother's dreams and left with the beginnings of my own.
我初到韦尔斯利时，还抱着父亲的政治观与母亲的理想，四年学习下来，已渐渐能独立思考。
I didn't hit my stride as a Wellesley student right away. My struggles with math and geology convinced me once and for all to give up on any idea of be coming a doctor or a scientist. My French professor gently told me, "Mademoiselle, your talents lie elsewhere."
一开始，我并未发挥出一个韦尔斯利学生应有的水平。数学与地质学让我叫苦连天，自此彻底断了当医生或科学家的美梦。法文课上，教授客气地跟我说：“小姐，你的天分在别的地方。”
One snowy night during my freshman year, Margaret Clapp, then President of the college, arrived unexpectedly at my dorm, Stone-Davis, which perched on the shores above Lake Waban. She came into the dining room and asked for volunteers to help her gently shake the snow off the branches of the surrounding trees so they wouldn't break under the weight. We walked from tree to tree through knee-high snow under a clear sky filled with stars, led by a strong, intelligent woman alert to the surprises and vulnerabilities of nature. She guided and challenged both her students and her faculty with the same care. I decided that night that I had found the place where I belonged.
一年级的一个雪夜里，校长玛格丽特·克拉普突然来到我的宿舍——可以俯瞰瓦班湖的戴维斯楼。她走进餐厅，希望大家帮忙轻轻摇掉宿舍四周树木上的雪，以免树枝被积雪压断。满天星斗下，我们在齐膝深的雪里，从一棵树走向另一棵树，带头的一位是坚强而睿智、敬畏与呵护大自然的女性。她也以同样的呵护来引导和挑战她的学生与教职员。在那一晚我决定我属于这里。
Madeleine Albright, who served as Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration, started Wellesley ten years before me. I have talked with her often about the differences between her time and mine. She and her friends in the late fifties were more overtly committed to finding a husband and less buffeted by changes in the outside world.
在克林顿政府先后担任美国驻联合国大使和国务卿的马德莱娜·奥尔布赖特是我学姐，早我十年毕业，我们经常谈论这期间韦尔斯利的变化。50年代末期，她和同学们多半将心思放在找丈夫上，不太关心外界的变化。
In Madeleine's day and in mine, Wellesley emphasized service. Its Latin motto is Non Ministrarised Ministrare ―"Not to be ministered unto, but to minister" ―a phrase in line with my own Methodist upbringing. By the time I arrived, in the midst of an activist student era, many students viewed the motto as a call for women to become more engaged in shaping our lives and influencing the world around us.
韦尔斯利强调服务，不管是奥尔布赖特当学生或我当学生时，韦尔斯利始终重视服务精神。韦尔斯利的校训是“ＮｏｎＭｉｎｉｓｔｒａｒｉｓｅｄＭｉｎｉｓｔｒａｒｅ”，意为“宁照顾他人，勿当被照顾者”，这和我的卫斯理宗教养是一致的。我进入韦尔斯利时，正值学生运动活跃的年代，对于韦尔斯利的校训，许多学生解读为呼吁女性更多地致力于塑造自己的生活，并影响我们周围的社会。
