人生不设限·将生活整个打包，运到地球另一端

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

我到美国的头几个星期，就常常感受到文化震撼。其实在上学的第一天，当全班同学站着面对国旗，背诵效忠誓词时，我就有些惊慌，因为在澳大利亚，我们从来没这么做过，我觉得自己好像走错地方了。

Culture shock set in early and often during my first few weeks in America. In fact, on the very first day of school I had a bit of a panic when the entire class stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. We didn't do anything like that in Australia. I felt like I'd walked into a club that I didn't belong to.

还有一天，警报器突然大响，老师要我们全部躲到桌子底下。我还以为是外星人来袭了，结果只是地震演习。地震?
Then one day all the alarms went off and the teachers told us to get under our desks! I thought aliens were attacking, but it was just a disaster drill for earthquakes. Earthquakes?

当然了，我这没有四肢的身体照例会引来神经兮兮的眼光、粗鲁的问题和怪异的评论。美国中学生对我如何上厕所这件事的好奇心之强，真是令我难以置信，我甚至开始祈祷地震来袭，好让同学不要再对我上厕所的问题问个不停。

Of course I got the usual nervous glances, rude questions, and odd comments about my lack of limbs. I could not believe how curious American middle-school kids were about how I managed in the restroom. I prayed for an earthquake, just to stop the endless interrogations about my toilet tactics.

我还得适应经常性的教室变动。在澳大利亚上课时，所有科目都是在同一间教室进行，我们不会像袋鼠一样整天移来移去。但是在美国这里，我们好像不停地从一间教室“跳”到另一间教室。

I had to adjust also to the constant shuffle from class to class. Back in Australia all my subjects were taught in one room. We didn't move around all day like kangaroos in the outback. At Lindero Canyon Middle School, it seemed like all we did was hop from one classroom to the next.

对于生活中出现的这个大变化，老实说我处理得不是很好。过去我一直是好学生，但是到了新学校，我很快就落后了。由于正规的六年级已经没有空间容纳新学生，所以学校安排我去上高级班，结果我的成绩退步了。回头看看，我想当时只是因为压力太大了——压力怎么可能不大?我的生活可是被整个打包，运到地球的另一端呢。

I was not handling this major life change very well. I'd always been a good student, but I quickly fell behind in my new school. They had no room in the regular sixth-grade classes so they'd put me in an advanced studies program, but my grades were retreating. Looking back, I can see that I was just stressed out. And why wouldn't I have been? My whole life had been packed up and transported across the globe.

我们甚至不再拥有自己的房子。爸爸为贝塔叔叔工作，我们全家人跟他们一家一起住在叔叔的大房子里，直到有了自己的房子。我不常看见爸爸、妈妈，因为他们老是忙着找工作、通勤上班，或是在找住的地方。

We didn't even have our own house anymore. My father was working for Uncle Batta, and we were living with him and his family in their big house until we found our own. I didn't see much of my parents because they were busy finding work, commuting to work, or looking for a place to live.

我讨厌这样。那时的我身心都承受太多，因此成了一只小乌龟，缩回自己小小的壳里。下课和午餐时间，我会逃开，有时躲到操场附近的灌木丛后面，不过我最喜欢躲在麦坎更先生管理的其中一间音乐教室，他是乐队和音乐老师。

I hated it. I was overwhelmed, mentally, emotionally, and physically. So I made like a turtle and withdrew into my shell. During recess and lunch hours, I went off on my own, sometimes hiding behind the bushes near the playground. My favorite hideout, though, was in one of the music rooms overseen by Mr. McKagan, the band and music teacher.

麦坎更先生是一位很棒的老师。他在学校一天大概教八九堂课(我觉得了)，非常受欢迎，简直就像摇滚巨星。老师的弟弟杜夫是知名贝司手，曾经跟“枪与玫瑰”和其他一些顶尖摇滚乐团合作过。这正是从澳大利亚移居加州另一个奇特的地方，我觉得我们好像把平凡的家庭生活都留在澳大利亚，然后进入了一个超现实的流行文化王国。我们就住在洛杉矶和好莱坞外围，所以常常会在杂货店或购物中心碰到电影或电视明星。我们班上一半的同学都想成为演员，或者正在当演员。放学后打开电视，我可能就会看到历史课班上某个还不错的同学出现在颇受欢迎的电视剧里。

Mr. McKagan, who is still on the staff at Lindero Canyon, is a terrific teacher. He was so popular, he was like a rock star at the school, teaching (I think) eight or nine classes a day. His brother Duff is a legendary bass guitarist who has played with Guns N' Roses and other top rock bands. That was another strange aspect of moving from Australia to California. I felt like we'd left a perfectly normal family existence and landed in some surreal pop culture kingdom. We lived just outside Los Angeles and Hollywood, so we were always bumping into movie stars and television stars in the grocery store or at the mall. Half my classmates were aspiring or working actors. After school, I could turn on the television and watch a nice guy from my history class, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, ham it up on the popular television show Home Improvement.

我的生活在很多方面都改变了，真的让我难以消受，也失去了好不容易建立起来的自信心。我在澳大利亚已经被同学接纳了，但是在美国，我是个身在异乡的外地人，有着怪异的口音，以及更怪异的身体——至少我当时的感受是这样。麦坎更先生发现我躲在他的音乐教室里，就鼓励我走出去，多跟同学混在一起，但我就是提不起劲儿。

My life had been altered in so many ways, I was simply overwhelmed. I'd lost all the confidence I'd worked so hard to build. My Australian classmates had accepted me, but in America I was a stranger in a strange land with a strange accent and an even stranger body. Or at least that's how I felt. Mr. McKagan saw that I was hiding out in his music rooms, and he tried to encourage me to go out and mix with the other students. But I just couldn't get motivated.

我在对抗一个我无法控制的变化，而没有把注意力放在我能调整的地方——我的态度和行动。我真不该那么笨才对。当时我只有12岁，但已学会把焦点放在我“能”，而不是我“不能”上。我已经可以接受缺少四肢的事实，也努力成为快乐、自信的孩子。然而，移居这件事让我感到十分震惊。

I was fighting a change I couldn't control instead of focusing on what I could adjust, my attitude and my actions. Really, I should have known better. I was only twelve years old, but I'd already learned to focus on my abilities instead of my disabilities. I'd accepted my lack of limbs and I'd managed to become a pretty happy and self-sufficient kid. But this move threw me for a loop.

你有没有注意到，当你进入生命重大的转变期时，你的感受力会变得比较强?在痛苦地分手后，你会不会觉得好像每部电影、每部电视剧都是演给你看的?收音机传来的每首歌，是不是仿佛都替你唱出你的心痛?这些被强化的情绪和感受可能是你饱受压力或是被丢入一个陌生环境时触发的生存工具，它们让你保持高度警觉，所以是很有价值的。

Have you ever noticed that when you enter into one of those major transitional periods in your life, your senses seem heightened? When you go through a bad breakup, doesn't every movie and television show seem to have a hidden message aimed at you? Don't all the songs on the radio seem to be about your very own aching heart? Those heightened emotions and senses may be survival tools triggered when you are stressed or thrown into unfamiliar situations. They put you on high alert, and they can be valuable.

我仍然记得，即使我因为离开澳大利亚而心伤，我还是能在眺望新居地的群山与海滩落日时，找到平静与慰藉。我现在还是觉得加州很美，但那个时候似乎更美。

I still remember that as distressed as I was about leaving Australia, I always found peace and comfort gazing at the mountains or watching the sun set on the beach in my new environment. I still think California is a beautiful place, but it seemed even more beautiful then.

不论是正面或负面，改变都会是强而有力且让人害怕的经历，因此你的第一反应总是与之对抗。我在大学的商业课程里学到，多数的大企业都会指定高阶管理人作为“变革推动者”，他们的任务就是在重大转变发生时——例如合并、成立新部门，或是采取新的做生意方式——让心不甘、情不愿的员工振作起来。

Whether positive or negative, change can be a powerful and scary experience, which is why your first reaction may be to fight it. When I took business classes in college, I learned that most major corporations have executives who are the designated "change agents." Their job is to rally reluctant employees behind big transitions, whether it's a merger, or a new division, or a new way of doing business.

身为自创事业的总裁，我了解每个员工在面对任务上的变化时，都有自己的一套应变之道。总有一些人会对新的体验感到兴奋，但大部分人其实是抗拒的，因为他们安于现状，或是担心生活会变得更糟。

As the president of my own business, I've learned that each employee has his or her own way of dealing with new initiatives or alterations in our mission. There will always be a few people who get excited about new experiences, but mostly people resist because they are comfortable with the status quo, or they fear their lives will change for the worse.