i think of this as my parking space theory of career choice, and i have been sharing it with students for decades. don’t park 20 blocks from your destination because you think you’ll never find a space. go where you want to be and then circle back to where you have to be.
我把這叫做我的關於職業選擇的“泊車”理論，幾十年來我一直都在向學生們“兜售”我的這個理論。不要因為怕到了目的地找不到停車位而把車停在距離目的地20個路口的地方。直接到達你想去的地方，哪怕再繞回來停，你暫時停的地方只是你被迫停的地方。
you may love investment banking or finance or consulting. it might be just right for you. or, you might be like the senior i met at lunch at kirkland who had just returned from an interview on the west coast with a prestigious consulting firm. “why am i doing this?” she asked. “i hate flying, i hate hotels, i won’t like this job.” find work you love. it is hard to be happy if you spend more than half your waking hours doing something you don’t.
你也許喜歡做投行，或是做金融抑或做理財諮詢。都可能是適合你的。那也許真的就是適合你的。或許你也會像我在kirkland house見到的那個大四學生一樣，她剛從美國西海岸一家著名理財諮詢公司的面試回來。“我為什麼要做這個？”她說，“我討厭坐飛機，我討厭住賓館，我是不會喜歡這份工作的。”找到你熱愛的工作。如果你把你一天中醒著的一大半時間用來做你不喜歡的事情，你是很難感到幸福的。
but what is ultimately most important here is that you are asking the question — not just of me but of yourselves. you are choosing roads and at the same time challenging your own choices. you have a notion of what you want your life to be and you are not sure the road you are taking is going to get you there. this is the best news. and it is also, i hope, to some degree, our fault. noticing your life, reflecting upon it, considering how you can live it well, wondering how you can do good: these are perhaps the most valuable things that a liberal arts education has equipped you to do. a liberal education demands that you live self-consciously. it prepares you to seek and define the meaning inherent in all you do. it has made you an analyst and critic of yourself, a person in this way supremely equipped to take charge of your life and how it unfolds. it is in this sense that the liberal arts are liberal — as in liberare — to free. they empower you with the possibility of exercising agency, of discovering meaning, of making choices. the surest way to have a meaningful, happy life is to commit yourself to striving for it. don’t settle. be prepared to change routes. remember the impossible expectations we have of you, and even as you recognize they are impossible, remember how important they are as a lodestar guiding you toward something that matters to you and to the world. the meaning of your life is for you to make.
但是我在這兒說的最重要的是：你們在問那些問題——不僅是問我，而是在問你們自己。你們正在選擇人生的道路，同時也在對自己的選擇提出質疑。你們知道自己想過什麼樣的生活，也知道你們將行的道路不一定會把你們帶到想去的地方。這樣其實很好。某種程度上，我倒希望這是我們的錯。我們一直在標榜人生，像鏡子一樣照出未來你們的模樣，思考你們怎么可以過得幸福，探索你們怎樣才能去做些對社會有價值的事：這些也許是文理教育可以給你們“裝備”的最有價值的東西。文理教育要求你們要活得“明白”。它使你探索和定義你做的每件事情背後的價值。它讓你成為一個經常分析和反省自己的人。而這樣的人完全能夠掌控自己的人生或未來。從這個道理上講，文理——照它的字面意思——才使你們自由。學文理可以讓你有機會去進行理論的實踐，去發現你所做的選擇的價值。想過上有價值的，幸福的生活，最可靠的途徑就是為了你的目標去奮鬥。不要安於現狀得過且過。隨時準備著改變人生的道路。記住我們對你們的我覺得是“過於崇高”的期待，可能你們自己也承認那些期待是有點“太高了”。不過如果想做些對於你們自己或是這個世界有點價值的事情，記住它們，它們將會像北斗一樣指引著你們。你們人生的價值將由你們去實現！