【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 d to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn39。t always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn39。t fit in.我知道你們的感受。我父親在我兩歲時就離開了家庭，是母親一人將我們拉扯大，有時她付不起帳單，有時我們得不到其他孩子們都有的東西，有時我會想，假如父親在該多好，有時我會感到孤獨無助，與周圍的環(huán)境格格不入。So I wasn39。t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I39。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.因此我并不總是能專心學習，我做過許多自己覺得丟臉的事情，也惹出過許多不該惹的麻煩，我的生活岌岌可危，隨時可能急轉直下。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 didn39。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.但我很幸運。我在許多事上都得到了重來的機會，我得到了去大學讀法學院、實現(xiàn)自己夢想的機會。我的妻子——現(xiàn)在得叫她第一夫人米歇爾?奧巴馬了——也有著相似的人生故事，她的父母都沒讀過大學，也沒有什么財產(chǎn)，但他們和她都辛勤工作，好讓她有機會去這個國家最優(yōu)秀的學校讀書。Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don39。t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there39。s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don39。t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren39。t right.你們中有些人可能沒有這些有利條件，或許你的生活中沒有能為你提供幫助和支持的長輩，或許你的某個家長沒有工作、經(jīng)濟拮據(jù)，或許你住的社區(qū)不那么安全，或許你認識一些會對你產(chǎn)生不良影響的朋友，等等。But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life what you look like, where you e from, how much money you have, what you39。ve got going on at home none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That39。s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.但歸根結底，你的生活狀況——你的長相、出身、經(jīng)濟條件、家庭氛圍——都不是疏忽學業(yè)和態(tài)度惡劣的借口，這些不是你去跟老師頂嘴、逃課、或是輟學的借口，這些不是你不好好讀書的借口。Where you are right now doesn39。t have to determine where you39。ll end up. No one39。s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.你的未來，并不取決于你現(xiàn)在的生活有多好或多壞。沒有人為你編排好你的命運，在美國，你的命運由你自己書寫，你的未來由你自己掌握。That39。s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.而在這片土地上的每個地方，千千萬萬和你一樣的年輕人正是這樣在書寫著自己的命運。Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roman, Texas. Jazmin didn39。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 being Dr. Jazmin Perez.例如德克薩斯州羅馬市的賈斯敏?佩雷茲（Jazmin Perez）。剛進學校時，她根本不會說英語，她住的地方幾乎沒人上過大學，她的父母也沒有受過高等教育，但她努力學習，取得了優(yōu)異的成績，靠獎學金進入了布朗大學，如今正在攻讀公共衛(wèi)生專業(yè)的博士學位。I39。m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who39。s fought brain cancer since he was three. He39。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. He39。s headed to college this fall.我還想起了加利福尼亞州洛斯拉圖斯市的安多尼?舒爾茲（Andoni Schultz），他從三歲起就開始與腦癌病魔做斗爭，他熬過了一次次治療與手術——其中一次影響了他的記憶，因此他得花出比常人多幾百個小時的時間來完成學業(yè)，但他從不曾落下自己的功課。這個秋天，他要開始在大學讀書了。And then there39。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 she39。s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.又比如在我的家鄉(xiāng)，伊利諾斯州芝加哥市，身為孤兒的香特爾?史蒂夫（Shantell Steve）換過多次收養(yǎng)家庭，從小在治安很差的地區(qū)長大，但她努力爭取到了在當?shù)乇＝≌竟ぷ鞯臋C會、發(fā)起了一個讓青少年遠離犯罪團伙的項目，很快，她也將以優(yōu)異的成績從中