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What’s lost without commencement
失去毕业典礼意味着什么
By Kristine E. Guillaume and Jeremy Tsai
文/克里斯汀·E.纪尧姆和杰里米·蔡
Guillaume and Tsai are seniors at Harvard University
纪尧姆和蔡均为哈佛大学本届的大四学生
This spring, most graduating college students will not participate in a traditional in-person celebration.
今年春天，大部分面临毕业的大学生都不会参加传统的毕业庆典了。
Universities swiftly acted as coronavirus spread across the country:
全国各地陆续陷入新冠疫情以后，各个大学立即迅速做出了响应：
students went home early, classes moved online, and commencement ceremonies were canceled or postponed.
早早将学生放回家，课程转移到线上，毕业典礼要么取消，要么推迟。
Over the next month, former President Barack Obama will deliver multiple commencement speeches,
接下来的一个月，前总统巴奥巴马将会发表多场毕业典礼致辞，
something thousands of students had called for as they looked for guidance and comfort in this unprecedented time.
请他致辞也是成千上万学子的心声，在这个前所未有的时候，他们需要指导，需要安慰。
But it’s hard not to miss real commencement.
问题是，我们很难不怀念切切实实的毕业典礼。
Days before we evacuated campus,
搬离校园的前几天，
many of us had turned in our senior thesis, anticipating graduation and the last days of campus life.
很多人都已经提交了毕业论文，期许着毕业和最后几天的大学生活。
For months, our lives had been confined to libraries and academic meetings.
因为在此之前，我们已经在图书馆和学术讨论会里浸泡了好几个月。
“We’ll hang out after,” we’d said.
我们曾说，“答辩结束一起出去玩呀。”
Instead, we packed our bags, said numb goodbyes and fled to separate parts of the world.
然而，我们并没有等来那天，取而代之的是收拾行李，麻木的告别然后各自散落天涯。
Though the speeches are often riddled with trite remarks (Don’t be afraid to fail! Follow your dreams!),
尽管毕业典礼演讲经常充斥着各种陈词滥调(诸如“不要害怕失败！”，“追随你的梦想！”)，
we admit we find ourselves craving those clichés and the moments when speeches rise above them.
但我们还是要承认，我们还是渴望能听到那些陈词滥调，渴望那些陈词滥调带来的演讲高潮。
In 2008, J. K. Rowling delivered the Harvard commencement address,
2008年，J.K.罗琳在哈佛大学毕业典礼上发表演讲时
defending the importance of perseverance and imagination:
就声援了毅力和想象力的重要性：
“We do not need magic to change the world,
“我们不需要依靠魔法来改变世界，
we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.”
我们的内心就有这种力量，因为我们一直在梦想，把这个世界变得更加美好。”
Rowling’s speech gave a sense of agency over our lives.
罗琳的演讲给人一种自我主宰人生的感觉。
Messages like this, delivered over the years by the likes of John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs,
这些年来，约翰·F.肯尼迪、奥普拉·温弗瑞和史蒂夫·乔布斯等人在毕业典礼致辞时传递的都是这样的信息，
have propelled graduates into the future,
正是这些信息激励着毕业生们拥抱未来，
helping them recognize who they are becoming and how that squares with who they want to be.
帮助着他们认识到他们会成为什么样的人，以及如何拉近他们会成为的人与他们想要成为的人之间的距离。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
