写给未来的自己

 　　In 1994 I wrote a letter. I stuck it in an envelope, put it away and completely forgot about it。

　　1994年我写了一封信，我把它装进信封收起来，就完全忘记了。

　　It wasn’t until we moved into our new home in 2006 that I found it again. It was addressed to me with explicit¹ instructions not to open until my birthday 2005. It was now 2006 so I decided² to open it. This is what it said:

　　直到2006年我们搬到新家，我才又发现了这封信。收信人是我自己，而且明确说明一定到2005年我生日的时候才能打开，那时候已经是2006年，所以我决定打开它。信里这样写道：

　　Dear Sherri

　　亲爱的Sherri

　　By the time you read this you will be 30. At the age of 18 I had so many hopes and dreams about where you’d be, what you’d be doing and with whom you’d spend your life with。

　　你读这封信的时候已经30岁了。18岁的我有很多的关于未来的希望和梦想：你会在哪里生活，你会做什么工作，你会和谁共度一生。

　　Right now I hope that you have traveled and seen everything you’ve always wanted to, both in Canada and overseas, and maybe even settled down somewhere in Australia doing some research in the field of biology (genetics)。

　　我希望你已经去过了所有你想去的地方，看过了所以你感兴趣的事，不管是在加拿大还是国外。也许现在你已经在澳大利亚的某处安顿下来，做着生物学(遗传学)领域的研究工作。

　　I hope you’re married to the man of your dreams. The man of mine is Gwynn. He is originally from South Africa (another place I wish to visit)。

　　我希望你已经嫁给了你的梦中情人。我的梦中情人叫Gwynn，他来自南非(另一个我心神往之的地方)。

　　You’ll probably have two children of your own – a girl(Michaela Anne) and a boy (name yet to be decided)。

　　你应该有了两个自己的孩子：一个男孩一个女孩。女孩叫Michaela Anne，男孩的名字还没想好。

　　If everything goes according to plan you’ll be living in Australia in a big house in a small town outside of a big city with a lot of land, a dog, Gwynn and your two beautiful children. Hopefully you have a career in the medical field, maybe doing research in genetics. Gwynn will be a computer programmer and you will be doing alright for yourselves。

　　如果一切按计划进行，那现在的你会和Gwynn还有两个孩子，一起生活在澳大利亚某个大城市外的小镇上，房子很大，有很多地，养一只狗。希望你是从事医药行业的工作，也可能是做遗传学研究。Gwynn会是计算机程序员，你们一切安好。

　　However, if things don’t go according to plan for you, I wish you all the love, happiness and joy in the world and don’t settle for anything less than the best since that is absolutely what you deserve³。

　　不过就算生活没有按你的计划进行，我也祝你拥有世上所有的爱、幸福和快乐。在遇到最好的之前，别让自己停下来，因为你绝对值得拥有最好的生活。

　　Live long, be happy and live life to it’s fullest。

　　好好活着，要快乐，要活到最精彩。

　　Love Sherri “18″

　　爱你的18岁的Sherri

　　When I read this for the first time since writing it I was floored. Even now having dug this up again another 4 years later I still can’t help but think this is really cool。

　　第一次读这封信的时候我诧异不已。就算四年后的今天再次拿出来读，我也还是觉得这真的是很帅的想法。

　　So much of what I wanted for myself has materialized。

　　那么多我想要的都已经实现了：

　　I did travel to a few more places in Canada although I haven’t seen everything I’d like to。

　　我真的去过加拿大很多地方旅行，虽然现在我还没有把我想看的东西通通看过;

　　I did marry the man of my dreams and yes he still is my one and only。

　　我确实嫁给了我的梦中情人，对，他是我的唯一;

　　I’ve traveled to the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand。

　　我去过英国、南非、澳大利亚和新西兰;

　　I lived in Australia for nearly 4 years in a big house, in a small suburb⁴, in a major city (close enough)。

　　我在澳大利亚的一个大城市住了快四年，我们住在郊区的大房子里(跟梦想很接近了);

　　I had a career in Biology in the field of genetics for 10 years。

　　我有一份生物学遗传领域的工作，干了有十年了;

　　I have two lovely kids – both boys (names now decided)。

　　我有两个可爱的孩子—不过都是男孩(名字都定了);

　　I have not one dog but two dogs. Both yellow labs from Australia。

　　我现在养着两只狗，都是产自澳大利亚的黄色拉布拉多犬;

　　Gwynn is a computer programmer.

　　Gwynn是计算机程序员;

　　We are doing okay for ourselves。

　　我们一切安好。

　　After writing this I quickly forgot about what I had put in here actually. The things that materialized were all met with quite a bit of resistance⁵ (all internal) but I suppose these were things that I really did want. Having never strayed⁶ too far from home overseas travel was a huge deal. Having never been away from my family moving to Australia for several years was an incredibly huge decision。

　　其实写完这篇文章我就很快忘了自己写了些什么。所有我实现的梦想，都曾经遭遇了一些内心的挣扎，但是我很确定，这些就是我想要的。对于从未离家太远的我来说，出国旅行是大事;对于从未离开过家人的我来说，搬到澳大利亚住几年也是重要的决定。

　　I find it fascinating how the dreams of a young and naive⁷ little girl can become a grown woman’s reality。

　　看着一个年轻幼稚的小女孩的梦想成为一个成熟女人的真实生活，这个感觉很美好。

　　I’m curious if you guys have ever written anything to your future self and how it stacks⁸ up to your current reality. If you haven’t, will you join me in writing a letter now to yourself in say 10 years from now? It’s an interesting little experiment。

　　我很好奇你们有没有给未来的自己写过信，然后看着它们一点点堆积成为你现在的生活。如果还没写过，那不如加入我，现在拿起笔，给十年后的自己写封信吧，这是种有趣的经历。

1 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

2 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。

3 deserve   

vt.应受，值得；vi. 应受报答，值得受赏

参考例句：

• You really deserve a good beating,you naughty boy.你这个调皮孩子真该打。
• I do not deserve all the praises bestowed upon me.我不配得到这些赞扬。

4 suburb   

n.郊区，郊外，近郊

参考例句：

• Toward the suburb the houses begin to thin out.靠近市郊的地方房屋渐渐稀少。
• Disneyland is in Los Angeles suburb.迪斯尼游乐场在洛杉矶的近郊。

5 resistance   

n.抵抗力，反抗，反抗行动；阻力，电阻；反对；adj.抵抗的

参考例句：

• Very little resistance was put up by the enemy.敌人没怎么进行抵抗。
• An aircraft has to overcome the resistance of the air.飞机须克服空气的阻力。

6 strayed   

v.走失( stray的过去式和过去分词 )；偏离正题；走入歧途；（已婚者或有固定关系者）有外遇

参考例句：

• He strayed into the path of an oncoming car. 他偏到了一辆迎面驶来的汽车的行车路线上。
• The more he talked, the further he strayed from the point. 他越讲越不着边际。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

8 stacks   

n.大量( stack的名词复数 )；大烟囱；（图书馆或书店的）书架v.堆积( stack的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Thus, emissions from all stacks are considered only in the aggregate. 这样一来，来自所有烟囱的排放都被认为是一个整体。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Smoke poured out of the stacks of the factory. 烟从工厂的烟囱里喷出来。 来自辞典例句