TED英語演講：生命無限，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書，你是書的作者，你會怎么寫你的故事？這個問題永遠改變了我的一生，生長在拉斯維加斯的炎熱沙漠，我一直向往自由，我做著白日夢，夢想周游世界，住在能看見雪的地方，編我想講述的所有故事。

　　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 fr-om 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歲那年在我從高中畢業后，我搬到了能見到雪的地方。我成為一名按摩師，這份工作只需要雙手以及身邊的按摩桌，而且我可以去任何地方，有生以來頭一次我感到自由，獨立對生活充滿把握。直到人生出現了一個轉折，一天我下班比往常早，以為自己得了流感，24小時不到我就進了醫院，生命垂危只有2%的存活幾率，之后的幾天我陷入昏迷，醫生診斷我得了細菌性腦膜炎，疫苗可預防性血液感染，在為期兩個半月的治療中，我切除了脾和腎左耳失聰、膝蓋以下截肢。

　　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 fr-om the toe to the ankle to look like a vein. I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting that.

　　當父母把我推出醫院時，我感到自己被重新拼湊起來，像一個拼布娃娃，我以為最慘的事已完結，直到我第一次見到自己的新腿小腿，是笨重的金屬塊，腳踝用管子和螺絲固定外加黃色的橡膠腳，突起的橡膠線從腳趾延伸到腳踝，為了使它們看起來像血管，我不知道我想要的結果是什么，但絕不會是這個。

　　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?

　　媽媽站在我旁邊，兩個人淚水肆意我綁上這兩條粗短腿，然后站起來它們讓我感到十分痛苦，并且充滿限制我腦子里只有一個想法：用這些破玩意，我怎么能周游世界？我如何才能過我一直想要的異彩紛呈的生活？

　　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 fr-om reality, with my legs resting by my side. I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken.

　　我如何才能再玩單板滑雪？那天，我回到家，爬上床這是我接下來幾個月的生活狀態：我躺在床上，淡出生活逃離現實，我的腿放在床邊。我在生理上和心理上完全崩潰了。

　　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.

　　但是我知道為了向前，走我必須放開過去的艾米，學著接受新的艾米，那時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。(笑聲)(掌聲)或者想多矮有多矮，這得看我和誰約會(笑聲)，如果我再玩單板滑雪腳再也不會冷(笑聲)。我覺得最棒的是我可以調整腳的大小來適合貨架上任何尺碼的鞋子(笑聲)，我真那么干了！所以這還是有些好處的。

　　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.

　　那一刻我問了自己一個決定，人生走向的問題，如果人生是一本書，而我是作者，我會怎么寫這個故事？我開始做白日夢，想小時候那樣做夢，我想象自己優雅地前行，在路途中幫助別人，再次玩單板滑雪。我并不是僅僅看到自己從山上滑下來，我可以真切感受到那個場景，我可以感受到風撲面而來，感受到心臟的韻律，如同那一刻正在真實發生。那就是我開啟人生新篇章的時刻。

　　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個月之后，我重拾單板滑雪，雖然事情并不像我期待的那樣，我的膝蓋和腳踝無法彎曲在某一點上，我嚇壞了升降椅上所有的滑雪者(笑聲)。就是當我摔倒時，我的腿還連著滑板(笑聲)，它們一起飛落到山腳，而我依然在山頂(笑聲)，我被驚到了同其他人一樣，我驚呆了，而且很失落。但是我知道如果我找到了兩條合適的腿，我完全可以成功，這時我明白了，艱難險阻只能做兩件事：一是將我們困在原來的軌道，二是迫使我們充滿創造力。

　　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 fr-om 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，仍然不知道用什么樣的腿，也找不到任何有用的資源，于是我決定自己做一副假腿，我和制作者把各種部件拼在一起，做了兩條可以玩滑板的腿，你可以看到生銹的螺栓、橡膠、木頭和熒光粉膠帶，沒錯，我可以換指甲顏色，這雙假腿以及我21歲生日收到的最好禮物——我爸爸的一個腎，讓我再次追逐夢想。我開始玩單板滑雪，我重新工作并回到學校。

　　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年我創辦了一個非盈利組織，用來救助身體殘疾的年輕人，使他們能再次參加體育運動，從那時起我有機會前往南非給千百兒童帶來鞋子，這樣他們就可以去上學。

　　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.

　　在剛剛過去的二月，我相繼取得兩塊世界金牌(掌聲) ——這使我成為世界上最高級別的殘疾人女子單板滑雪運動員。

　　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，當我失去腿時，我不知道該期盼什么？但是如果你現在問我是否愿意換個人生，我會回答不。因為我的雙腿并沒有阻礙，我如果說它們給我帶來了什么？那就是它們讓我依靠想象力，讓我相信一切皆有可能，這就是為什么我相信想象，可以成為工具用來沖破障礙，因為在腦子里我們可以做任何事可以成為任何人。

　　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.

　　相信夢想，直面恐懼。能夠讓我們的生活超出局限，雖然今天在講無邊界創新，但我不得不說在我的生命里，是我自身的種種局限，讓不可能變成可能，我知道這些局限才是現實，結束想象產生故事開始的地方。

　　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.

　　所以今天我想讓你們挑戰的是與其把挑戰、局限看做不利或者壞事，我們可以把它們看做恩惠，可以點亮想象的神奇禮物，能幫助我們走得更遠，遠到我們從未想過，這不是要打破局限，而是把局限推得更廣，然后看看它們能把我們帶到怎樣美好的地方。謝謝！(掌聲)