But I'm American! What do I have if I don't have dreams? The typical high-ranking professions are the gold standard for Asian parents. They're financially stable, a mark of prestige, and always hiring. But we don't all dream of being doctors, lawyers, and financial analysts. For those of us who don't quite fit those specific molds, we're stuck in crisis. We struggle in a tug-of-war between our ingrained ancestral identity —our filial piety, our duty to carry out the will of the family —and our own dreams. Some of us never find that balance, relinquishing our passions for a life built around crippling pragmatism or bitterly abandoning our ancestry completely. But some of us do find the balance to appease elements of our past, present, and future.

但我是美国人！要是没有了梦想我还有什么呢？那些“高级”的职业是亚裔父母评定好坏的黄金标准。这些职业收入稳定，是光环的标识。而且他们永远在招人。但我们并不都梦想成为医生、律师和金融分析师。对于那些并不能很好地被嵌到这些“模具”里的人来说，我们深陷危机。我们在一场拔河中挣扎：一边是植在我们基因中的华人的传统——我们要遵守的孝道和我们履行我们家庭的意愿的责任，另一边是我们自己的梦想。我们中的一些人从未在这场拔河中找到平衡。有些人在一种削弱人们意志的务实主义中忘却了他们的激情，有些人狠心地抛弃了所有我们祖先的传统。但我们中的一些人找到了这个平衡点，来平抚我们的过去、现在、和未来。

Jeremy Lin has done this, and it's why he's so important. He proves there's another way. Watching Lin knife into the lane and score over soaring giants, it's impossible to imagine him doing anything else with his life. But it could have been so different. His entire basketball career prior to this remarkable week has been a cyclical routine of underappreciation and invisibility. He could have left it all. We know about his Harvard degree in economics. But he had the courage and resolve to stick to his dream. And that's where the ethnocentrism melts away and the purity of his story emerges.

林书豪做到了这一点，这就是为什么他是那么重要。他证明了，有另一种方式。看到林书豪切入到内线，并在一群跃起的巨人的防守下得分的时候，我们很难想象他还能在人生里做些什么别的。但这个故事也曾经可能变得完全不同：在过去的这一周前，存在在林书豪的整个篮球生涯中的，只有周期性的、如惯例一般的被轻视和被忽略。他完全可以离开这一切。我们都知道他得哈佛大学经济学学士学位。但他有坚持自己梦想的勇气和决心。而就是从这一点开始，种族优越感渐渐地消失，他的故事开始显得那么的纯粹。

Jeremy Lin is humble, spiritual, and disciplined. He is also fearless, aggressive, and creative. He's found his mode of expression and his definition of success. Whether he blossoms into a legitimate NBA star or shatters his glass slipper sitting at the end of the bench is of little importance to me. Ethan Sherwood Strauss may be right. He may never exist as anything other than Jeremy Lin, the symbol — but only because the symbol does not stray far (if at all) from Jeremy Lin, the individual. Beyond the ability to galvanize an entire population of Asian-Americans or the ability to spin the narrative of the stereotypical Asian overachiever, what inspires me most is how comfortable he is with his abilities and his place among the best basketball players in the world — how comfortable he is with himself. While I was raised to believe in a culturally-assigned definition of success, more than ever, I have faith in my ability to form my own definition. If Jeremy Lin has proven anything, it's just how vital being true to oneself is.

林书豪是谦虚的、是自律的、是有精神力量的。他也是无畏的、进取的、有创造力的。他已经找到了他表达自己的模式以及他对于成功的定义。无论他今后成为一个真正的NBA明星，还是打破了他的水晶鞋、回到替补板凳的末端，对我来说都不重要。Ethan Sherwood Strauss或许是对的。林书豪的存在可能永远都只会限于“林书豪”这样的一个标志—但这只是因为这个标志完全没有偏离“林书豪”这个人。是的，他激励了整个亚裔美国人社群；是的，他改变了美国人对于典型的亚洲拼命三郎的描述；但是，林书豪带给我的最大的启发是他对于自己的能力的那种自在、以及他在与一群世界上最好的篮球运动员在一起时对于自己所处的位子的那种自如。尽管我从小受到的教育就告诉我，要相信不同文化决定了不同的对成功的定义，但是现在我比以往的任何时候都更相信：我们有能力给自己的成功写下定义。如果林书豪已经证明了什么，那么一定是“忠于自己”有多么的重要。

Lin has found his mode of expression; a force with the power to subvert preconceptions, a force that highlights the individual in positive and negative light, a force that can articulate dreams so vividly, fruition is the only plausible end. He's found it in his relentless forays to the rim, finishing plays with an improbable grace and flourish —something he's done long before the lights of New York shined down upon him.

林书豪让我们看到了什么？我们自己，以及我们生命中那些我们不曾真正相信的可能性。

What do we see in Jeremy Lin? Ourselves — and the options in life that we may not have truly believed existed before.

我是一个亚裔。我是一个美国人。我很小只，不张扬、很温顺。但我有我的声音，我有我对自己的掌控权。我希望有一天，我能自信地展示这个声音和这份权力。就像林书豪那样。