○  娜塔莉·波特曼2015年哈佛毕业典礼英文演讲稿  ○

my soon-to-be 4-year-old son. And I watched him play arcade games. He was incredibly focused, throwing his ball at the target. Jewish mother that I am, I skipped 20 steps, and was already imagining him as a major league player, with what is his aim and his arm and his concentration. But then I realized what he want. He was playing to trade in his tickets for the crappy plastic toys. The prize was much more exciting than the game to get it. I of course wanted to urge him to take joy and the challenge of the game, the improvement upon practice, the satisfaction of doing something well, and even feeling the accomplishment when achieving the game’s goals. But all of these aspects were shade by the little 10 cent plastic men with sticky stretchy blue arms that adhere to the walls. That was the prize. In a child’s nature, we see many of our own innate tendencies. I saw myself in him and perhaps you do too.

　　Prizes serve as false idols everywhere. Prestige, wealth, fame, power. You’ll be exposed to many of these, if not all. Of course, part of why I was invited to come to speak today, beyond my being a proud alumna, is that I’ve recruited some very coveted toys in my life, including a not so plastic, not so crappy one, an Oscar. So we bump up against the common troll I think of the commencement address people who have achieved a lot telling you that the fruits of the achievement are not always to be trusted. But I think that contradiction can be reconciled and is in fact instructive.Achievement is wonderful when you know why you’re doing it. And when you don’t know, it can be a terrible trap.

　　I went to a public high school on Long Island, Syosset High School. Ooh, hello, Syosset! The girls I went to school with had Prada bags and flat-ironed hair.And they spoke with an accent, I who had moved there at age 9 from Connecticut mimicked to fit in. Florida, Oranges, Chocolate, Cherries. Since I’m ancient and the Inter

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