You will walk out of here today with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody2 of your life.
Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account but your soul.
People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume3 than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve gotten back the test results and they’re not so good.
Here is my resume:
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe.? I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout4. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch.
I would be rotten, or at best mediocre5 at my job, if those other things were not true. You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.
So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life, a real life, not a manic6 pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm7 one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls8 with concentration when she tries to pick up a toy with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Each time you look at your diploma, remember that you are still a student, still learning how to best treasure your connection to others. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter.
Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the azaleas9 in the suburban neighborhood; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black, black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted.
Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beers and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen10.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas, the color of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead to live.
I learned to live many years ago. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz11 on a baby’s ear. Learn to be happy.
Look at the view. You’ll never be disappointed.
今天你走出这里时，你只有一件与众不同的东西。说到学位，成千上万的人有跟你一样的学位；说到谋生，成千上万的人会和你一样地谋生。可是，你是活着的人当中惟一能够主宰自己生命的人。
你的生命是独一无二的。你的整个生命，不仅是在课桌前，也不只是在公共汽车上、小汽车里或是电脑前。不仅是你的头脑的生命，而且还是你的心灵的生命。不只是你的银行帐号，而且还有你的灵魂。
现在谈灵魂的人少了。写一份简历容易，创造一个灵魂却难得多。可是一份简历只是在冬天的寒夜里，在你难过时、破产时、孤独时、考试成绩不如意时的一份冷冷的安慰。
以下是我的简历：
我是三个孩子的好母亲，我尽力不让我的职业妨碍我做一个好母亲。我不再把自己看作宇宙的中心。我跟孩子们在一起，倾听他们说话，与他们一起欢笑。我是丈夫的好朋友。我努力信守我们结婚时的承诺。我是朋友们的好朋友，他们也是我的好朋友。没有他们，我今天就不知道对你们说些什么，因为没有他们我会是一个平淡无奇的人。我给他们打电话，和他们共进午餐。
如果上述的一切不是真实的，我的工作会单调乏味，我的一辈子会碌碌无为。如果工作是你的一切，你绝对不可能把你的工作做到最好。”
这就是今天我要告诉你的：去生活，真正地生活，而不是疯狂地追求升职，追求加薪、买大房子。
想想，如果有一天下午你突然被诊断出患了动脉瘤或乳腺癌，你还那么在乎名和利么？
去品尝海风的咸味吧，去观看盘旋的雄鹰吧，去留意孩子努力用大拇指和食指抓起玩具时的专注吧。
不要孤独地过日子，找一个你爱的人和爱你的人。记住爱不是休闲，而是工作。每次看着你的文凭，要记得你仍然是个学生，仍然在学习怎样好好珍惜你和别人的联系。拿起电话，发一个e-mail，写一封信。
过慷慨的生活。到郊外去观赏盛开的杜鹃花吧，在寒夜里看挂在漆黑的空中那轮银色的满月吧。要意识到生活从来都没有这么美好过，不要把这一切视为理所当然。
多关注生活中的善，并把它向你的周围传播。把你用来喝啤酒的钱捐给慈善事业，去做义工。
时间一天一天地过去，一分一秒地流逝，浪费我们的生命很容易。我们对火红的杜鹃视若无睹，对我们孩子眼睛的颜色视若无睹，对优美的旋律置若罔闻。我们懂得生存，却不会生活。 许多年前我就学会了生活。我学会了去看世上所有美好的事情，并努力为她增添美好。我尽量这样做，在某种程度上，我也告诉人们我的发现，叫他们也想想野地里的百合，看看婴儿耳朵上的绒毛。学会保持快乐！
学会欣赏身边的景色，你就永远不会失望。
1. 安娜·昆德兰（1953~），美国著名作家，著有三部畅销小说：《主题课程》、《亲情无价》与《黑与蓝》。她在纽约时报上开辟的"公平与私情"专栏赢得了1992年普利策奖。本文选自她在Villanova大学的演讲词。
2. custody n. 监管，监护
3. resume n. 简历，履历
4. cutout n. 用硬纸板剪的图形
5. mediocre adj. 平庸的，二流的
6. manic adj. 狂热的
7. aneurysm n. 动脉瘤
8. scowl v. 皱眉
9. azalea n. 杜鹃花
10. soup kitchen 施粥所
11. fuzz n. 绒毛