今年7月，哈佛大學建校以來的首任女校長Drew Faust正式卸任。隨后，哈佛大學迎來新任校長，Lawrence S. Bacow。
昨天，哈佛大學校長Lawrence S. Bacow為歡迎新生致辭。這是他作為哈佛新校長的第一次新生演講。他以親身經(jīng)歷為例，鼓勵每一位對即將到來的大學生活感到不安的新生。我們一起來看看他說了什么~
致2022屆哈佛新生：
下午好，2022屆的同學們。我是Larry Bacow，可以輕松點，叫我Larry，我很榮幸可以代表學校歡迎你們正式加入哈佛。
我們有一些非常特殊的共同點：這是我擔任校長的第一年，這使我成為你們的同學，而不是其他人的，并將一直如此。所以，我希望（演講被掌聲打斷），我的同學們。
和你們一樣，我最近才搬進了哈佛大學。和你們一樣，我放棄了熟悉的習慣來尋找新的挑戰(zhàn)和新的機遇。并且，和你們一樣，我來到這里，是希望能為這個非常特別的地方做出獨特的貢獻。
但與你們不同的是，我沒有必要決定今天穿什么。擔任校長的好處之一就是，我可以穿上這件非常時尚的長袍。順便說一下，這是傳教士長袍。不過不用擔心，在我們下次像這樣見面時，你們也將穿上類似的衣服，準確的說，是在2022年，你們畢業(yè)前兩天。
今天和那一天之間，恰好有1,358天?？紤]到你們睡覺的時間（我希望你會嘗試每天睡八小時，并且強烈建議這樣做。）你們將擁有大約21,000個小時來探索這個非凡的機構(gòu)；用21,000小時來尋找你們的激情，并看看它將引領(lǐng)你們?nèi)ツ睦?；?1,000小時去發(fā)現(xiàn)什么對你最重要，并確定如何讓世界變得更美好。
你們將從這個旅程中的哪里開始？如果我可以提出建議，我認為你們應(yīng)該從坐在你旁邊的人開始。因為他或她現(xiàn)在最有可能正在經(jīng)歷很多。我知道，是因為今年夏天的早些時候，收到了你們中的一封電子郵件。
這是一封非常誠實的信，它告訴我，你們對于即將到來的哈佛生活感到興奮和快樂，但也有焦慮和害怕。想到要與新同學一起搬到一個新地方，就很傷腦筋，擔心無法融入，這些想法既令人生畏又真實。
對于這個正坐在你們中間的學生而言，非常肯定的是，他正得知我們之間的一個共同點，即我們都是移民的后裔?，F(xiàn)在，看著我，穿著這件長袍，你可能不會認為或者推斷出，我和家人是作為難民來到這個國家的。還有，我在密歇根的一個藍領(lǐng)小鎮(zhèn)長大，以及我高中的空閑時間都花在組裝收音機和參加科學博覽會上。好吧，也許你會這樣想，但其他人大概不會。
我想說的是，這可能是我給過的一些最好的建議，你們永遠不應(yīng)該以他人的外貌來評判他們的內(nèi)心。你在哈佛遇到的人都不會是完美的，包括你們的校長。我和其他人一樣，經(jīng)歷過絕望和希望，失敗和勝利，失落和愛情。你在這里遇到的每個人都是獨一無二的，每個人都有自己的故事。你們每個人都被錄取了，是因為我們在你們身上看到了一些東西，并且相信這會豐富這個特殊的群體。
當你們在接下來的幾周里開始摸索自己的方法時，也請花21,000個小時里的一些時間去了解別人。不要只是和你的同學們傾訴，要傾聽他們，向他們學習。你們要認識到，在任何情況下，無論是經(jīng)濟上的、社交上的或是其它，都有其復(fù)雜之處。畢竟我們都是普通人，我們都不是完美的。嘗試從你自己以外的角度去理解世界的挑戰(zhàn)性工作，你會成為一個更好的人，我向你保證，你也會結(jié)識一輩子的朋友。
我最親密的朋友之一就是我作為大一新生時的室友，我們已經(jīng)相識49年。其實他是我人生中非常非常特別的人，因為他介紹了我和我妻子Adele相識，Adele正坐在那里，Adele？請站起來。
我希望你們也會花一點時間去了解你們的老師。我作為本科生時所做過的最好的決定之一就是去接觸我的一位經(jīng)濟學教授，在課后閱讀時，向他提問一個關(guān)于腳注的問題。我們進行了長時間的討論，這在當時還是一個新興的領(lǐng)域，后來變成了一門閱讀課程，而這門課程改變了我的人生。我至今仍然和那位教授保持著聯(lián)系。
我相信，你們能否在這里收獲非凡的體驗的最大因素在于，你們能否結(jié)識一位、至少一位老師，可能更多，但至少有一位你確定可以在接下來的人生中保持聯(lián)系的。如果你不知道該如何開始，就充分利用辦公時間，邀請你的老師在史密斯校園中心或Lamont Café喝杯下午茶，也可以就在附近的臺階或其他地方一起喝咖啡一起談?wù)?。如果你有點緊張或者焦慮，以至于不知道該問什么，就問問關(guān)于他們研究的事，老師們都很樂意討論自己的研究。我保證你會有一個有趣的對話。
現(xiàn)在，哈佛可以提供很多機會來滿足你們的好奇心。事實上，你們在這里度過很長一段時間，在這里學習一切，了解上世紀三十年代劇院里所有壯觀的樹，柏迪橡樹，蜂蜜蝗蟲，紅楓，黃木，如果還不夠，那就去波士頓的Arnold Arboretum看看更多的物種，甚至可以去哈佛森林。
你們還可以去我身后的紀念堂，被那些為國家做出犧牲的哈佛的男男女女們的名字所激勵，這可能會激發(fā)你們中的一些人想要更多地了解關(guān)于導致他們犧牲的歷史。
或者你可以進入Widener Library，也就是我們會將你們的班級合照集中起來的地方。你們可以在這里探索非凡的藏品，在書海里徜徉?；蛘吣憧梢宰叩焦饛V場外面，來到哈佛藝術(shù)博物館。我們收藏了250,000件藏品，你可以在任何地方找到的最非凡的藝術(shù)收藏品之一?；蛘吣憧梢匀タ茖W與文化博物館，探尋美國第三大的植物標本館，或是世界上唯一真人大小的玻璃花收藏。
如果你還沒見過它們，你應(yīng)該去看看，那真的很棒。你還可以去更遠的地方探索，美國大學劇院或哈佛舞蹈中心，去河對岸的運動場，去哈佛創(chuàng)新實驗室，去即將建成的藝術(shù)實驗室，以及科學和工程綜合實驗室。你選擇的每一個方向都將帶給你非凡的機會。
當然，校園外還有一個更大的世界，我們每個人都有可能在某種程度上做得更好。所以，2022屆的同學們，我現(xiàn)在要給你們布置第一份作業(yè)，你們的第一個任務(wù)并不難，如果你們有資格投票，我希望你們?nèi)プ缘怯?，了解候選人和問題，然后投出你們的選票。在一個民主國家，公民的首要責任就是投票，實際上我們已經(jīng)讓你們很容易做到這一點。至少肯尼迪學院的政治學院已經(jīng)做到了。
所以，拿出你的手機。我知道你們都有，現(xiàn)在你們就可以拿出來了，因為我要告訴你們一個你們要去瀏覽的網(wǎng)站。記下這個網(wǎng)址：iop.turbovote.org，我重復(fù)一遍，iop.turbovote.org。如果你符合條件，請注冊并投票。作為美國公民和哈佛學子，你們有這個責任。
投票只是你可以做的很多事之一，以確保你所居住的世界更像你想要生活的世界。我希望在接下來的21000個小時里，你們會有足夠的時間來確定如何利用你的才能讓別人的生活更美好。我還沒有遇到任何認為我們生活的世界是完美的人。這不是一個政治聲明。
如果你同樣不認為這個世界是完美的，那么它變得更好的唯一方法就是讓像你這樣的好人努力去改善它。哈佛已經(jīng)歷經(jīng)了幾個世紀，不是因為它完美，而是因為它美好，我期待著在接下來的四年中，你們選擇如何在善良和智慧中成長。
現(xiàn)在，你們收到的最重要的建議是：對愛你的人為善，特別是父母和你的家人，這是明智之舉。你上大學對他們來說也是一個巨大的調(diào)整。你剛剛鼓掌感謝了許多幫助你完成這一過渡的人，但是你的家人同樣需要靠自己適應(yīng)這個轉(zhuǎn)變。請感謝他們支持你們和為此付出的犧牲，才讓你們有機會在這里學習。
通過支持他們，表達你的感激之情，因為他們現(xiàn)在適應(yīng)了你不再是一個恒定的物理存在的生活。特別是，你的父母永遠不會厭倦聽到你在做什么，無論是通過電話，電子郵件還是短信。也不要忘記關(guān)心他們過得怎樣。我向你保證，這些時間都是值得的。
當然，當我和Adele在院子里，或在校園里，或者在其他地方看到你們時，我們會問你們在做什么。我相信你們會告訴我們，關(guān)于你們的興奮和快樂，甚至是你們的焦慮和關(guān)切。今天在這里的每一個人，以及大學里的很多其他人，將為你們服務(wù)，并希望你們?nèi)〉贸晒?。接受我們的建議，并在你需要的時候向我們尋求幫助。
你們很快就會知道哈佛不是一個地點，而是一個理念，是那些秉持這個理念前行的人。在接下來的21000個小時里，哈佛將無處不在，并且，你此后人生中的每一個小時都會如此。
2022屆的學生們，我的同學們。愿你在今后的生活中充分利用這段美好的時光。我很榮幸能與你們分享這段旅程。
謝謝！
· 演 · 講 · 原 · 文 ·
Good afternoon, Class of 2022. I am Larry Bacow — and please feel free to call me Larry — and it is my great honor to welcome you officially to the Harvard community.
We have something very special in common: This is my first year as president, which makes me a member of your class — and no other — for all time. So I hope you [speech is interrupted by applause]. My classmates!
Like you, I’ve recently moved into Harvard Yard. Like you, I’ve given up familiar routines in search of new challenges as well as new opportunities. And, like you, I’ve arrived here in the hope that I can make a unique contribution to this very special place.
But unlike you, I didn’t have to decide what to wear today. Because one of the benefits of being president is that I get to wear this very stylish robe — a pilgrim’s preachers robe, by the way. Don’t worry, though. You’ll be wearing something very similar when we next meet as a group, exactly two days before you graduate in 2022.
There are exactly 1,358 days between this day and that one. And accounting for the hours you will spend sleeping — and I do hope that you will try to get eight hours of sleep a night, I highly recommend it — you have approximately 21,000 hours to explore this extraordinary institution, 21,000 hours to find your passion and to see where it will take you, 21,000 hours to discover what matters to you most and to determine how you can make the world a better place.
Where will you begin in this journey? If I can offer a suggestion, I think you should start with the person sitting next to you, because he or she is most likely going through a lot right now. I know because I received an email from one of you earlier this summer. It was a very honest message to me about feeling excited and joyful — but also anxious and scared — at the prospect of coming. The thought of moving to a new place with new people was nerve-wracking, and the thought of not fitting in was both daunting and real.
What put everything in perspective for this particular student, who is sitting among you, was learning that he and I actually have something in common: parents who had immigrated to the United States. Now, looking at me, dressed in this robe, you might not have assumed or gathered that my folks came to this country as refugees, or that I grew up in a blue-collar town in Michigan, or that I spent my free time in high school building ham radios and entering science fairs. OK, maybe you might that, but not the other stuff.
My point — and this is some of the best advice that I have ever been given — is that you should never judge your insides by other peoples’ outsides. No one you will meet at Harvard is perfect, and that includes your president. I have experienced despair and hope, defeat and triumph, and loss and love just like anyone else. Everyone you meet here is unique; and everyone has his or her own story — and every single one of you was admitted because we saw something in you that we believed would enrich this special community.
As you begin to find your way over the next few weeks, invest some of your 21,000 hours in getting to know one another. Don’t just talk to your classmates, listen to them; learn from them. Recognize that every kind of circumstance — financial, social, or otherwise — comes with its own set of complications. After all, we are all human, none of us is perfect. Embrace the challenging work of trying to understand the world from a perspective other than your own. You’ll be a better person for it and I guarantee you, you’ll also make some lifelong friends. One of my closest friends is someone I roomed with as a freshman, and we have been part of each other’s lives for 49 years and counting. Actually, he is a very, very special person in my life because he introduced me to my wife, Adele, who is sitting somewhere over there. Adele? Stand up, Adele.
I hope you will spend some of your hours getting to know your teachers, too. One of the best decisions I ever made as an undergraduate was to approach one of my economics professors to ask a question about a footnote in a reading after class. We ended up having a long conversation about game theory — an emerging field at the time — that turned into a reading course that actually changed the course of my life. I am still in touch with that professor today. I believe the single greatest predictor of whether or not you have an extraordinary experience here is whether or not you get to know one at least one of your teachers, just one, at least one, you can get to know more, but at least one well enough that you will stay in touch with him or her for the rest of your life. If you don’t know where to start, go to office hours. Invite your teacher to have a cup of coffee either at the Smith Campus Center or the Lamont Café or just get together with them right here on these steps or somewhere else nearby. And if you’re a little nervous or anxious and you don’t know what to ask them, ask them about their research. Faculty love talking about their research. I guarantee you’ll have an interesting conversation.
Now, Harvard will give you many opportunities to satisfy your curiosity. In fact, you could spend a considerable amount of your time just in this space alone, learning everything there is to know all the magnificent trees in Tercentenary Theatre — bur oaks, honey locusts, red maples, yellowwoods —if that’s not enough, got to Arnold Arboretum in Boston and see many more species, or you could even travel to the Harvard Forest. You could enter Memorial Church, just behind me, to be inspired and even overwhelmed by the names of Harvard men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, something which is likely to inspire some of you to want to learn more about history, about the circumstances that gave rise to the conflicts for which they sacrificed. Or you could enter Widener Library, where we’re going to assemble for your class picture in a little bit, and you could explore our extraordinary collections, get lost in the stacks. Or you could venture beyond the Yard to the Harvard Art Museums right over there, 250,000 items in our collection, one of the most extraordinary art collections you can find anywhere; or the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture to find the third largest herbarium in the United States or the only collection of life-size glass flowers in the world. If you haven’t seen them you should, truly amazing. Go farther afield to explore the American Repertory Theater or the Harvard Dance Center, across the river to the athletic fields, the Harvard Innovation Labs, the soon-to-be art lab, as well as the Science and Engineering Complex. Every direction that you might choose to wander from here will lead you to extraordinary opportunities.
And there is, of course, a greater world beyond campus, a world that each of us has the potential to make better in some way. So class of 2022, I’m actually now going to give you our first homework, your very first assignment, not that difficult. If you are eligible to vote, we expect you to register, to inform yourself of the candidates and the issues, and then cast your ballot. The very first responsibility of citizenship in a democracy is to vote, and we have actually made it quite easy you to do so. At least the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School has done so. So take out your phones. I know all you have them, this is the time when you actually get to take them out, because I’m going to give you the website where you’re going to go. Take down this address: iop — for Institute of Politics — .turbovote.org. Let me repeat that: iop.turbovote.org. If you’re eligible, register and vote. It is your responsibility as a citizen of this country and as a citizen of Harvard.
Voting is just one thing you can do to ensure that the world in which you live is much more like the world in which you would like to live. I hope in the next 21,000 hours you will find ample time to determine how you might use your considerable talents to make life better for others. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks that the world that we live in is perfect. This is not a political statement, it is equally true Democrats and Republicans, of liberals and conservatives. And if you don’t think that the world is perfect, the only way it gets better is if good people like you work to repair it. Harvard has endured over centuries not because it is great but because it is good, and I look forward to learning about the ways in which you choose to grow in goodness — and in wisdom — over the next four years.
And now the most important unsolicited advice you will receive from anyone today: It is also wise to be good to the people who love you, especially parents and your family. You going off to college is a huge adjustment for them too. You’ve just applauded been introduced many of the people who help you make with this transition, but your families are on their own. Be grateful for the ways in which they have supported you and sacrificed so that you may have the opportunity of studying and learning here. Express your gratitude by supporting them as they now adjust to a life in which you are no longer a constant physical presence. Your parents, in particular, will never tire of hearing how you’re doing, be it by phone, email, or text. Just make sure to ask how they are doing. I assure you it will be time well spent.
And of course Adele and I will ask how you are doing when I see you in the Yard or at events on campus or elsewhere, and I trust that you will update us on your excitements and joys — even your anxieties and concerns. Everyone here today — and lots and lots of other people across the University — are here for you and want you to succeed. Take us up on our offer and ask us for help whenever you need it.
You will soon learn that Harvard is not a place: It’s an idea, and it’s the people who carry that idea with them. Harvard will be everywhere you go for the next 21,000 hours — and every hour after that for the rest of your life as well. Welcome, fellow members of the Class of 2022, my class. May you make the most of this wonderful time in your lives. It’s my privilege to share this journey with you. Thank you.
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