哈佛校长2022年毕业演讲：愿你免于焦虑、恐惧和不确定，找到属于自己的道路

5月24日，美国哈佛大学举行2022届本科生毕业典礼。这是因新冠肺炎疫情中断两年后，哈佛毕业典礼重新在线下举行。在典礼上，哈佛校长劳伦斯·巴考（Lawrence S. Bacow）说，人生的道路有多种可能性。他鼓励学生在探索未知世界的过程中，要相信自己，善于抓住一些预期之外的机会。只有带着激情和热情去拥抱未知世界，才能找到属于自己的道路，并在世界上留下自己的印记。

找到属于自己的道路

原载：“留学字典”公众号

翻译：留学字典

英文：哈佛官网

标题为编者所加

欢迎你们，2022届哈佛大学毕业生们！

1359天前，我们在开学典礼上相遇，我们共同开始了在哈佛的生活（注：巴考校长于2018年出任哈佛大学第29任校长），你们是本科生，我是校长。当时我谈到的学术，向你们提出挑战——利用本科生约21000小时的可用时间，来探索哈佛大学所能提供的一切。

当时我们并不知道，我们都将面临一场全球性新冠疫情，并以我们无法想象的方式考验我们。我认为，今天我们穿着毕业长袍服聚集在这里是很合适的，这不仅象征着我们是一个学习社区的成员，而且也象征着我们过去四年的经历，象征着我们在哈佛的经历，象征着一个被前所未有的风吹动的世界。我们所有人都带着这一切，走进未知世界。

新冠疫情比我们想象的要疯狂。坦率地说，当我在2020年3月疫情之初做出学校停课的艰难的决定，在如此短的时间内将你们所有人送回家时，我从未想过两年后，仅在美国就有100万人死于这种病毒之后，我们还在应对这场公共卫生危机。

你们这一届学生有这样的经历，你们表现出了非凡的韧性和耐心，这两项品质将为你在哈佛大学毕业后的生活做好准备。

基于我对你们的了解以及你们在哈佛的经历，我坚信你会像哈佛以前的毕业生一样，找到属于自己的道路，并在世界上留下自己的印记。

让我借此机会感谢你的毅力、宽容和理解！我想没有比2022年哈佛大学的毕业生更让我感到骄傲。今后总会有那么一天，我们会站在足够远的距离来回看我们作为一个群体在疫情下所经历的一切。

今天，你们在大学毕业前夕的这个时刻同时感到兴奋和焦虑是很常见的。当你开始人生旅程的下一章程时，你会为所有等待着你的东西感到兴奋，并对这段旅程可能带你去哪里感到焦虑。

你们中的一些人进入哈佛大学时，确信自己想去哪里，比如法学院、医学院、公共服务。你们中的一些人在这个校园里找到了自己的激情，现在打算在新闻、艺术或娱乐领域寻求学术职业或机会。你们中的一些人仍在寻找。你可能有一份薪水很高的工作，但是，在你的内心，你仍会担心这是否是正确道路，或者你是否会成功。

试图规划职业生涯的问题是，职业生涯只有在回顾时才能明了。在你退休的那天，你可以回顾过去，这一切都是有意义的。你可以确定拐点时刻的决定，这些决定将你带到了终点。但当你实时面对这些决定时，你会很挣扎。你将列出利弊。你将与朋友和家人协商。你会为这些选择痛苦到深夜。

我知道我在说什么，因为我有过这样的经历。

当我在哈佛完成博士学位时，阿黛尔（Adele）（注：巴考校长的妻子）和我认为我们要去华盛顿特区了。当时卡特总统刚刚执政，我们对我们政治职业生涯的前途感到兴奋。但随后出现了一个意想不到的情况：

试想我会回到母校MIT去接替一个临时离职的人干两年吗？而且薪水远比华盛顿的岗位要低；而且两年之后能否继续干这个工作也无法保证。

结果我接受了MIT的工作。几年后，我还在MIT并且已经在考虑是否能够拿到终身教授。但是，我不是很开心，因为我的一位才华横溢的合作同事没有拿到。我认为如果他拿不到，我也肯定拿不到。为此我决定离开MIT和学术界，但在这个时候，我的系主任打来电话：

你考虑担任一个新学术项目的负责人吗？

我选择了接受。

回顾我过去35年的职业生涯，我曾是大学校长选聘委员会的成员，在半退休的位置上呆了7年（注：巴考在2011—2018年任哈佛董事会成员）。直到有一天，哈佛校长聘选委员会主席来问我：你会考虑成为哈佛校长的候选人吗？

如果我对其中任何一个问题说“不”，我今天就不会站在这里了。这并不是说我有先见之明或智慧，也不是说我勇敢，只是因为我愿意看到我没有考虑过的道路可能会把我引向何方。这种环游世界的方式把我带到了一些非常有趣的地方，现在我所站的这个讲台，就是其中之一。

你也将有机会为自己考虑其他路径，这些路径会出乎意料地出现在你面前，甚至很不方便。你要愿意抓住这些机会，相信自己，不要太担心失败。

我的母亲露丝（Ruth）是一个非常聪明的女人。每当我担心一个决定时，她总是说：“最糟糕的情况是什么？你能忍受吗？如果可以，就去做吧。”我希望你能像我这辈子一样，从这个建议中解脱出来。

一些无法预料的机会会对你产生如此深远的影响，拒绝它们将是一场悲剧。

我们的演讲和修辞学教授乔丽·格雷厄姆（Jorie Graham），曾是纽约大学（NYU）的本科生，一心专注于电影制作。一天，她走过一个开放的诗歌课堂，听到《J. Alfred Prufrock爱情诗歌》（The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock）的台词：

我听到美人鱼在唱歌，他们彼此歌唱。/ 我想他们不会为我而唱。

正是因为那一刻，让乔丽教授成了美国最杰出的诗人之一、普利策奖获得者、哈佛大学最受欢迎的教员之一。

鲁本·布莱兹（Ruben Blades），一位音乐巨人，是今年的哈佛艺术奖获得者。他曾是巴拿马的一名法律专业学生，一个周末，他所在学校的院长看到他和乐队一起表演。院长把他拉到一边，告诉他，如果他想成为一名律师，以体现这一职业的尊严，他就必须停止唱歌。鲁本最终在迈阿密推出了一张演示专辑，并最终获得了17项格莱美奖。

雷·哈蒙德（Ray Hammond）毕业于哈佛学院和哈佛医学院，是一位非常成功的外科医生。有一天，他听到另一个声音在呼唤他。今天，他是雷·哈蒙德牧师，波士顿最有影响力的精神领袖之一。

我之所以选择这些例子，是因为它们向您展示了新道路的随机性。乔丽、鲁本和雷都无法想象一个声音会把他们带到哪里。但他们都在倾听，在密切关注着周围的世界。

现在，我要说一些你可能会不屑一顾的老话。但我希望你能记住：具有深远影响的随机事件不会发生在屏幕上。

想象一个人停下来听一行行陌生的诗。想象一个人在一个意想不到的、不受欢迎的警告中意识到了自己的内心的期望。想象一个人听到到比他自己更伟大的东西。想想这些事情可能发生的地点和方式，以及它们不能或不会发生的地点和方式。带着激情和热情去拥抱这个世界，如果你幸运的话，你也会有一天受到意外的启发。

2022届毕业生：愿你充分考虑未来几年你将遇到的道路。愿你体验诗歌和歌曲的甜美，跨越你在人生道路上出现的障碍。愿你免于焦虑、恐惧和不确定，愿你永远被爱你的人包围！

祝你们好运！

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2022 Baccalaureate Remarks

Welcome, members of the Class of 2022—and soon-to-be-graduates of Harvard College.

Exactly 1,359 days ago, we met at Convocation, and we began our first year together—you as undergraduates, me as president. I spoke about the merits of academic regalia, and I challenged you to use your waking hours as undergraduates—some 21,000 of them—to explore all that the University had to offer.

Little did we know then that we would all confront a global pandemic that would test us in ways that we could not have imagined. I find it fitting that we are gathered here in these billowing robes, a symbol not only of our membership in a community of learning but also of our experience these past four years, our experience of a Harvard—of a world—blown about by winds that never existed before. And all of us carried along with them—and into the unknown.

It has been a wilder ride than any of us could have expected. Candidly, when I made the difficult decision to send you all home on such short notice in March of 2020, I never imagined that two years later—and after one million people had succumbed to this virus in the US alone—we would still be dealing with this public health crisis. Your class has been tested as few others have been. You have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and patience, both skills that will serve you well as you prepare for life after Harvard. Based on what I have seen of you and how you have met this moment, I have great faith that you, like those who came before you, will find your way, and will make your mark on the world. Let me take this moment to thank you for your perseverance, for your flexibility and your understanding. I don’t think I have ever been prouder of any graduating class at any university than I am of the Harvard College Class of 2022.

One day, there will be enough distance for us to contemplate the enormity of what we have been through as a community, but that day is not today—and that is okay. For now, we can share a quiet moment to say goodbye to whatever we imagined these last 1,359 days might have held for us. For now, we can be grateful that we are here—together—on the verge of your commencement and all that awaits you in the years ahead.

It is quite common for students at this precise moment in time—a day before your College graduation—to feel a combination of excitement and anxiety. Excitement for all that awaits you as you begin the next chapter in the journey called life, and anxiety over where that journey is likely to take you. Some of you entered Harvard convinced of exactly where you wanted to go—law school, medical school, a career in public service, for example. Some of you found your passion on this campus and are now going to pursue academic careers or opportunities in journalism, the arts, or entertainment. And some of you are still searching. You may have a job lined up that will pay you well, but, if you are honest with yourself, you are still worried if it is the right path for you or if you will succeed.

One of the problems in trying to plan your career is that a career is only knowable in retrospect. On the day you retire you can look back and it all makes sense. You can identify the inflection points, the decisions, that brought you to where you ultimately wound up. But when confronting these decisions in real time, you will struggle. You will make lists of pros and cons. You will consult with friends and family.  And you will agonize over these choices long into the night.

I know what I am talking about because I have been there.

As I was completing my PhD here at Harvard, Adele and I thought we were headed to Washington, DC.  It was the start of the Carter administration, and we were excited by the prospect of getting in on the ground floor. But then an unexpected opportunity came up:

Would I like to return to my alma mater, MIT, to fill in for someone going on leave for two years? The salary was a fraction of what I would have made in DC and there was no guarantee of a job two years hence.

A number of years later, I was still at MIT—now on the tenure track but disheartened because my fabulously talented co-author didn’t get tenure. I had concluded that if he did not get it, I wouldn’t either, and I had just made up my mind to leave MIT and academia altogether when my department chair came calling:

Would I consider taking on major administrative responsibility to launch a new academic program?

Flash forward 35 years. I was a member of a presidential search committee, trying to find a leader for a university I care a lot about. I had been comfortably semi-retired—more or less—for almost seven years when the chair of the search committee approached me on behalf of the group:

Would I consider becoming a candidate for the job?

If I had said “no” to any one of those questions, I would not be standing here today. This is not to say that I am prescient or wise, or brave—just that I was open to seeing where roads I hadn’t considered might lead me. That way of moving through the world has taken me to some pretty interesting places—being here, behind this podium, is one of them.

You, too, will have chances to consider other paths for yourself, paths that will appear to you unexpectedly—even inconveniently. Be willing to take those chances. Believe in yourself. And don’t be too concerned about failure. My late mother, Ruth, was a very wise woman. Whenever I worried about a decision, she would always say, “What’s the worst that can happen? Can you live with that? If you can, go for it.” I hope you are as liberated by this advice as I have been throughout my life.

Other discrete moments will influence you so profoundly that denying them would be a tragedy.

Jorie Graham, Boylston Professor of Oratory and Rhetoric, was once an undergraduate at NYU with her heart set on filmmaking. One day, walking past an open door of a poetry class, she heard lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think they will sing to me.” But sing they did—and, because of that moment, Jorie went on to become one of America’s most distinguished poets, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and one of Harvard’s most beloved faculty members.

Rubén Blades, a musical giant and this year’s Harvard Arts medalist, was once a law student in Panama. One weekend, the dean of the school he attended saw him performing with his band. The dean took him aside and told him that if he wanted to be a lawyer—to reflect the dignity of that profession—he would have to quit singing. Rubén ended up in Miami with a demo album—a wild talent and ambition—and, eventually, seventeen Grammys.

Ray Hammond, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, was a very successful surgeon. Then he heard another voice calling him. Today he is Reverend Ray Hammond, one of Boston’s most influential spiritual leaders.

I chose these examples because they demonstrate the randomness with which new roads will appear to you. Neither Jorie nor Rubén nor Ray could dream of where a single voice would take them, but they listened nonetheless, paying close attention to the world around them as they imagined how and where they wanted to focus their attention and time.

Now, I will say something that you may shrug off as nostalgia. But I hope you will remember it: Random events of profound influence don’t happen on a screen. Think of a person stopping in her tracks to listen to lines of unfamiliar poetry. Think of a person recognizing his desire in an unexpected and unwelcome ultimatum. Think of a person tuning into something greater than himself. Think of where and how those things happen—and where and how they can’t or won’t. Engage and embrace the world personally with passion and enthusiasm and, if you are lucky, you too will someday be inspired by the unexpected.

Members of the Class of 2022: May you consider fully the paths that reveal themselves to you in the years ahead. May you experience the sweetness of both poetry and song, and marvel at the refrains that emerge as you make your way through life. May you be spared anxiety, dread, and uncertainty—and may you always be surrounded by people who love you.

Best of luck to each of you—and Godspeed.

5月26日，哈佛大学举行2022毕业典礼。在典礼上，哈佛校长劳伦斯·巴考从座位谈起，寄语毕业生们——“我想向你们提出一个挑战：给别人留一个座位，给别人腾出空间。”他说，“无论你凭借在哈佛所受的教育从事何种职业，都请一定要谨记：谦逊、善良、关怀他人，这些与你的专业成就一样重要。”

给别人留一个座位，给别人腾出空间

原载：“新读写”公众号

英文：哈佛官网

标题为编者所加

2022毕业班的所有人，今天我们齐聚一堂，我对你们表示最热烈的欢迎！

祝贺毕业生的妈妈和爸爸、配偶和孩子、家人和朋友，以及所有支持者和胜利者。同时，特别祝贺通过网络直播参加我们毕业典礼的所有人。

我上周见了4名大四毕业生——他们都是国际留学生——谈话中我得知他们的家人因出游所限，无法亲自出席今天的毕业典礼。所以，特别欢迎来自全球观看在线直播的你们。来，让我们一起向他们挥手致意。

哈佛大学的校训是Veritas（真理）。那么，我先来讲一件真事。

从这个位置看过去的风景太漂亮了！真不敢相信由于疫情的原因我们已经有两年没在这里举行毕业典礼了。能够久别重逢，站在这里，我感动得无以言表。但是，对于我们的毕业生来说，你们能走到这里靠的不是一个人的力量。没有人能独自完成任何事情。请起立，面对你们的家人和朋友以及所有帮助你走到这一特殊时刻的人们，向他们致谢。

我再讲一件真事。

由于疫情和全球供应链短缺，产生了诸多不便。就比如这里的折叠椅并不充足。我不是在开玩笑——几乎半数的人今天不得不坐在毯子上。当然我不会说是哪一半。

幸运的是，了不起的工作人员，他们有创意、懂得随机应变并且足智多谋，还是让毕业典礼得以成功举行。

我告诉你们这些，是因为这可能是你们最后一次几乎没有座位了。很快，你们就会从一个顶级名校获得一个学位——无论你到哪儿，这个顶级名校都无人不知。这个名校，就等同于卓越、雄心和成就。也许还意味着其他，我在这里就不再赘述了。

拿到学位后，你可能会发现，经常有人会邀请你坐下来待一会儿，或分享高见，或参与事务、贡献才能、担任领导。你们最终可能会坐在董事会上或手握大权。谁知道呢？可能有一天你也会站在这里，参加毕业典礼欢迎另一届哈佛毕业生。

当别人给你腾出空间，并给你找个座位，你会怎么看？你可以认为一切都理所当然。你可以认为这是你自始至终应得的。但是，那将是多大的浪费啊！

今天，2022届的哈佛毕业生们，我想向你们提出一个挑战：给别人留一个座位，给别人腾出空间，确保你接受教育的机会不仅丰盈你一个人的人生。

比起绝大多数人，你们改变社会的机会更多，能够给别人的机会也更多。当机会来临，充分利用。

无论你凭借在哈佛所受的教育从事何种职业，都请一定要谨记：谦逊、善良、关怀他人，这些与你的专业成就一样重要。珍惜你生命中的幸运，这些机会会留给你，但同时也不要忘记将机会留给别人。那样你才能继续感受到你今天感受到的骄傲和快乐。这也是一件真事。

祝贺你们，2022届的同学们。你们完成了人生大事，并将取得更大的成就。祝你们所有人都好运——万事如意！

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Commencement Remarks to the Class of 2022

To everyone who is assembled here today to celebrate the Class of 2022, welcome!

Congratulations, moms and dads, spouses and children, family and friends—cheerleaders and champions all.

And a special congratulations to all of you who are joining us online. I met with four seniors last week—all international students—and we talked about travel restrictions that kept some of their families from attending in person today. So, to all of you watching this around the world, a special welcome. In fact, let’s all wave to them.

The motto of this University is Veritas. So let me begin by telling you something true.

The view from up here is amazing.  I can’t believe it has been three years since we have been able to gather like this.

Being here—being together again at long last—is moving beyond words. But, to our graduates, you did not get here alone.  No one accomplishes anything on their own.  Please rise, face your family and friends and all those who have helped you reach this special moment, and give them your thanks.

Excellent work. Now that you are settled in your seats, I can share another truth with you.

Something very inconvenient happens when you combine a nation’s worth of graduations with a global supply chain shortage.

There are not enough folding chairs to go around.

I am not kidding—half of you almost had to sit on blankets today.

I won’t tell you which half.

Fortunately, the people who make Harvard run—our amazing staff—are creative, resilient, and resourceful. So now you know about the Great Seat Scramble of 2022.

I am telling you this because it is likely the last time you almost didn’t get a seat. Soon you will have a degree in hand from an institution whose name is known no matter where you go in the world, whose name is synonymous with excellence, ambition, and achievement—and maybe some other modifiers on which we needn’t dwell today.

With your degree in hand, you may often find yourself invited to sit and stay awhile, invited to share your thoughts and ideas, invited to participate, to contribute, to lead. You may end up sitting on a board or occupying a seat of power. Who knows? You may even be standing up here someday, welcoming another class of Harvard graduates to their Commencement.

And what are you to make of that—of the fact that people will make room for you, find a seat for you?

You could take it for granted. You could assume that you deserved it all along.

But what a waste that would be.

Today, I want to challenge you—members of the Harvard Class of 2022—to save a seat for others, to make room for others, to ensure that the opportunities afforded by your education do not enrich your life alone. You will have more chances than most to make a difference in the world, more opportunities to give others a chance at a better life. Take advantage of these opportunities when they arise. Whatever you do with your Harvard education, please be known at least as much for your humility, kindness, and concern for others as for your professional accomplishments. Recognize the role that good fortune and circumstance have played in your life, and please work to extend opportunity to others just as it has been extended to you.

That is how you will sustain the pride and joy you feel today. And that’s the truth.

Congratulations, members of the Class of 2022. You have accomplished great things; you’re going to accomplish even more. Good luck to each and every one of you—and Godspeed.

Now, we will hear from three students selected to deliver this year’s orations.

👇