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And 17 years later I did go to college.
十七年后，我真的上了大學。
But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford.
但是我很愚蠢的選擇了一個幾乎和你們斯坦福大學一樣貴的學校。
And all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.
我父母還處于藍領階層，他們幾乎把所有積蓄都花在了我的學費上面。
After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.
在六個月后，我已經看不到其中的價值所在。
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.
我不知道要怎么做，我也不知道大學能不能幫我找到答案。
And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.
而且在這里，我幾乎花光了我父母這一輩子的全部積蓄。
So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.
所以我決定要退學，我覺得這才是正確的選擇。
It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
我那時的確很害怕，不過現在看來，那應該是我人生中做得最正確的選擇。
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.
在我做出退學決定的那一刻，我終于可以不必去讀那些令我提不起絲毫興趣的課程了，然后我可以去攻讀那些我喜歡的課程了。
It wasn't all romantic.
不過那也不都是那么的浪漫。
I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms.
我失去了我的宿舍，所以我只能睡在朋友房間的地板上。
I returned coke bottles for the five-cent 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.
我又去撿五美分的可樂瓶了，僅僅是為了填飽肚子。每個星期天晚上，我會走7英里的路穿過波特蘭市區去 Hare Krishna 神廟去吃頓好的。
I loved it.
我愛上了它。
And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
很多在這段跟隨自己的好奇心和直覺度過的日子里學到的東西，后來都讓我獲益匪淺。
Let me give you one example.
我給你們舉個例子。
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.
雷德大學當時的書法課程大概是美國國內最好的了。
Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.
校園里的每一幅海報，抽屜上的每一個標簽，都是用漂亮的字體手寫而成的。
Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes.
因為我已經退學，用不著去上常規課。
I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.
所以我決定去參加一門書法課，去學寫字。
I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations about what makes great typography great.
我學習 Serif 字體和 San Serif 字體，關于不同字母組合中間隙空間的變化，關于怎么讓好看的字體變得更好看。
It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
它很美、有悠久歷史、精妙的藝術感，為科學所無法企及，我對它著迷了。
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.
這些對于我的生活毫無任何實際的用途，我也從沒指望。
But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.
但是在10年后，當我們正在設計第一臺 Macintosh 的時候，這些又回到了我的腦海里。
And we designed it all into the Mac.
并且我們把這些都注入到了 Mac 中去。
It was the first computer with beautiful typography.
那是第一臺擁有著美麗字體的計算機。
If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
假如我當年沒有旁聽這門課程，Mac 也許就不會有那么多種不同的字體以及字符按比例間隔的字形。
And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.
而且要不是 Windows 照抄了 Mac 的設計，也許今天的個人電腦就不會擁有這些了。
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
假如我當年沒退學，也許我就不會旁聽者們書法課了，也許個人電腦就不會有那么好看的字體了。
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.
當然，在學校的時候我不可能預見到這些點滴事件之間的聯系。
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
但是，10年之后再看過去，這種聯系非常非常清楚。
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.
再說一遍，你沒法預知你人生的點點滴滴之間會有怎樣的聯系，你只能在事后把它們串接起來。
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
因此，你必須相信，這些人生的片段會在你的未來產生聯系。
You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
你必須相信點什么，你的勇氣、命運、生活、因緣，什么都可以。
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
因為相信那些片段會在之后的人生之路上給你以發自內心的自信，甚至引導你走出頹廢，那將改變一切。
