美国国家公共电台 NPR--After a cancer diagnosis, he put his life on pause and moved in with his parents

After a cancer diagnosis¹, he put his life on pause and moved in with his parents

Transcript²

William Cummings moved back home with his parents after college didn't work out the first time. After he was diagnosed with cancer, his parents became his caregivers.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We've been visiting multigenerational households on this program, and this is a story of a student in such a household who had to put his life plans on hold. Here's NPR's Claire Murashima.

CLAIRE MURASHIMA, BYLINE³: William Cummings is 27 and lives with his dad and stepmom in Simpsonville, S.C.

WILLIAM CUMMINGS: I love my parents. Great roommates, right? (Laughter).

MURASHIMA: William went to Vanderbilt University right out of high school. Things didn't work out for him there, so he moved back home, started a retail⁴ job, hoping to buy a place of his own. According to Richard Fry at the Pew Research Center, he's not alone in doing that.

RICHARD FRY: It tends to be young adults who either stop their education at high school, high school dropouts or those who maybe attended college but did not finish at least a bachelor's degree.

MURASHIMA: For men without bachelor's degrees, their paycheck hasn't kept up with the rising cost of living over the past 50 years.

FRY: Effectively, it's become less affordable⁵ for them to be able to live independently.

MURASHIMA: And to make William's aspirations⁶ of living independently even more difficult, in the summer of 2020, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

CUMMINGS: Off the bat, my oncologist told me that most people who survive the treatment and transplant usually don't work for about two years afterwards.

MURASHIMA: He was in the hospital for about a month, and after being discharged, he needed care 24/7.

CUMMINGS: And my parents were gracious enough to, you know, without question, let me stay with them and take care of me while I was, you know, unable to take care of myself.

MURASHIMA: While recovering, William decided⁷ he wanted to go back to school, and it helped that everything was online. He first got his associate's (ph) degree, and now he's working on a bachelor's at Clemson University. Even though he's two years past his most intensive cancer procedure, his illness forced his family into roles of caregiver and care receiver, and he wants to break out of that.

CUMMINGS: You know, I would love to be able to take care of groceries or contribute to maintenance or do the things that they need done for them, you know, that they've been doing for me for so long.

MURASHIMA: It's also hard not to compare his life to others' when his twin brother has moved to Charleston, gotten married and become a parent.

CUMMINGS: He's the exact same age as me, but he's living a very different life. And I don't know if I necessarily would have, you know, had that family arrangement, but I think I would have moved maybe a little farther away and been living on my own.

MURASHIMA: Meanwhile, William says he feels like a guest in his parents' home.

CUMMINGS: I really feel like I don't allow myself to socialize. I wouldn't feel comfortable having people over very frequently, either. I feel like I need to respect, you know, their space, their routine as much as I can.

MURASHIMA: At 26, William got kicked off his parents' insurance and started receiving Medicaid. Although they are supportive of him living at home and he doesn't feel too much judgment⁸ from friends, he puts a lot of the guilt⁹ on himself.

CUMMINGS: So I think there's an internalized stigma¹⁰ that, at my age, I should be living on my own or with a partner, and I'm not.

MURASHIMA: But living at home has allowed him to stay close with his dad and stepmom and given him a second shot at college.

Claire Murashima, NPR News.

1 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

5 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

6 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

9 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

10 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。