——史蒂夫•乔布斯 （节选）

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

（This is the text of the Commencement (n.毕业典礼) address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. ）

……

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological (adj.生物学的) mother was a young, unwed(adj.没有结婚的) college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented (v.缓和，变温和，心平气和) a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class (adj.工薪阶层的) parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into (偶然碰见) by following my curiosity (n.好奇心) and intuition (n.直觉) turned out to be priceless (adj.无价的) later on.

参考翻译：

（注：本文是苹果公司及Pixar动画工厂CEO史蒂夫•乔布斯于2005年6月12日在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上发表的演讲。）

第一个故事是关于串起你生命中的点点滴滴。

我在里德学院念了6个月大学后就退学了，但随后我在学校旁听了18个月的课，然后才真正地辍学。那么，我为什么要退学呢？

故事要从我出生前说起。我的亲生母亲是个未婚的大学研究生，她决定把我交给别人收养。她很坚持我的养父母也应该是大学研究生，于是一切就这么安排好了：我出 生后由一位律师和他的妻子领养。但是就在我呱呱坠地的一刻，事情起了变化，律师夫妇突然宣布他们想收养的是女孩。我爸和我妈当时正列在收养人候选名单上， 于是他俩半夜接到一个电话说：“我们这儿出了个意外，有个男孩，你们要收养吗？”他俩说：“当然要。”后来，我的亲生母亲发现，我妈大学没毕业而我爸甚至 高中都没读完。她于是拒绝在最后的收养协议上签字，直到拖了几个月后我爸妈承诺说将来一定送我读大学才算同意。

17年后，我果然上了大学。可是，我天真地选择了一所差不多跟斯坦福一样贵的大学，我那劳工阶层的爸妈攒下的积蓄就成了我的大学学费。念了6个 月后，我看不出这种生活有什么价值。对于我的人生，我不知道应该用它来做什么，我也不知道大学生活怎么能帮我解答这个问题。于是我决定退学，相信这条路一定走得通。这在当时是很恐怖的一件事，但是现在回首看去，这是我作过的最好的决定之一。从退学的那一分钟起，我就可以不上无趣的必修课，而且可以去旁听那些让我感兴趣的课程。

这并不是一种很浪漫的生活。我没有宿舍住，因此要睡在朋友宿舍的地板上。我收集喝空的可乐瓶，每个瓶子换回押金5美分供我买食物充饥。每个星期天晚上，我会走7英里的路穿过波特兰市区去Hare Krishna神庙去吃顿好的（译注：Hare Krishna神庙是印度教修习场所，周日有灵修活动和免费聚餐）。我很喜欢这顿牙祭。很多在那期间跟随好奇心和直觉所偶然碰到的东西，后来发现是无比珍贵的。

The first story is about connecting the dots.