But looking back, I grew up in a world of unlimited opportunity. Each night I would read, and reading opened up the world to me. I love reading history and especially biography. In biographies, you are almost always reading about people who started out unimportant but ended up having a significant life.
但是回过头看看,我是在一个有着无限机遇的世界长大的。我每天晚上都会读书,阅读向我展开了整个世界。我喜欢读历史,尤其是传记。在传记里面,你总是能看到一个似乎是无足轻重的人,最终如何拥有与众不同的人生。

What I liked most about biographies then and now is that the person you are reading about is in his or her early life on page 50, doesn't know about the success he or she will achieve on page 300. They couldn't see the greatness that lay ahead.
不管是过去还是现在,传记最吸引我的一点是,书中的人物在自己生命的初期,也就是前五十页当中,是不会知道他或者是她会在第三百页的时候取得的成功。他们并不知道将会出现在自己面前的伟大。

If you think about it, that's a great justification for the optimism that you should have for the life ahead of you. All of you are only on about page 50 of your biography, with hundreds of pages to go.
仔细想想这点吧,这是对你们自己未来的生活保持乐观的一个极好理由。你们所有人都仅仅在自己那本传记的前五十页,还有几百页的路要走。

Growing up, my biggest goal was just to get out of East New York. I took the college entrance exam and committed myself to getting into college. I did. The day I left for college was one of the first trips I made out of New York City.
在漫长的成长中,我最大的目标就是走出纽约东区。我参加了大学入学试,发誓一定要进大学。我成功了。我去读大学的时候也是我第一次离开纽约市。

College was an intimidating place for me. The other students seemed naturally confident; many had traveled and seemed to understand the world. To this day, I can't forget how insecure I felt, but it made me work harder.
大学是一个令我心生敬畏的地方。其他学生似乎很自然的充满信心,很多人都曾到处旅行,看起来对这个世界十分了解。直到今天,我还是没有办法忘记我当时的不安全感,但是这种感觉让我更加努力地工作。

Once I realized I belonged, I became more ambitious. Ambition is your inner voice that tells you you can and should strive to go beyond your circumstances or station in life. You have overcome obstacles, pressures and self-doubt and you have done it because you have ambition.
当我认识到自己的定位时,我变得更有野心了。野心是你内心的声音,告诉你可以而且应该努力去超越人生的处境或者是限制。你必须克服障碍,扛住压力,打消自我怀疑,你能做到这些都是因为你有足够的野心。

You want to succeed for your families and yourselves. And there is no more powerful force through which to do that than through education and know how.
你想要为了你的家人以及你自己而成功,除了通过教育和学习,没有什么更强大的力量能做到这一点。

I'm proud that LaGuardia and Goldman Sachs have teamed up to support small businesses. Through this partnership, I've seen how many LaGuardia students are juggling school, job and family. And, I've seen how these students and all of you push yourselves and persevere.
我很自豪的是,拉瓜迪亚社区大学和高盛集团联手提出了对小企业的支持。通过这个合作,我也看到了多少拉瓜迪亚社区大学的学生在学校,工作和家庭中游刃有余。我也看到了这些同学,还有在座的所有人如何不断勉励自己,而且持之以恒下去。

By virtue of being here today, you have proven to yourself that you belong. And now that you belong, feed off your ambition. That means being focused, disciplined, demanding, self critical and open minded. Your challenges won't fall away. In fact, they may get steeper.
仅仅是今天能够出现在这里,你们已经证明了自己的定位。现在你们已经有了定位,接下来就去壮大自己的野心。这意味着专注,自律,严格,自我批判和开放的心态。事实上,你们要面对的挑战不会消失,而会更加严峻。