Being young is great. Most of the parts of your body still work great, you have a full head of hair, you’re energetic, and you have a world of opportunity in front of you. However, there’s going to come a time when you start to get older. And as you get older, you’ll have new responsibilities, complete independence, and perhaps most importantly, less time to recover from mistakes.
年轻真好。身体大部分零件运转灵活,头发浓密,精力旺盛,机会唾手可得。然而,总有一天,老之将至。随着年龄的增长,肩上的担子重了,生活完全靠自己打拼,可能最重要的是,有更少的时间去弥补错误。
You see, we all make mistakes in life. Maybe you spent more money than you should have on a car, you passed up on a great job opportunity, or you didn’t try as hard as you could have in school. It’s a part of life and we learn from it. But there are certain mistakes that are much better made while you’re still young and have plenty of time to recover.
你看,在生活中,我们都犯错误。或许,你在汽车上花的钱超出了预算;或许,你错过了大好的工作机会;或许,上学时你不勤奋好学。这是生活的一部分,我们从中获得经验。但是,某些错误最好犯在年轻时,你将有足够的时间去弥补。
I’m definitely not telling you that you should purposely go out and make these mistakes (because they’re a pain to recover from). But these are all mistakes that are much better made when you’re younger so that you can learn from them and not have them ruin your entire life.
我当然不是说,你应该有目的出去犯这些错误( 因为从错误中恢复很痛苦)。但是,这些错误,都是越年轻时犯就越有利,以便你能从中吸取教训,而避免让它们毁掉你的整个生活。
1. Starting The Wrong Career
入错行
Wouldn’t you hate to be 45 years old and discover that you absolutely hate what you do for a living? It’s a reality that a lot of people face and it can be difficult to fix. You see, when you’re 23 and find out you don’t like the career path you’ve chosen, you can easily explore new career options.
45岁的时候,你发现,你讨厌维系你生活的谋生手段,此时你不会感到遗憾吗?这是摆在很多人面前的现实,而且很难补救。要知道,23岁时,你发现不喜欢自己选择的职业道路,开拓新天地易于反掌。
We no longer live in an age when people are expected to stay with one company until they retire. You can bounce around a little bit and find out what you want to do. When you get older, just switching careers whenever you want isn’t as simple.
在一家公司一直工作到退休的时代已经成为过去。你可以跳跳槽,看看哪行适合你。年轻不再时,随心所欲地换工作可不是易事。
You have to consider your family, retirement, the difficulties you might run into with starting from the bottom in a new industry, and plenty of other issues that someone in their early 20’s just doesn’t have to deal with.
你必须要考虑家庭、退休以及在新行业中从头来可能遇到的困难,还有很多20多岁的年轻人无需应对的其他事情。
2. Dating the wrong person
嫁(娶)错郎(娘)
The divorce rate in the U.S is extremely high. Other parts of the world aren’t doing too much better either. While everyone gets divorced for their own reasons, I think we can all agree that it’s better to find out that the person you’re with is wrong for you sooner rather than later.
美国的离婚率极高,世界上其它地区也好不到哪里。每个人离婚都有各自的理由,我觉得大家都会同意这种观点,发现你的配偶不适合你宜早不宜迟。
Hopefully you find out whether or not the person you’re with is right for you before you tie the knot, because around 50% of first marriages end in divorce.
但愿在结为连理之前,确定那个人是否合适,因为第一次婚姻中的50%以离婚告终。