我明白這一點。 我有親身感受。兩歲時，我父親離家而去，我是由一位單親母親撫養(yǎng)成人的，母親不得不工作，并時常為支付生活費(fèi)用而苦苦掙扎，但有時仍無法為我們提供其他孩子享有的東西。有時，我渴望生活中能有一位父親。有時我感到孤獨(dú)，感到自己不適應(yīng)社會。

　　So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I’m not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

　　我并非總是像我應(yīng)該做到的那樣專心學(xué)習(xí)，我也曾做過我如今不能引以為豪的一些事情，我曾惹過不應(yīng)該惹的麻煩。我的人生原本會輕易陷入更糟糕的境地。

　　But I was -- I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

　　但是，我當(dāng)年際遇不錯。我有過許多第二次機(jī)會，我有幸能上大學(xué)，上法學(xué)院，追求自己的理想。我的妻子，我們的第一夫人米歇爾•奧巴馬，也有著類似的經(jīng)歷。她的父母都未曾上過大學(xué)，家里很窮。但他們非常勤奮 ，她也是如此，因此她得以進(jìn)入一些美國最好的學(xué)校。

　　Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

　　你們中有一些人可能沒有那些有利條件?；蛟S你們生活中沒有成年人為你們提供你們所需要的支持?；蛟S你們家中有人失業(yè)，經(jīng)濟(jì)非常拮據(jù)。或許你們生活在使你們感覺不安全的社區(qū)，或有朋友逼迫你們?nèi)プ瞿銈冎啦粚Φ氖虑椤?/p>

　　But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.

　　然而說到底，你們生活的環(huán)境、你們的膚色、你們的原籍、你們的經(jīng)濟(jì)收入、你們家中的境況等等，這一切都不能成為你們不用功或不努力的理由。你們沒有理由不服從你們的老師、逃學(xué)、或輟學(xué)。沒有理由不付出努力。

　　Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

　　你們目前的狀況并不決定著你們的未來。沒有人決定你們的命運(yùn)，在美國，你們決定自己的命運(yùn)。你們掌握自己的未來。

　　That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

　　這就是像你們這樣的年輕人每天都在做的事情，全美各地都是如此。

　　Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Neither of her parents had gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades, and got a scholarship to Brown University -- is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.

　　來自得州羅馬城的賈茲敏•佩雷斯(Jazmin Perez)就是一個例證，她剛開始上學(xué)時并不會說英文。她的父母都沒有上過大學(xué)。然而，她非常勤奮，成績優(yōu)秀，獲得了布朗大學(xué)的獎學(xué)金，她如今正在讀研究生，攻讀公共衛(wèi)生專業(yè)，不久將成為賈茲敏•佩雷斯博士。

　　I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer -- hundreds of extra hours -- to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.我想起了加州洛斯阿爾托斯城的安多尼•舒爾茨(Andoni Schultz)，他從三歲開始就一直與腦癌進(jìn)行抗?fàn)?，他不得不忍受各類治療和手術(shù)帶來的痛苦，其中一項手術(shù)曾影響了他的記憶，因此他花在功課上的時間比一般人長得多，要多出數(shù)百個小時。然而，他從未落后。他今年秋季將邁進(jìn)大學(xué)。

　　And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local health care center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs, and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

　　我還想起家鄉(xiāng)伊利諾伊州芝加哥市的尚特爾•史蒂夫(Shantell Steve)。她曾在芝加哥最困難的社區(qū)生活，寄養(yǎng)于多個不同的家庭，但她最終在一家地方醫(yī)療中心找到工作，并開始了一項幫助年輕人遠(yuǎn)離流氓團(tuán)伙的計劃，她即將以優(yōu)異成績從中學(xué)畢業(yè)，緊接著將上大學(xué)。

　　And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In some cases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education, and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.賈茲敏、安多尼和尚特爾與你們中間的每個人沒什么兩樣。跟你們一樣，他們在生活中面臨種種挑戰(zhàn)。在某些情況下，他們的處境比起你們許多人更差。但他們拒絕放棄。他們決定要為自己的一生、自己的教育負(fù)起責(zé)任，為自己設(shè)定各項奮斗目標(biāo)。我期待你們大家都會這樣做。

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