2013届毕业生的一生应该怎样度过？

    我在喜马拉雅山的山脚下度过了青春岁月，当时有个朋友被我们称为“追梦人”。他每天都在享受最微妙的乐趣——用五颜六色标注蝴蝶、数地平线上的高峰，对着形状各异的云朵编故事。他是个快乐的家伙，对生活的美妙深有体会，容易兴奋激动。亲爱的2013届毕业生，我认识这家伙很多年了，今天我坐下来给你们写这篇文章的时候，突然想到了他。

    亲爱的朋友，你们即将毕业，呈现在你面前的世界拥有美好的前景和潜力；这个世界并不仅仅以办公室走廊或华尔街的形式出现，而是令人激动不已的真实世界，充满许多未解之谜，以及让人陶醉的体验。我们当中许多人都忽略了这个简单的真理。

    然而我知道，你们这一代人不同于过去的任何一代人，极其渴望体会不同以往的人生。所以，在你们离开学校之际，我要向你们介绍几条显而易见、却容易忽略的真理，帮助你们以略微不同的角度来看待生活，而不是仅凭一叠薪金来认识世界：

拥抱世界

    互联网已经让世界变成了平面，Facebook让我们大家团结起来，组成一个大家庭。我们的祖父那一辈人是地区的传承者，我们这代人是国家的传承者，而你们则是世界的传承者。你现在和任何人的联系只有4.74个人的距离，到达全球任何有人居住的角落平均只需要两天时间。你可以踏上旅途。无论是非洲、欧洲、印度、中国还是巴西，前往那些能让你学到最多东西的地方，拥抱那个可以教给你最多东西的国度。

定义自己

    E.E.卡明斯有句话说得很有道理，“除了你自己，不要成为任何人，在这个竭尽全力、不分日夜想把你变成别人的世界里，这样做意味着迎接人类最艰苦的战斗；永不停息，战斗到底。”

    因此，在这个世界把你打败、为你冠以头衔前，发表独具风格的宣言，定义你心目中的自己。

    尽管你会忙个不停，但是不要忘记赞美生活中不完美的地方。我在徒步攀登喜马拉雅山的十天中了解到生活也有美好的缺陷。高山峻岭的陡峭边缘，午后骤降的冰雹风暴，都给人带来种种不便，但是却为登山旅途增添了几分妙趣。我敏锐地感觉到，在我追求完美事业的过程中，我往往没有认识到，不完美的地方也是我们自身的核心特质，需要保留下来，而不是经常改变。

    In my adolescent years on the foothills of Himalayas, I had a friend we all referred to as the "dreamy guy." He would spend his days enjoying the smallest of things – color-tagging butterflies, counting peaks on the horizon, making stories out of cloud formations. He was a happy soul, deeply receptive to life's beauties and easily excited. I knew this guy many years ago and I thought about him today as I sat down to write this piece for you, dear class of 2013.

    As you graduate, my friends, remember what lies ahead of you is a world overflowing with beauty and potential; not just in the form of office corridors or Wall Street but a real, throbbing world, full of many mysteries and heady experiences. A number of us miss this simple truth.

    But I know your generation, unlike any other generation in the past, is most eager to look at life differently. So as you leave school, I offer you a list of some obvious-yet-vastly-ignored truths that may help you look at life a little differently than just a series of paychecks:

Embrace the world

    The Internet has flattened the world, and Facebook has banded us together as one big family. Our grandfathers inherited regions, my generation inherited nations, you have inherited the world. You are now only 4.74 people away from any human being and an average of two days away from any inhabited corner of the world. So travel. Africa, Europe, India, China or Brazil, go where you can learn the most, embrace what can teach you the most.

Define yourself

    As E.E. Cummings rightly said, "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

    So, before the world gets the better of you and slaps a title on your forehead, create a unique manifesto of what you think you are.

    And while you are at it, don't forget to celebrate the imperfections. While on a 10-day trek in the Himalayas, I learned that imperfections are beautiful too. The rough edges of the mountains, the heavy hail storms in the middle of the afternoon, were "inconvenient" but added to the beauty of the trek. I am acutely aware now that in my pursuit of perfection at work, I have often failed to recognize that imperfections are also a core part of our identity that needs to be preserved and not always changed.