She’s still young. A couple more years of waiting tables won’t kill her—not if she’s saving money and using her off-time wisely to build her design business slowly and surely. I’d bet after a year or two, a girl with that talent and drive would easily be able to leave her waitressing job and start looking after her design clients for much better money, easily. And she’d still be well under thirty. What’s the worst that can happen?
Cindi任然年輕，只要她懂得節約錢，明智地用業余時間去建立她的設計事業，過程緩慢卻也穩定，那么在餐廳里作幾年侍應生不會毀了她。我敢打賭，一兩年后，這個有天分有干勁的姑娘能辭掉的侍應生的工作，專心她的事業更輕松地賺更多的錢，到那時候，她也不到三十歲，能有什么糟糕的事情呢？

Some of Cindi’s twentysomething peers raised their eyebrows a little bit, though. “Going back to waitressing? Isn’t that a backwards career move?” they said.
可是一些和Cindi一樣二十來歲的年輕人不認可我的想法。“回去做侍應生？這不是在事業前途的道路上往后退？”他們會說。

No, it isn’t, actually. She’s still young and what she’s doing is consistent with what she wants to do long-term. There’s no disgrace in waiting tables if it’s part of a long-term strategy. If she were just doing it because she had no earthly clue what else to do with her life, that would be different. But she’s not.
不是的。Cindi還年輕，她現在做的事情符合她的長期目標。如果“做侍應生”是在一項長遠的策略中的一步棋，那可沒什么不光彩的。如果Cindi做侍應生只是因為她不知道她還能什么其他的，那又是另外一回事。Cindi可不是。

“The good news is,” I say to her, when she was just beginning to hatch this Evil Plan of hers, “you won’t die.”
“好在，”在Cindi胡斯亂想些壞結果的時候我告訴她，“你死不了的。”

So she went through with her Evil Plan. I was so proud. And the really good news is, she didn’t have to waitress or live with her mom for very long. Three months and she was gone. Three months and she managed to bag half a dozen high-paying clients for her business. Last time I saw her, she was wearing very expensive shoes and had moved into this very hip apartment in Brooklyn. Like I said, I was so proud.
Cindi開始實施她的計劃，我為她驕傲。而且真正的好消息是，和媽媽住以及去餐廳做侍應生的日子她沒過多久。三個月后她辭去了餐廳的工作，在這三個月中，她接到了6個大單子。上次我見她時，她穿著超貴的鞋子，而且已經住進了布魯克林的一間時髦的公寓。就像我說的，我為她驕傲。

And her colleagues back at the restaurant? They’re still there. Choices were made.
Cindi在餐廳的同事？他們還待在哪兒。一切都在抉擇中。