BA'85: The Hapless Odyssey of a Young Classicist-Cum-Clerk
85年毕业的文学学士:一位年轻店贯兼古典学者的不幸漫漫行程
by Michael Christie
迈克尔·克里斯蒂
One woman who received her bachelor's degree along with me last June at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA is currently using her hard-earned skills to serve better sodas in an ice cream parlor. Another spends her days working in an automobile repair shop. I am not significantly better off than either of them, nor, in fact, am I much better off than many others who were members of the American college class of '85.
去年六月和我一起在加州克莱尔蒙特皮泽学院获得学士学位的一位女士目前正在用她辛辛苦苦学来的技艺在一家冷饮店为顾客上苏打汽水。另一位女士则在一家汽车修理厂工作来打发日子。我的境况比她们也好不到哪里去,而且事实上也不比美国大学85年毕业的其他许多人好多少。
I am a clerk in a bookstore, which is not exactly what I expected to be doing at this point in my life.
我目前正在一家书店作店员,而这并非我曾期望在生命的此刻要做的事情。
Two years ago at this time I was unconcerned as my friends worried about scores on law boardexams, or nervously waited for letters from the admissions offices of medical schools, or struggled to get into graduate business programs. They knew then what I did not know until much later: that a liberal-arts degree no longer guarantees a good job and that, given the state ofthe economy, college students must train for something specific if they want to be certain of winning a job they want.
两年前的此时,当我的朋友们为法学院入学考试的成绩忧心忡忡,或紧张地等待着医学院招生办的来信,或拼着命想进入工商管理硕士班时,我却漫不经心。当时他们已经知道了我很久以后才知道的情况:大学文科的学位已不再确保有份好工作,而考虑到经济状况,大学生要想肯定赢得一份想要的工作就必须接受某种特定的教育。