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I am a late bloomer.
我是一个晚熟的人。
In fact, a friend of mine you may have heard of -- Chris Rock -- he once called me the most late-blooming mofo he’d ever met.
事实上，我的一个朋友，你们可能听说过——克里斯·洛克（Chris Rock）——他曾说我是他见过最晚熟的家伙。
Now, some people might consider that snide, but I revel in it.
现在，有些人可能觉得那是嘲讽，但我却乐在其中。
I’m 55, and I’m here in this curvy body as someone who has done the work, lived the life walked the walk in these very high heels -- and therefore is qualified to testify in the church and in the court of law that it does, in fact, get greater later.
我 55 岁了，我努力保持着好身材，还穿着非常高跟的高跟鞋去工作、生活和走路——才得以获得在教堂和法庭上作证的资格。事实上，自此以后一切都在变得更好。
Now coming to this realization wasn’t easy.
意识到这一点并非易事。
At the age of 38, I was a very successful fashion advertising executive, and I was really living what most people considered a dream life.
在我 38 岁的时候，我是一名非常成功的时尚广告主管，我真的过着对大多数人来说是梦想中的生活。
I was jet-setting to fashion shows; I was receiving free designer clothes; I was double-kissing my way across the globe.
我不停地私人飞机参加时装秀；我不停地收到免费的名牌服饰；我在环游世界的路上不停地亲吻别人脸颊。
I was.
真的。
And, you know, it was everything that I ever wanted it to be, and then one day I realized I was only pretending to be happy.
你知道，这就是我想要的一切，然后有一天我意识到，我只是在假装开心。
But I couldn’t blow up my good life in my prime earning years, right?
但我不能在我收入最好的时候毁掉我的美好生活，对吧？
Wrong.
不对。
Which leads me to lessons my mother Lolly taught me.
这让我想起了我妈妈洛莉对我的教导。
Lolly’s number one lesson: don’t settle. Don’t settle.
洛莉的第一课：不要妥协。不要妥协。
Now I’m aware that my well-paying, glamorous career is not exactly the humdrum, “I hate my job” stereotype that most people equate with settling.
现在我意识到，我的高薪、光鲜亮丽的工作给我的感觉，并不像大多数人认为的那样，在安定后产生的乏味感——那种“我讨厌工作”这种刻板印象。
But it was a settle for me, because when I actually did quit my job at the age of 38, it was with the intention that every day be a great adventure.
但它对我来说是一种妥协，因为当我真的在 38 岁辞掉工作时，我的预想是每天都将是一次伟大的冒险。
Now sometimes it was a very scary adventure, like being broke from the age of 40 to 45.
但有时它会是非常可怕的冒险，就像在 40 岁到 45岁 时破了产。
But even still, I wouldn’t trade that for the safe and settled version, because if I had, I would not be here with y’all today.
但即便如此，我也没有死守安稳的生活，因为如果我那样做了，我今天就不会站在这里了。
Yeah. So you know how when you like, buck the system and go against the status quo, it makes people really uncomfortable?
是的。所以你知道，当你对体制产生不满，不安于现状，会让人们感觉很不舒服吗？
And invariably, people will ask, “Where do you get your confidence?”
无一例外，他们总是会问，“你哪儿来的自信？”
Now some people mean it as a compliment, but very often it’s shady ...and it's a silent judgment.
有些人认为这是一种恭维，但很多时候不一定是……这是一种无声的批评。
And to those people, I respond with a quote from this Brooklyn poet you may have heard of, Jay-Z. “She get it from her mama.”
对于这些人，用一句你们可能听过的布鲁克林诗人Jay-Z 的话。“她从她妈妈那里学来的。”
I am she, and my mama is the epitome of a grown-ass woman: someone who has always been very comfortable in her skin.
我就是诗中的“她”，而我妈妈是一个成熟女性的缩影：她总是对自己特别自信的一个人。
In 1965, my mom was 37 years old.
1965 年，我妈妈 37 岁。
She already had one child, my big brother, Gerry, and she married my dad, but she kept her maiden name.
她已经有了一个孩子，我的大哥，格里，之后她嫁给了我的爸爸，但她保留了她自己的姓。
And then she had my sister Stephanie and I back-to-back, but she continued to work because she refused to be beholden to my dad for money.
然后她接连生下了我的姐姐斯蒂芬妮和我，但她还坚持工作，因为她拒绝在金钱上完全依赖我的父亲。
And I bet my mom was the only woman in our neighborhood who cooked once a week.
我敢打赌，我妈妈是我们街区唯一一个，每周只做一次饭的女人。
She made Sunday dinner.
她只做周日晚餐。
It was an extravaganza, but that’s all she did.
那是一顿盛宴，但她也就只做那一顿。
She cooked one day a week. My mom is just amazing.
她每周只在那一天里做饭，我的妈妈太赞了。
