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For the Class of 2020, our college experience has ended abruptly.
在我们2020届的毕业生看来，我们的大学生活结束得是那么的突然。
To make matters worse, we’re plunging headfirst into a public-health nightmare compounded by potentially the worst recession since the Great Depression.
更糟糕的是，刚失去毕业典礼，我们又一头扎进了新冠肺炎这场公共健康噩梦，还有堪称大萧条以来最为严重的一次经济衰退。
Some of us will be the first in our families to graduate from college.
我们中的一些人还是家族中的第一个大学生。
Many have overcome other great barriers to achieve this milestone.
许多人都克服了巨大的障碍，才取得了这一里程碑式的成绩。
But as the “real world” knocks on our door, we crave nothing more than a little direction and a little tradition.
然而，当“赤裸裸的现实”敲响我们的大门，得到一点指引，守住一点传统就已经成了我们唯一的渴求。
For graduating college students, commencement speeches—the punchy one-liners; inspirational anecdotes;
对于即将毕业的大学生而言，毕业致辞——致辞里那些绝妙的俏皮话；鼓舞人心的轶事；
and calls to action from celebrities, entrepreneurs and politicians— are a rite of passage.
还有来自名人、企业家和政治家的行动召唤——无异于一场重大的仪式。
Though these speeches gesture toward the future, they also commemorate the past four years.
那些演讲无不都在着眼未来，但它们同时也是对我们过去四年大学生活的纪念。
In these final moments, we recognize that we influenced our schools as much as they influenced us.
在最后的这些时刻，我们终于意识到，我们对学校的影响并不亚于学校对我们的影响。
“I always wanted first to say we notice that you were here,” former Harvard president Drew Faust told us,
“我一直想先说一句，我们有注意到你们来过这里，”在谈及她想通过毕业典礼致辞传达怎样的信息时，
describing what she wanted to accomplish in a commencement speech.
哈佛大学前校长德鲁·浮士德曾对我们说道。
“You’ve mattered here, and we know that you’ve been here,
“你们曾在这里发过光，发过热，我们知道你们来过这里，
and there are things that we shared together during these years that make you not just yet another class of students.”
这些年，我们甘苦与共，风雨同舟，你们已经不再只是一个班级的同学。”
Students won’t put on caps and gowns and listen to celebratory speakers this year.
今年，毕业班的同学们不会再戴礼帽，穿长袍，听祝贺自己毕业的演讲。
Curbing the pandemic requires that we all do our part.
控制疫情需要我们所有人都贡献自己的一份力。
The decision to send students home and cancel or postpone in-person commencements has likely saved the lives of students, professors, faculty and staff.
学生、教授和教职员工还能安然无恙，校方让学生回家，取消或推迟现场举行的毕业典礼的这一决定或许也是功臣之一。
While virtual commencements are all many of us can have in this time,
尽管我们中间的很多人当前都只能拥有一场云毕业典礼，
watching them through screens, thousands of miles apart, will be different.
与其他同学相隔数千英里，在屏幕面前观看典礼势必收获不一样的感受。
Postponed ceremonies will be different too.
推迟毕业典礼也会收获不一样的感受。
We won’t all be in the same place in our lives: excited, scared, hopeful during the bittersweet end of college.
我们无法再在同一个校园里，一起度过一段既兴奋，又害怕，又充满希望，既甜蜜又苦涩的大学生活尾声。
But that doesn’t mean they won’t mean anything.
但这并不意味着今年的毕业典礼就没有了意义。
“For some campuses like ours, students were away on spring break,”
“对于我们这样的校园来说，毕业之前学生们就已经放春假离校了，”
University of Virginia president James E. Ryan said in an April interview.
弗吉尼亚大学校长詹姆斯·E·瑞安在4月份的一次采访中说。
“They didn’t have four or five days to say goodbye.
“他们都没有四五天的时间跟其他人告别。
So, for many of them, this will be the first time they’ve seen each other since March.
所以，对于他们中的许多人来说，毕业典礼将会是他们自3月份以来的第一次见面。
I think it will be a remarkably special occasion.”
我觉得那将是一个非常非常特别的时刻。”
And he’s right: we’ll all be together again, some time when the curve has flattened and things are better.
他说的没错：我们会有再聚首的那天，等疫情曲线平缓，情况有所好转以后一定会有那么一天。
Once more, we will sit on library steps, fill quad lawns and take in one another’s company.
我们将再次坐上图书馆的台阶，再次坐满学校广场的草坪，再次回到彼此的怀抱。
On our last day on campus, March 15, two of our friends geared up for a 16-hour drive to Michigan.
在我们校园生活的最后一天，也就是3月15日这天，我们的两个朋友准备驱车16个小时去密歇根。
We gathered around their rented minivan to say goodbye.
我们围着他们租来的面包车跟他们道别。
They pulled away from the curb, then pulled back in, as if we didn’t really have to leave each other.
他们从路边开走之后又开了回来，好像我们并不是真的要分开一样。
Finally, they drove off campus and disappeared into the world.
最后，他们终于驱车离开了校园，消失在了茫茫人海里。
Those of us who remained held each other close, hopefully not for the last time.
我们剩下的人紧紧相拥着目送他们离开，希望，这不是我们的最后一次相拥。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
