哈佛校报公布：2022被录取的优秀文书

*图片源自网络

8月初，哈佛校报“哈佛深红”(Harvard Crimson)按惯例公布了新鲜出炉的2022年新生10篇优秀文书。大学文书的目的有两个：让招生官了解你，以及展示你的写作能力。

在这10篇文书中，我们可以看到大多数是达到了这两个目标：不但让读者了解了自己，而且通过娴熟的写作技巧充分体现自己的思想、见解或观点。

*图片源自网络

这些公布的哈佛优秀文书题材多样，写作方式各有千秋：有描述自己学习芭蕾舞的经历，以及如何在舞蹈练习和表演中勇于尝试和冒险；有通过自己在13岁时移居美国第一次买房的经历，回味家庭多年来在不同国家间频繁迁移“居无定所”的窘境；还有回忆小时候和爷爷捕捉蝴蝶的经历，等等。

读者也会注意到，打动人心的故事往往是普通的，不普通的是作者的思考和表达方式。以下是优秀文书以及点评，供同学们参考。

I sat on my parents’ bed weeping with my head resting on my knees. “Why did you have to do that to me? Why did you have to show me the house and then take it away from me?” Hopelessly, I found myself praying to God realizing it was my last resort.

我坐在父母的床上，头靠在膝盖上哭泣。“你为什么要这样对我?”你为什么一定要带我去看房子，然后又把它从我身边拿走?”我绝望地向上帝祈祷，意识到这是我最后的选择。

For years, my family and I found ourselves moving from country to country in hopes of a better future. Factors, such as war and lack of academic opportunities, led my parents to pack their bags and embark on a new journey for our family around the world. Our arduous journey first began in Kuçovë, Albania, then Athens, Greece, and then eventually, Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout those years, although my family always had a roof over our heads, I never had a place I could call “home.”

多年来，我和我的家人从一个国家搬到另一个国家，希望有一个更好的未来。战争和缺乏学习机会等因素促使我的父母收拾行囊，为我们的家庭踏上了环游世界的新旅程。我们的艰难旅程始于阿尔巴尼亚的Kuçovë，然后是希腊的雅典，最后是马萨诸塞州的波士顿。在那些年里，虽然我们家总是有个栖身之所，但我从来没有一个可以称之为“家”的地方。

That night that I prayed to God, my mind raced back to the night I was clicking the delete button on my e-mails, but suddenly stopped when I came upon a listing of the house. It was September 22, 2007 —eight years exactly to the day that my family and I had moved to the United States. Instantly, I knew that it was fate that was bringing this house to me. I remembered visiting that yellow house the next day with my parents and falling in love with it. However, I also remembered the heartbreaking phone call I received later on that week saying that the owners had chosen another family’s offer.

我向上帝祈祷的那个晚上，我的思绪又回到了我在电子邮件上按下删除键的那个晚上，但当我看到一份房子的列表时，我突然停了下来。那是2007年9月22日——我和我的家人搬到美国整整八年了。我立刻意识到，是命运把这座房子带给了我。我记得第二天和父母一起去参观那间黄色的房子，并爱上了它。然而，我也记得那个星期晚些时候我接到的那个令人心碎的电话，说业主选择了另一个家庭的报价。

A week after I had prayed to God, I had given up any hopes of my family buying the house. One day after school, I unlocked the door to our one-bedroom apartment and walked over to the telephone only to see it flashing a red light. I clicked PLAY and unexpectedly heard the voice of our real estate agent. “Eda!” she said joyfully. “The deal fell through with the other family—the house is yours! Call me back immediately to get started on the papers.” For a moment, I stood agape and kept replaying the words in my head. Was this really happening to me? Was my dream of owning a home finally coming true?

我向上帝祈祷一周后，就放弃了让家人买房子的希望。有一天放学后，我打开我们一居室公寓的门，走到电话旁，却看到它闪烁着红灯。我点击了播放键，意外地听到了我们的房地产经纪人的声音。“Eda !她高兴地说。“跟另一个家庭的交易泡汤了——房子是你的!”马上给我回电话，让我开始写文件。”有那么一会儿，我目瞪口呆地站在那里，不断地在脑海里重复着这些话。这真的发生在我身上吗?我拥有房子的梦想终于实现了吗?

Over the month of November, I spent my days going to school and immediately rushing home to make phone calls. Although my parents were not fluent enough in English to communicate with the bank and real estate agent, I knew that I was not going to allow this obstacle to hinder my dream of helping to purchase a home for my family. Thus, unlike a typical thirteen-year-old girl’s conversations, my phone calls did not involve the mention of makeup, shoes, or boys. Instead, my conversations were composed of terms, such as “fixed-rate mortgages,” “preapprovals,” and “down payments.” Nevertheless, I was determined to help purchase this home after thirteen years of feeling embarrassed from living in a one-bedroom apartment. No longer was I going to experience feelings of humiliation from not being able to host sleepovers with my friends or from not being able to gossip with girls in school about who had the prettiest room color.

整个11月，我每天都去上学，然后马上冲回家打电话。虽然我父母的英语不够流利，无法与银行和房产中介沟通，但我知道我不会让这个障碍阻碍我帮助家人买房的梦想。因此，与一个典型的13岁女孩的谈话不同，我的电话没有涉及到化妆、鞋子或男孩。相反，我的谈话是由一些术语组成的，比如“固定利率抵押贷款”、“预批准”和“首付”。尽管如此，在经历了13年的一居室公寓的尴尬之后，我还是决定帮助购买这座房子。我再也不会因为不能和朋友们在一起过夜或不能和学校里的女孩们八卦谁的房间颜色最漂亮而感到屈辱。

I had been homeless for the first thirteen years of my life. Although I will never be able to fully repay my parents for all of their sacrifices, the least I could do was to help find them a home that they could call their own—and that year, I did. To me, a home means more than the general conception of “four walls and a roof.” A home is a place filled with memories and laughter from my family. No matter where my future may lead me, I know that if at times I feel alone, I will always have a yellow home with my family inside waiting for me.

在我生命的前十三年里，我一直无家可归。虽然我永远无法完全报答我的父母所做的一切牺牲，但我至少可以帮他们找到一个属于他们自己的家——那一年，我做到了。对我来说，家不仅仅意味着“四面墙和一个屋顶”的概念。家是一个充满家人回忆和笑声的地方。无论我的未来如何，我知道，如果有时我感到孤独，我总会有一个黄色的家，我的家人在里面等着我。

*图片源自网络

专家点评：

诚实、动人、有力。这是阅读 Eda 的文章后首先想到的三个词。通过诚实的表达方式，埃达展示了她随着时间的推移而真正的成长和成熟。我们喜欢 Eda 的文章的地方在于它把个人脆弱性表达得令人耳目一新。 例如，她以她在父母床上哭泣的场景开始整篇文章，并将自己的不幸归咎于他们。通过这种发自内心的诚实，埃达展示了她随着时间的推移而真正的成长和成熟。在整篇文章中，她的个人声音也很强烈。当她谈到爱上“那栋黄色的房子”时，我们脑海中会自动浮现出这栋房子的形象。当她谈到得知“黄色房子”被卖给另一个家庭时所经历的心碎时，我们也感到心痛。她有意描写“播放”她收到的语音邮件，以及她随后的内心想法，进一步促使我们与她一起重温她的心路历程。然而，作者不仅仅是告诉我们她的历程。她强调了她的历程是多么不一样。她没有享受关于化妆品或鞋子的电话交谈，而是与代理商谈论固定利率抵押贷款和首付……所有这些都是在 13 岁时她要做的。尽管她没有明确说明这一点，但很明显，她必须尽快成长，成为一个更强大的人。作者对“家”这个词的理解从普通的屋顶演变为更抽象的屋顶。家就是她的“回忆和欢笑”所在的地方。最后，她接受了父母做出的牺牲，并学会为自己的成长感到自豪。

Garishly lined with a pearlescent lavender, my eyes idly scanned the haphazard desk in front of me, settling on a small kohl. I packed the ebony powder into my waterline with a shaky hand, wincing at the fine specks making their way into my eyes.The girl in the mirror seemed sharper, older, somehow. At only 12, I was relatively new to the powders and blushes that lined my birthday makeup kit, but I was determined to decipher the deep splashes of color that had for so long been an enigma to me.After school involved self-inflicted solitary confinement, as I shut myself in my bedroom to hone my skills. The palette’s colors bore in, the breadth of my imagination interwoven into now-brittle brushes. Much to my chagrin, my mom walked in one day, amused at my smudged lipstick, which congealed on the wispy hairs that lined my upper lip.“Halloween already?” she asked playfully.I flushed in embarrassment as she got to work, smoothing my skin with a brush and filling the gaps in my squiggly liner. Becoming a makeup aficionado was going to take some help.

我的眼睛漫不经心地扫视着面前那张杂乱无章的桌子，目光落在了一支小小的眼影粉上。我用颤抖的手把乌木粉装进我的水线里，看着那些细小的斑点进入我的眼睛，我畏缩了。不知怎么的，镜子里的女孩看起来更犀利，更成熟。当时我才12岁，对我的生日彩妆套装里的粉底和腮红还比较陌生，但我下定决心要破解那些长期以来对我来说是个谜的深色块。放学后，我把自己关在卧室里，磨练自己的技能。调色板的颜色渗透进来，我广阔的想象力交织在现在脆弱的画笔中。令我懊恼的是，有一天我妈妈走进来，她觉得我的口红弄脏了很有趣，它凝结在我上唇上的细细的头发上。“万圣节了吗?她开玩笑地问。当她开始工作时，我尴尬地脸红了，用刷子抚平我的皮肤，填补我那弯弯曲曲的眼线上的空白。成为一个化妆爱好者需要一些帮助。

“What’s this even made of?” I asked, transfixed by the bright powder she was smattering on my cheeks.“You know, I’m not sure,” she murmured. “Maybe you should find out.”I did.Hours down the internet rabbit hole, I learned that the shimmery powder was made of mica, a mineral commonly used in cosmetics. While the substance was dazzling, its production process was steeped in humanitarian violations and environmental damage. Determined to reconcile my burgeoning love for makeup with my core values, I flung the kit into the corner of my drawer, vowing to find a more sustainable alternative. Yes, I was every bit as dramatic as you imagine it.Now 17, I approach ethical makeup with assured deliberation. As I glance at my dusty kit, which still sits where I left it, I harken back on the journey it has taken me on. Without the reckoning that it spurred, makeup would still simply be a tool of physical transformation, rather than a catalyst of personal growth.Now, each swipe of eyeliner is a stroke of my pen across paper as I write a children’s book about conscious consumerism. My flitting fingers programmatically place sparkles, mattes, and tints across my face in the same way that they feverishly move across a keyboard, watching algorithms and graphs integrate into models of supply chain transparency. 

“这是什么做的?”我问，被她洒在我脸颊上的亮粉惊呆了。“你知道，我不确定。”她喃喃地说。“也许你应该去看看。”我做到了。我在网上翻了几个小时的兔子洞，才知道这种闪闪发光的粉末是由云母制成的，云母是一种常用在化妆品中的矿物质。虽然这种物质令人眼花缭乱，但它的生产过程充满了违反人道主义和破坏环境的行为。为了调和我对化妆品日益高涨的热爱和我的核心价值观，我把化妆包扔到抽屉的角落里，发誓要找到一种更可持续的替代品。是的，我和你想象的一样戏剧化。现在我17岁了，我以一种确信的审慎态度对待道德化妆。我看了看我那满是灰尘的工具箱，它还放在我离开它的地方，我回想起它带我踏上的旅程。如果没有化妆带来的影响，化妆仍将只是一种改变身体形态的工具，而不是个人成长的催化剂。现在，我在写一本关于有意识消费主义的儿童读物时，每刷一笔眼线都是我在纸上的一笔。我的手指在我的脸上程序化地抹上闪光、磨光和着色，就像它们狂热地在键盘上移动一样，看着算法和图形集成到供应链透明模型中。

Makeup has taught me to be unflinching, both in self expression and my expectations for the future. I coat my lips with a bold sheen, preparing them to form words of unequivocal urgency at global conferences and casual discussions. I see my passion take flight, emboldening others to approach their own reckonings, uncomfortable as they may be. I embark on a two-year journey of not buying new clothes in a statement against mass consumption and rally youth into a unified organization. We stand together, picking at the gritty knots of makeup, corporate accountability, and sustainability as they slowly unravel.I’m not sure why makeup transfixes me. Perhaps it’s because I enjoy seeing my reveries take shape. 

化妆教会我在自我表达和对未来的期待上都要毫不畏惧。我在嘴唇上涂了一层大胆的光泽，准备在全球会议和非正式讨论中表达出明确的紧迫性。我看到我的激情飞扬，鼓励别人去做他们自己的判断，尽管他们可能会感到不舒服。在一份反对大众消费的声明中，我开始了两年不买新衣服的旅程，并将年轻人团结起来。我们站在一起，在化妆品、企业责任和可持续发展等问题慢慢解开的过程中，解决这些棘手的问题。我不知道为什么化妆会让我着迷。也许是因为我喜欢看到自己的幻想成型。

Yukta, the wannabe Wicked Witch of the West, has lids coated with emerald luster and lips of coal. Yukta, the Indian classical dancer, wields thick eyeliner and bright crimson lipstick that allow her expressions to be amplified across a stage. Deep rooted journeys of triumph and tribulation are plastered across the surface of my skin — this paradox excites me.Perhaps I am also drawn to makeup because as I peel back the layers, I am still wholly me. I am still the young girl staring wide-eyed at her reflection, earnestly questioning in an attempt to learn more about the world. Most importantly, I still carry an unflagging vigor to coalesce creativity and activism into palpable change, one brushstroke at a time.

Yukta是一个想成为西方邪恶女巫的人，她的眼睑涂着翠绿色的光泽，嘴唇像煤一样。印度古典舞蹈演员Yukta画着粗眼线，涂着亮红色的口红，让她的表情在舞台上被放大。我的皮肤表面贴满了根深蒂固的胜利和苦难的旅程——这个悖论让我兴奋。也许我被化妆品吸引的另一个原因是，当我剥开一层层的化妆品时，我仍然是完整的我。我仍然是那个年轻的女孩，睁大眼睛，凝视着自己的倒影，真诚地询问，试图更多地了解这个世界。最重要的是，我仍然保持着永不衰竭的活力，将创造力和行动主义一笔一画地融合成明显的变化。

*图片源自网络

专家点评：

这位学生使用常见的化妆品来构建一个既普遍又独特的故事。这个对象反映了她个人和文化背景的各方面，使读者可以直接接触到学生的个性。她通过自己对周围世界的观察开始了一个成年故事。作者成功地在叙事和创造性写作元素之间取得平衡。作者通过化妆作为自我反省和发现的媒介，让我们得以一窥她多年来的个人发展。她巧妙地利用她的化妆品的颜色和元素来进行生动的描述，这种“既视感”是本文成功的重要基础。化妆品本来很容易与消费主义以及“肤浅”联系在一起，但作者很好地利用它来支持她所倡导的社会和道德准则。本文的写作风格有活力、引人入胜、有节奏感。通过这篇文章的每处描述，我们了解到作者关心的是什么：有意识的消费主义、创造力和行动主义；我们还了解她的想法：好奇、无私和带有女权主义色彩。这篇文章的开头句子采用了成功的个人陈述写作策略，丰富的形容词详细描述了一个小场景，然后扩大到对作者和她在社会中的地位作用做出更全面的阐述。

Red, orange, purple, gold...I was caught in a riot of shifting colors. I pranced up and down the hill, my palms extended to the moving collage of butterflies that surrounded me. “Would you like to learn how to catch one?” Grandfather asked, holding out a glass jar. “Yes!” I cheered, his huge calloused fingers closing my chubby five-year-old hands around it carefully.

红色、橙色、紫色、金色……我陷入了变幻莫测的色彩中。我在山上跳上跳下，我的手掌伸向围绕着我的那些移动的蝴蝶拼贴画。“你想学怎么抓一只吗?”祖父问，拿出一个玻璃罐。“是的!”我欢呼起来，他长满老茧的巨大手指小心翼翼地合上了我那只五岁大的胖乎乎的手。

Grandfather put his finger to his lips, and I obliged as I watched him deftly maneuver his net. He caught one marvelous butterfly perched on a flower, and I clutched the open jar in anticipation as he slid the butterfly inside. It quivered and fell to the bottom of the jar, and I gasped. It struggled until its wings, ablaze in a glory of orange and red, quivered to a stop. I watched, wide-eyed, as it stopped moving. “Grandpa! What’s happening?”

祖父把他的手指放在他的嘴唇上，当我看着他灵巧地使用他的网时，我感激他。他抓住了一只奇妙的蝴蝶停在一朵花上，我满怀期待地抓住了打开的罐子，他把蝴蝶塞了进去。它颤抖了一下，掉到了罐子底，我倒抽了一口冷气。它挣扎着，直到它的翅膀在橙色和红色的光辉中闪耀，颤抖着停止了。我睁大眼睛看着它停了下来。“爷爷!发生了什么?”

My grandfather had always had a collection of butterflies, but that was the first time I saw him catch one. After witnessing the first butterfly die, I begged him to keep them alive; I even secretly let some of them go. Therefore, to compromise, he began carrying a special jar for the days I accompanied him on his outings, a jar to keep the living butterflies. But the creatures we caught always weakened and died after a few days in captivity, no matter how tenderly I fed and cared for them. Grandfather took me aside and explained that the lifespan of an adult butterfly was very short. They were not meant to live forever: their purpose was to flame brilliantly and then fade away. Thus, his art serves as a memory of their beauty, an acknowledgement of nature’s ephemeral splendor.

我的祖父一直收集蝴蝶，但那是我第一次看到他抓到一只。在目睹第一只蝴蝶死去后，我请求他让它们活着;我甚至偷偷放了一些走。因此，为了妥协，他开始带着一个特殊的罐子，我陪他外出的日子里，这个罐子是用来养活蝴蝶的。但是，不管我怎样细心地喂养和照顾它们，我们捕获的动物在囚禁几天后总是变得虚弱而死亡。祖父把我拉到一边，解释说成年蝴蝶的寿命很短。它们不是要永远活下去的:它们的目的是熊熊燃烧，然后熄灭。因此，他的艺术是对这些美丽的记忆，是对大自然短暂辉煌的承认。

But nothing could stay the same. I moved to America and as the weekly excursions to the mountainside ended, so did our lessons in nature and science. Although six thousand miles away, I would never forget how my grandpa’s wrinkles creased when he smiled or how he always smelled like mountain flowers.

As I grew older and slowly understood how Grandfather lived his life, I began to follow in his footsteps. He protected nature’s beauty from decay with his art, and in the same way, I tried to protect my relationships, my artwork, and my memories. I surrounded myself with the journals we wrote together, but this time I recorded my own accomplishments, hoping to one day show him what I had done. I recorded everything, from the first time I spent a week away from home to the time I received a gold medal at the top of the podium at the California Tae Kwon Do Competition. I filled my new home in America with the photographs from my childhood and began to create art of my own. Instead of catching butterflies like my grandpa, I began experimenting with butterfly wing art as my way of preserving nature’s beauty. Soon my home in America became a replica of my home in China, filled from wall to wall with pictures and memories.

但是没有什么是一成不变的。我搬到了美国，随着每周去山腰的短途旅行结束，我们的自然和科学课程也结束了。虽然远在六千英里之外，但我永远不会忘记爷爷微笑时皱纹的样子，也永远不会忘记他身上散发着山花的味道。

随着年龄的增长，我慢慢理解了祖父的生活方式，我开始追随他的脚步。他用他的艺术保护自然之美不受破坏，同样地，我试图保护我的人际关系、我的艺术作品和我的记忆。我的周围都是我们一起写的日记，但这次我记录了我自己的成就，希望有一天能向他展示我所做的一切。我记录了一切，从我第一次离家一周到我在加州跆拳道比赛的最高领奖台上获得金牌。我在美国的新家放满了儿时的照片，开始创造自己的艺术。我不再像爷爷那样捕捉蝴蝶，而是开始尝试蝴蝶翅膀艺术，以此来保护大自然的美。很快，我在美国的家就变成了我在中国家的翻版，满墙都是照片和回忆。

Nine long years passed before I was reunited with him. The robust man who once chased me up the hillside had developed arthritis, and his thick black hair had turned white. The grandfather I saw now was not the one I knew; we had no hobby and no history in common, and he became another adult, distant and unapproachable. With this, I forgot all about the journals and photos that I had kept and wanted to share with him.

漫长的9年过去了，我才与他重逢。那个曾经追着我爬上山坡的健壮男人得了关节炎，浓密的黑发也变白了。我现在看到的祖父已经不是我认识的那个祖父了;我们没有共同的爱好，也没有共同的历史，他变成了另一个成年人，冷漠而不可接近。说到这里，我忘记了所有的日记和照片，我想和他分享.

After weeks of avoidance, I gathered my courage and sat with him once again. This time, I carried a large, leather-bound book with me. “Grandfather,” I began, and held out the first of my many journals. These were my early days in America, chronicled through pictures, art, and neatly-printed English. On the last page was a photograph of me and my grandfather, a net in his hand and a jar in mine. As I saw our faces, shining with proud smiles, I began to remember our days on the mountainside, catching butterflies and halting nature’s eventual decay.

My grandfather has weakened over the years, but he is still the wise man who raised me and taught me the value of capturing the beauty of life. Although he has grown old, I have grown up. His legs are weak, but his hands are still as gentle as ever. Therefore, this time, it will be different. This time, I will no longer recollect memories, but create new ones.

说到这里，我忘记了所有的日记和照片，我想和他分享。

在回避了几个星期之后，我鼓起勇气再次坐在他身边。这次，我随身带着一本皮面的大书。“爷爷，”我开始说，并拿出我的第一本日记。这些是我在美国的早期生活，通过图片、艺术和整齐印刷的英语记录下来。最后一页是我和祖父的照片，他手里拿着网，我手里拿着一个罐子。当我看到我们的脸上洋溢着自豪的笑容时，我开始回忆起我们在山腰上捕捉蝴蝶、阻止大自然最终衰败的日子。

这些年来，我的祖父变得越来越虚弱，但他仍然是那位养育我并教会我把握生活之美的智者。虽然他老了，我却长大了。他的腿软弱无力，但他的手仍然像以前一样温柔。因此，这一次，情况会有所不同。这一次，我不再回忆，而是创造新的回忆。

专家点评：

这篇文章对作者和她祖父的童年经历进行了诗意的回忆。它描绘了一幅美丽的画面，描绘了她从短暂的美和艺术中学到了宝贵的人生经验，同时也描绘了作者作为一个敏锐的自然和人类观察者的形象。

在写一篇关于影响你的人的文章时，一个具有挑战性的方面是要确保你在描述那个人和保持文章的重点在你和你自己的发展之间取得了正确的平衡。在这个例子中，米歇尔设法捕捉到她祖父的本质，他是一个世俗的人，理解蝴蝶的转瞬即逝，也富有同情心，理解米歇尔对蝴蝶的关心。与此同时，这篇文章的重点仍然是展示米歇尔这些年的成熟。从她的祖父那里，她继承了对自然的热爱和自我意识和自省，记录了她对生活的见解。我们也看到了她艺术的一面，正如她描述她的蝴蝶翅膀艺术是一种保护自然之美的方式。这篇文章的一个特别尖锐的部分是，当她终于在9年后见到她的祖父时，她意识到他发生了怎样的变化。这篇文章巧妙地将她祖父的衰老与他们之前学到的关于蝴蝶转瞬即逝的知识进行了对比。它提醒她生命是多么的短暂，它雄辩地建立了她的最后意识，即创造自己的新记忆，这是她的祖父试图传授给她的主要课程。总的来说，尽管这篇文章关注的是米歇尔的祖父以及他对她的影响，我们仍然了解了很多关于米歇尔的事情。我们知道她很有成就(跆拳道金牌)，有艺术天赋，有爱心。她的深思熟虑和自省的天性也在这篇文章中熠熠生辉，这无疑是吸引招生委员会的品质。

*图片源自网络

My Ye-Ye always wears a red baseball cap. I think he likes the vivid color—bright and sanguine, like himself. When Ye-Ye came from China to visit us seven years ago, he brought his red cap with him and every night for six months, it sat on the stairway railing post of my house, waiting to be loyally placed back on Ye-Ye’s head the next morning. He wore the cap everywhere: around the house, where he performed magic tricks with it to make my little brother laugh; to the corner store, where he bought me popsicles before using his hat to wipe the beads of summer sweat off my neck. Today whenever I see a red hat, I think of my Ye-Ye and his baseball cap, and I smile.

我的爷爷总是戴着一顶红色的棒球帽。我想他喜欢鲜艳的颜色——明亮、乐观，就像他自己一样。七年前爷爷从中国来拜访我们的时候，他带着他的红帽子，六个月来每天晚上，它都放在我家的楼梯栏杆上，等着第二天早上被忠诚地放回叶叶的头上。他到处都戴着这顶帽子:在房子周围，他用它表演魔术，逗我的小弟弟笑;去街角的商店，他给我买了冰棍，然后用他的帽子帮我擦去脖子上的汗珠。今天，每当我看到一顶红帽子，我就会想起我的爷爷和他的棒球帽，我就会微笑。

Ye-Ye is the Mandarin word for “grandfather.” My Ye-Ye is a simple, ordinary person—not rich, not “successful”—but he is my greatest source of inspiration and I idolize him. Of all the people I know, Ye-Ye has encountered the most hardship and of all the people I know, Ye-Ye is the most joyful. That these two aspects can coexist in one individual is, in my mind, truly remarkable.

Ye-Ye是“爷爷”的普通话。我的爷爷是一个简单，普通的人，不富有，不“成功”，但他是我最大的灵感来源，我崇拜他。在我认识的所有人中，爷爷遇到的困难最多，而在我认识的所有人中，爷爷是最快乐的。在我看来，这两个方面可以在一个人身上共存是非常了不起的。

Ye-Ye was an orphan. Both his parents died before he was six years old, leaving him and his older brother with no home and no family. When other children gathered to read around stoves at school, Ye-Ye and his brother walked in the bitter cold along railroad tracks, looking for used coal to sell. When other children ran home to loving parents, Ye-Ye and his brother walked along the streets looking for somewhere to sleep. Eight years later, Ye-Ye walked alone—his brother was dead.

爷爷是个孤儿。他的父母在他六岁之前就去世了，留下他和他的哥哥无家可归。当其他孩子聚集在学校的火炉旁读书时，爷爷和他的兄弟在严寒中沿着铁轨行走，寻找二手煤来出售。当其他孩子跑回家找爱他们的父母时，爷爷和他的哥哥走在街上，想找个地方睡觉。八年后，爷爷只能一个人走了——他的哥哥死了。

Ye-Ye managed to survive, and in the meanwhile taught himself to read, write, and do arithmetic. Life was a blessing, he told those around him with a smile.

Years later, Ye-Ye’s job sent him to the Gobi Desert, where he and his fellow workers labored for twelve hours a day. The desert wind was merciless; it would snatch their tent in the middle of the night and leave them without supply the next morning. Every year, harsh weather took the lives of some fellow workers.

After eight years, Ye-Ye was transferred back to the city where his wife lay sick in bed. At the end of a twelve-hour workday, Ye-Ye took care of his sick wife and three young children. He sat with the children and told them about the wide, starry desert sky and mysterious desert lives. Life was a blessing, he told them with a smile.

爷爷设法活了下来，同时自学了读、写和算术。他微笑着对周围的人说，生命是一种祝福。

多年以后，爷爷的工作把他送到了戈壁沙漠，在那里他和他的同事们每天工作12个小时。沙漠的风是无情的;它会在半夜夺走他们的帐篷，让他们在第二天早上没有补给。每年，恶劣的天气都夺走一些同事的生命。

八年后，爷爷被调回了他的妻子卧病在床的城市。在一天工作12个小时之后，爷爷要照顾生病的妻子和三个年幼的孩子。他和孩子们坐在一起，告诉他们广阔的布满星星的沙漠天空和神秘的沙漠生活。生活是一种祝福，他微笑着告诉他们。

But life was not easy; there was barely enough money to keep the family from starving. Yet, my dad and his sisters loved going with Ye-Ye to the market. He would buy them little luxuries that their mother would never indulge them in: a small bag of sunflower seeds for two cents, a candy each for three cents. Luxuries as they were, Ye-Ye bought them without hesitation. Anything that could put a smile on the children’s faces and a skip in their steps was priceless.

Ye-Ye still goes to the market today. At the age of seventy-eight, he bikes several kilometers each week to buy bags of fresh fruits and vegetables, and then bikes home to share them with his neighbors. He keeps a small patch of strawberries and an apricot tree. When the fruit is ripe, he opens his gate and invites all the children in to pick and eat. He is Ye-Ye to every child in the neighborhood.

但是生活并不容易;几乎没有足够的钱使一家人免于挨饿。然而，我爸爸和他的姐妹们喜欢和爷爷一起去市场。他会给他们买一些母亲永远不会让他们享受的小奢侈品:两分钱的一小袋葵花籽，三分钱的一颗糖果。虽然是奢侈品，但爷爷毫不犹豫地买下了它们。任何能让孩子们脸上露出笑容、步履轻快的东西都是无价的。

爷爷今天还去市场。在他78岁的时候，他每周骑几公里的自行车去买几袋新鲜的水果和蔬菜，然后骑车回家和邻居们分享。他种了一小块草莓和一棵杏树。当水果成熟时，他打开大门，邀请所有的孩子们进来采摘和吃。他对附近的每个孩子都很友好。

I had always thought that I was sensible and self-aware. But nothing has made me stare as hard in the mirror as I did after learning about the cruel past that Ye-Ye had suffered and the cheerful attitude he had kept throughout those years. I thought back to all the times when I had gotten upset. My mom forgot to pick me up from the bus station. My computer crashed the day before an assignment was due. They seemed so trivial and childish, and I felt deeply ashamed of myself.

我一直以为自己很懂事，很有自知之明。但是，当我了解到爷爷所遭受的残酷的过去，以及这些年他一直保持的乐观态度后，没有什么比我更努力地盯着镜子看了。我回想起所有我生气的时候。我妈妈忘记去汽车站接我了。我的电脑在作业要交的前一天死机了。它们看起来是那么琐碎和幼稚，我为自己深感羞愧。

Now, whenever I encounter an obstacle that seems overwhelming, I think of Ye-Ye; I see him in his red baseball cap, smiling at me. Like a splash of cool water, his smile rouses me from grief, and reminds me how trivial my worries are and how generous life has been. Today I keep a red baseball cap at the railing post at home where Ye-Ye used to put his every night. Whenever I see the cap, I think of my Ye-Ye, smiling in his red baseball cap, and I smile. Yes, Ye-Ye. Life is a blessing.

现在，每当我遇到一个似乎难以克服的障碍时，我就会想起爷爷;我看见他戴着红色棒球帽，对我微笑。他的微笑像一股凉水，把我从悲伤中唤醒，提醒我，我的烦恼是多么微不足道，生活是多么慷慨。今天，我把一顶红色的棒球帽放在家里的栏杆上，也就是爷爷每天晚上放棒球帽的地方。每当我看到这顶帽子，我就会想起我的爷爷，他戴着红色的棒球帽微笑，我就笑了。是的,爷爷。生命是一种祝福。

专家点评：

Yueming的申请文书是一个完美的例子，它完全做到了它应该做的事情:它填补了Yueming的形象，并让招生委员会了解到他的其他申请中没有包含的东西。Yueming用他的爷爷棒球帽的故事向读者展示了什么对他来说是重要的，并展示了他将为校园生活做出贡献的关键人格特征。

尽管文章的大部分内容都是爷爷的传记，但这篇文章并不仅仅是关于他。爷爷的整个故事是最后几段的序曲，这些段落揭示了Yueming性格中最重要的方面。就像在生活中，我们祖先的过去是未来一代历史的前奏，未来一代的历史仍在不断涌现。这种微妙的平行，乍一看并不明显，让读者了解到Yueming性格的深刻发展和他洞察事物本质的天赋。

Yueming展示了他学习他人经验的能力，他也强调了自己的韧性和从叶叶身上获得的积极心态。这些品质无疑是必不可少的哈佛学生和未来展示他的能力体现校园“生命是一种祝福”。