Being at the top of the class may have made life easier for my male peers, but it would have made my life harder. 在学生中身居“高位”，也许会让那些男同学过得更轻松，但对我而言，反而会过得更艰难。

　　I did not reach this conclusion in a vacuum. 我得出这个结论并非空穴来风。

　　All through my life, culturally reinforced signals cautioned me against being branded as too smart or too successful. 从儿时起，被文化所强化的信号就警告我不要被贴上“太聪明”或“太成功”的标签，

　　It starts young. As a girl, you know that being smart is good in lots of ways, but it doesn't make you particularly popular or attractive to boys. 这一点在我很小的时候就深有体会。作为一个女孩，被认为很聪明尽管在很多方面都有好处，但这并不会让你在男生中变得特别受欢迎，或是变得更有吸引力。

　　In school, I was called the "smartest girl in the class." 在学校里，我被称为“班里最聪明的女生”。

　　I hated that description. Who wants to go to the prom with the smartest girl in the class? 我讨厌这样的说法，有哪个男生愿意带着班里最聪明的女生去参加毕业舞会呢？

　　Senior year, my class voted me "most likely to succeed," along with a boy. 高年级时，我们班投票选出我和另一个男生是“最有可能成功的人”。

　　I wasn't going to take any chances with the prom, so I convinced my friend, who worked on the yearbook, to remove my name. 这样一来，我便不再会有任何机会受邀参加毕业舞会，所以我强迫年鉴编辑（他也是我的朋友）把我的名字删掉了。

　　I got a prom date who was fun and loved sports. 这招很有用——我终于找到一位帅气、喜欢运动的舞伴。

　　In fact, he loved sports so much that two days before the prom, he canceled on me to go to a basketball game, 可是这位男生有点过于沉迷于运动，在舞会两天前，他为了参加一场篮球赛而取消了和我的约会，

　　saying, "I know you'll understand since going to the playoffs is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." 还说：“我知道你能理解的，因为参加决赛是一辈子就一次的机会。

　　I did not point out that as a high school girl, I thought going to the prom was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ”当时，我没有回应说作为一个高中女生，参加毕业舞会也是一辈子就一次的机会。

　　Luckily, I found a new date who was less of a sports fan. 幸运的是，后来我又找到了一个对运动不那么热衷的新舞伴。