TED演讲:20岁光阴不再来(1)

When I was in my 20s, I saw my very first psychotherapy client.

当我20几岁时，我见到了我的第一个需要精神疗法的病人。

I was a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology¹ at Berkeley.

当时我是一个在伯克利大学读临床心理学的Ph.D学生。

She was a 26-year-old woman named Alex.

她是一位叫Alex的26岁女性。

Now Alex walked into her first session wearing jeans and a big slouchy top,

第一次会面时Alex穿了牛仔裤以及略微不修边幅的上衣，

and she dropped onto the couch in my office and kicked off her flats and told me she was there to talk about guy problems.

进来后直接坐到我办公室中的沙发上，踢掉她的鞋子，然后跟我说她是来跟我讲男性问题的。

Now when I heard this, I was so relieved. My classmate got an arsonist² for her first client.

当我听到这个时，我松了一口气。我的一个同学的第一个病人是一个纵火犯。

And I got a twentysomething who wanted to talk about boys.

所以说，我有一个二十几岁的人想跟我谈谈男生。

This I thought I could handle. But I didn't handle it.

我以为我能处理好这事。但我没能办到。

With the funny stories that Alex would bring to session,

Alex在每一次会面时都会带来好笑的故事，

it was easy for me just to nod my head while we kicked the can down the road.

因此对我而言点点头，不断拖延出结果的时间是一件非常轻松的事情。

"Thirty's the new 20," Alex would say, and as far as I could tell, she was right.

Alex会说“三十就是新的二十”，而且就我知道的，她是对的。

Work happened later, marriage happened later, kids happened later, even death happened later.

工作要以后才有，结婚以后才有，孩子以后才有，连死亡都是以后才有。

Twentysomethings like Alex and I had nothing but time.

像Alex和我一样是二十几岁的人除了时间外一无所有。

But before long, my supervisor³ pushed me to push Alex about her love life. I pushed back.

但没过多久，我的监督就催我开始推动Alex的爱情生活。我拒绝了。

I said, "Sure, she's dating down, she's sleeping with a knucklehead, but it's not like she's going to marry the guy."

我说：“没错，她现在在约会，她和一个笨蛋同床，但这并不表示她会和他结婚。”

And then my supervisor said, "Not yet, but she might marry the next one.

然后我的监督说：“现在还没，但她可能会和下一个这样的人结婚。

Besides, the best time to work on Alex's marriage is before she has one."

再说，在Alex的婚事上花费精力的最好时间就是在她结婚之前。”

1 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

2 arsonist   

n.纵火犯

参考例句：

• You're pretty sure you can identify a single arsonist?你确信你能鉴别出一个特定的纵火者？
• The arsonist confessed that he set fire to six businesses.那纵火犯承认他给6家商场纵过火。

3 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。