你为何要远走他乡？.

　　You want to grow, progress, live an interesting and meaningful life. You want to do and be something big, by your own dinition. You want the freedom to explore and dive deep into what interests you and maybe even master a few things. You want to know yourself and most of all esteem yourself.

　　你渴望成长，希望进步，想要过有趣有意义的生活。你想要按照自己的想法去做一些大事情，或者成为大人物。你想去自由探索，想去钻研自己感兴趣的东西，甚至还想学会点儿技能。你想要了解自己，最重要的是尊重你自己。

　　If that’s true?—?and I hope it is?—?you need to move away from your home town.如果是这样的话(我希望是)，你需要离开家乡。

　　In a new town you’re the girl who’s full of promise. You can dine yourself, write your story, let your first impression speak for itself. Anything you do is potentially interesting and you can potentially be successful in any endeavor. Back home you’re the kid who wanted to be a vet when she was twelve and to many people anything you do other than that will be seen as a compromise.

　　在新的地方，你只是一个满怀希望的女孩。你可以重新定义自己，书写你自己的故事，留下完美的第一印象。你做的任何一件事都可能会有意想不到的乐趣，你的每一次努力都可能会收获意想不到的成功。而回到家中，你或许还只是一个在十二岁的时候想做兽医的孩子，除此之外，你做的所有事情都会被别人当作是一种妥协。

　　In a new city your value must come from what you can produce. You are judged on your merits, by your fruit. In your home town you’re loved and cute and special no matter what you do, but never fully respected as an independent being.在新的城市，你的价值由你的成就所决定。人们会根据你的优点或是你的工作成果来评价你。而在故乡，无论你做什么事情，你永远都是受人疼爱、活泼可爱又与众不同的那个孩子，人们永远不会把你当成一个独立的大人来尊重。

　　It’s hard to discover yourself when you’re dined so much by your heritage, perceptions others have formed about your family, your past self, etc.

　　你所继承的财产、别人对你家庭的看法、甚至是你过去的自己，所有的这些都让我们就很难去发掘真正的自己。

　　People from where I grew up still ask me if I’m going to be President some day. Nothing could be more repulsive to me than the idea of running for political office. I wouldn’t wish office on my worst enemy and I think politics is the most backward form of human activity and energy. But once upon a time I thought politics was a viable method for expanding human freedom. I told people around me about it. That’s the me they knew. To them, I will never be successful or interesting unless and until I achieve a goal that is totally meaningless to me now. (I wrote here about why I’m glad I failed in this regard.)家乡的人们直到现在还总是会问我会不会有一天成为总统。然而没有什么比竞选政治职位更让我反感的了。坐办公室是我最厌弃的事情，而且我觉得政治是人类活动最落后的形式。但我曾以为政治是帮助人们获得更多自由的有效途径，然后把这一想法告诉了周围的人。这就是他们眼中的我。对他们来说，不达到这样一个目标我永远不算成功，这个目标现在于我来说已毫无意义。(写到这里，我很高兴我没有达到他们的期望。)

　　Even if you care about your home town and want to improve it the best way is to leave.

　　即使你心系故乡而且想要改变故乡，最好的方式还是离开。

　　Outsiders are more likely to innovate. This is true in all fields. The most likely to have a breakthrough in one industry is not the industry expert or but the expert from a different sector who’s looking in with fresh eyes.局外人更有可能创新，在每一个领域都是这样的。在任何一个行业中，那些做出突破的人往往是那些满怀好奇的门外汉，这些人可能对别的行业很精通，但并不是这个行业的专家或业内人士。

　　I once heard that the dinition of an expert is someone who traveled more than 150 miles to deliver a message.Introduce a speaker from next door and no matter how much they know about the topic at hand few will be moved and impressed. Fly someone in from the next city and they’ll get attention no matter what they say.

　　我曾经听过有关“专家”的定义：专家是走了150多公里只为传递信息的人。在当地找一个人来演说，不管他对这个话题有多么了解，也很难让人印象深刻。而要是我们从别的城市请一个人来演讲，不管他们讲什么也总能吸引人们的注意力。

　　Leave. Go out into the world and discover who you are. Go out and become what you want to be and you’ll discover something interesting if you go back home. You’ll have a level of respect and influence and freedom you could never have won had you stayed.走吧!世界那么大，去发现真正的自己。走出去，努力成为你想要成为的人，那时再回到家乡，你会发现一些有趣的变化。你收获的尊重、影响力和自由，是你待在家乡永远不可能得到的。