TED英语演讲：生命无限，勇往直前

If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go? That's the question that changed my life forever. Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert, all I wanted was to be free. I would daydream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed, and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.

如果你的人生是一本书 你是书的作者 你会怎么写你的故事? 这个问题永远改变了我的一生 生长在拉斯维加斯的炎热沙漠 我一直向往自由 我做着白日梦 梦想周游世界 住在能看见雪的地方 编我想讲述的 所有故事

At the age of 19, the day after I graduated high school, I moved to a place where it snowed and I became a massage therapist. With this job all I needed were my hands and my massage table by my side and I could go anywhere. For the first time in my life, I felt free, independent and completely in control of my life. That is, until my life took a detour. I went home from work early one day with what I thought was the flu, and less than 24 hours later I was in the hospital on life support with less than a two percent chance of living. It wasn't until days later as I lay in a coma that the doctors diagnosed me with bacterial meningitis, a vaccine-preventable blood infection. Over the course of two and a half months I lost my spleen, my kidneys, the hearing in my left ear and both of my legs below the knee.

19岁那年 在我从高中毕业后 我搬到了能见到雪的地方 我成为一名按摩师 这份工作只需要双手 以及身边的按摩桌 而且我可以去任何地方 有生以来头一次 我感到自由 独立 对生活充满把握 直到人生出现了一个转折 一天我下班比往常早 以为自己得了流感 24小时不到 我就进了医院 生命垂危 只有2%的存活几率 之后的几天 我陷入昏迷 医生诊断我得了 细菌性脑膜炎 疫苗可预防性血液感染 在为期两个半月的治疗中 我切除了脾和肾 左耳失聪 膝盖以下截肢

When my parents wheeled me out of the hospital I felt like I had been pieced back together like a patchwork doll. I thought the worst was over until weeks later when I saw my new legs for the first time. The calves were bulky blocks of metal with pipes bolted together for the ankles and a yellow rubber foot with a raised rubber line from the toe to the ankle to look like a vein. I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting that.

当父母把我推出医院时 我感到自己被重新拼凑起来 像一个拼布娃娃 我以为最惨的事已完结 直到我第一次见到 自己的新腿 小腿是笨重的金属块 脚踝用管子和螺丝固定 外加黄色的橡胶脚 突起的橡胶线从脚趾延伸到脚踝 为了使它们看起来像血管 我不知道我想要的结果是什么 但绝不会是这个

With my mom by my side and tears streaming down our faces, I strapped on these chunky legs and I stood up. They were so painful and so confining that all I could think was, how am I ever going to travel the world in these things? How was I ever going to live the life full of adventure and stories, as I always wanted? And how was I going to snowboard again?

妈妈站在我旁边 两个人泪水肆意 我绑上这两条粗短腿 然后站起来 它们让我感到十分痛苦，并且充满限制 我脑子里只有一个想法： 用这些破玩意我怎么能周游世界? 我如何才能过我 一直想要的异彩纷呈的生活?

That day, I went home, I crawled into bed and this is what my life looked like for the next few months: me passed out, escaping from reality, with my legs resting by my side. I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken.

我如何才能再玩单板滑雪? 那天，我回到家，爬上床 这是我接下来几个月的 生活状态: 我躺在床上, 淡出生活 逃离现实 我的腿放在床边.我在生理上和心理上完全崩溃了

But I knew that in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Amy and learn to embrace the new Amy. And that is when it dawned on me that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore. I could be as tall as I wanted! (Laughter) (Applause) Or as short as I wanted, depending on who I was dating. (Laughter) And if I snowboarded again, my feet aren't going to get cold. (Laughter) And best of all, I thought, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes that are on the sales rack. (Laughter) And I did! So there were benefits here.

但是我知道 为了向前走 我必须放开过去的艾米 学着接受新的艾米 那时 我突然想到 我再也不只有5.5英尺高了 我可以想多高有多高 (笑声)(掌声) 或者想多矮有多矮 这得看我和谁约会 (笑声) 如果我再玩单板滑雪 脚再也不会冷 (笑声) 我觉得最棒的`是 我可以调整脚的大小来适合 货架上任何尺码的鞋子 (笑声) 我真那么干了! 所以这还是有些好处的

It was this moment that I asked myself that life-defining question: If my life were a book and I were the author, how would I want the story to go? And I began to daydream. I daydreamed like I did as a little girl and I imagined myself walking gracefully, helping other people through my journey and snowboarding again. And I didn't just see myself carving down a mountain of powder, I could actually feel it. I could feel the wind against my face and the beat of my racing heart as if it were happening in that very moment. And that is when a new chapter in my life began.

那一刻我问了自己 一个决定人生走向的问题 如果人生是一本书 而我是作者 我会怎么写这个故事? 我开始做白日梦 想小时候那样做梦 我想象自己 优雅地前行 在路途中帮助别人 再次玩单板滑雪 我并不是仅仅看到自己 从山上滑下来 我可以真切感受到那个场景 我可以感受到风扑面而来 感受到心脏的韵律 如同那一刻正在真实发生.那就是我开启人生新篇章的时刻

Four months later I was back up on a snowboard, although things didn't go quite as expected: My knees and my ankles wouldn't bend and at one point I traumatized all the skiers on the chair lift when I fell and my legs, still attached to my snowboard — (Laughter) — went flying down the mountain, and I was on top of the mountain still. I was so shocked, I was just as shocked as everybody else, and I was so discouraged, but I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet that I would be able to do this again. And this is when I learned that our borders and our obstacles can only do two things: one, stop us in our tracks or two, force us to get creative.

4个月之后，我重拾单板滑雪 虽然事情并不像我期待的那样 我的膝盖和脚踝无法弯曲 在某一点上我吓坏了升降椅上所有的滑雪者 (笑声)就是当我摔倒时,我的腿还连着滑板 (笑声) 它们一起飞落到山脚 而我依然在山顶 (笑声)我被惊到了 同其他人一样 我惊呆了 而且很失落 但是我知道 如果我找到了两条合适的腿 我完全可以成功 这时 我明白了 艰难险阻只能做两件事:一是将我们困在原来的轨道 二是迫使我们充满创造力

I did a year of research, still couldn't figure out what kind of legs to use, couldn't find any resources that could help me. So I decided to make a pair myself. My leg maker and I put random parts together and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in. As you can see, rusted bolts, rubber, wood and neon pink duct tape. And yes, I can change my toenail polish. It was these legs and the best 21st birthday gift I could ever receive — a new kidney from my dad — that allowed me to follow my dreams again. I started snowboarding, then I went back to work, then I went back to school.

我研究了一年 仍然不知道 用什么样的腿 也找不到任何有用的资源 于是我决定自己做一副假腿 我和制作者把各种部件拼在一起 做了两条可以玩滑板的腿 你可以看到 生锈的螺栓、橡胶、木头和荧光粉胶带 没错 我可以换指甲颜色 这双假腿 以及我21岁生日收到的最好礼物—— ——我爸爸的一个肾 让我再次追逐梦想.我开始玩单板滑雪 我重新工作 并回到学校

Then in 20xx I cofounded a nonprofit organization for youth and young adults with physical disabilities so they could get involved with action sports. From there, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa, where I helped to put shoes on thousands of children's feet so they could attend school.

20xx年我创办了一个非盈利组织 用来救助身体残疾的年轻人 使他们能再次参加体育运动 从那时起 我有机会前往南非 给千百儿童带来鞋子 这样他们就可以去上学

And just this past February, I won two back-to-back World Cup gold medals — (Applause) — which made me the highest ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world.

在刚刚过去的二月 我相继取得两块世界金牌 (掌声) ——这使我成为 世界上最高级别的残疾人女子单板滑雪运动员.

Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs, I had no idea what to expect. But if you ask me today, if I would ever want to change my situation, I would have to say no. Because my legs haven't disabled me, if anything they've enabled me. They've forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in the possibilities, and that's why I believe that our imaginations can be used as tools for breaking through borders, because in our minds, we can do anything and we can be anything.

20xx年前 当我失去腿时 我不知道该期盼什么 但是如果你现在问我 是否愿意换个人生 我会回答不 因为我的双腿并没有阻碍我 如果说它们给我带来了什么 那就是它们让我依靠想象力 让我相信一切皆有可能 这就是为什么我相信 想象可以成为工具 用来冲破障碍 因为在脑子里 我们可以做任何事 可以成为任何人

It's believing in those dreams and facing our fears head-on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits. And although today is about innovation without borders, I have to say that in my life, innovation has only been possible because of my borders. I've learned that borders are where the actual ends, but also where the imagination and the story begins.

相信梦想 直面恐惧 能够让我们的生活 超出局限 虽然今天在讲无边界创新 但我不得不说 在我的生命里 是我自身的种种局限 让不可能变成可能 我知道这些局限 才是现实结束 想象产生 故事开始的地方

So the thought that I would like to challenge you with today is that maybe instead of looking at our challenges and our limitations as something negative or bad, we can begin to look at them as blessings, magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations and help us go further than we ever knew we could go. It's not about breaking down borders. It's about pushing off of them and seeing what amazing places they might bring us. Thank you.

所以 今天我想让你们挑战的是 与其把挑战、局限看做 不利或者坏事 我们可以把它们看做恩惠 可以点亮想象的神奇礼物 能帮助我们走得更远 远到我们从未想过 这不是要打破局限 而是把局限推得更广 然后看看它们能把我们带到 怎样美好的地方 谢谢 (掌声)