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I wondered how I would ever fit in with my teenage friends. I hated being followed by my father's good name. And so when strangers asked me if I was Doctor Eppley's son, I replied emphatically, "My name is Harold. And I can manage quite well on my own." As an act of rebellion, I began to call my father by his first name, Sam.
我不知道自己怎样才能融入我那些少年朋友的圈子。我讨厌父亲的好名声像影子一样跟着我。所以当陌生人问起我是不是埃普利医生的儿子时，我会断然答道：“我叫哈罗德。我自己能管好自己的事。”出于反叛，我开始对父亲直呼其名，不叫他“爸爸”，而叫他“萨姆”。
Why are you acting so stubborn lately? my father asked me one day in the midst of an argument.
“你最近为什么这么犟？”有次争吵时，我父亲这样问我。
Well, Sam, I replied, "I suppose that bothers you."
“哼，萨姆。我想你生气了吧！”
You know it hurts me when you call me Sam, my father shouted.
“你知道的，你叫我萨姆让我很伤心。”我父亲大声地说。
Well, it hurts me when everybody expects me to be just like you. I don't want to be perfect. I want to be myself.
“哦，那人人都指望我像你一样，也很让我伤心呢。我不要完美，我只想做我自己。”
I survived my last years of high school until finally I turned eighteen. The next fall I enrolled in college. I chose to attend a school far from Enosburg, a place where nobody called me "Doctor Eppley's son."
我好不容易挨过高中，总算满了十八岁。第二年秋天我上了大学。我选中了一所远离伊诺斯堡的学校，这个地方再没人管我叫“埃普利医生的儿子”。
One night at college I sat with a group of students in the dormitory as we shared stories about our lives. We began to talk about the things we hated most about our childhoods. "That's easy," I said. "I couldn't stand growing up in a town where everybody always compared me with my father."
在大学里，有天晚上我和一帮学生在宿舍聊起我们的生活经历。我们开始谈起我们童年时期最讨厌的事情。“想都不用想，”我说，“我受不了生活的小镇上每个人总是拿我和我的父亲比。”
The girl sitting next to me frowned. "I don't understand," she said. "I'd be proud to have a father who's so well respected." Her eyes filled with tears as she continued, "I'd give anything to be called my father's child. But I don't know where he is. He left my mother when I was only four."
坐在我身边的女孩皱起眉头说：“这我就不理解了。要是有这么个令人尊敬的父亲我一定会很骄傲的。”她的眼里噙着泪继续说，“要是有人把我叫做我父亲的孩子，我愿为此付出一切！但我不知道他在哪里。我才四岁，他就离开了我的母亲。”
