演講標題： How do you define yourself
講者：Lizzie Velasquez
I'm really, really, really excited to be here. I kind of want to tell you。a little bit more of the - I don't want to say basics -because we really don't know anything about my syndrome.
今天能夠站在這裡，讓我感到非常的雀躍。我想告訴你們關於我的病--我不想說一些基本的--因為所有人對這個綜合症一無所知。
I was born with this very rare syndrome, that only two other people in the world including myself, that we know of, have.
我天生就患有一種很稀有的綜合症，這世界上，只有另外兩位，包括我在內，知道我們罹患這樣的綜合症。
Basically what this syndrome causes, is that I cannot gain weight. Yes, it does sound as good as it is. I could eat absolutely whatever I want, whenever I want and I won't really gain any weight.
基本上，這個綜合症使我無法增重。是的，它聽起來的確很好。我可以在任何時候，任何地方，大吃大喝，並且不會長胖。
I'm going to be 25 in March, and I've never weighed over about 64 pounds in my entire life. When I was in college, I hid -well, I didn't 'hide' it, everyone knew it was there -
今年三月，我將會成為25歲，而我的整個人生裡，從未有體重超過64磅的時刻。我在上大學的時候，我試圖掩藏——好吧，我沒有掩藏，所有人都知道它的存在——
but it was a giant tub of Twinkies, donuts, chips, Skittles, and my roommate would say, "I could hear you at 12:30 am, reaching under your bed to get food." But I'm like, "You know what? It's alright, I can do these things!"
我所說的它是一大包的奶油夾心餅，甜甜圈，薯片以及彩虹糖。而我的室友會說： “凌晨12點半的時候，我能夠聽見你——伸手到床底下拿食物吃。”但是我說：“你知道嗎？那有什麼？我完全可以這樣做！”
Because there are benefits to this syndrome. There are benefits to not being able to gain weight. There are benefits to being visually impaired. There are benefits to being kind of really small.
因為這是這個綜合症的好處之一。無法增重有它的好處。視力有缺陷有它的好處。身材嬌小也有它的好處。
A lot of people think, Lizzie, how in the world are you saying there are benefits when you can only see out of one eye? Well, let me tell you what the benefits are ，because they are great.
很多人認為，麗茲，你怎麼會說，只能用一隻眼睛也有它的好處？好，讓我告訴你那些好處是什麼。因為它們真的很不錯。
I wear contacts--conTACT. Half-off conTACTS. When I wear my reading glasses: half-off prescription. If somebody is annoying me, being rude: Stand on my right side. It's like you're not even there.
我能夠佩戴隱形眼鏡。 一個隱形眼鏡。我佩戴眼鏡時，也只需要一隻眼睛的度數。當有人因不禮貌而惹怒我時，請站在我的右邊。那就像你根本不存在一樣。
I don't even know you're standing there. Right now, if I stand like this, I have no clue that there's this whole side of the room. Also, being small, I am very willing to volunteer myself to go to Weight Watchers or to some gym,
我不會知道你站在那裡。現在，如果我這樣站著，我不會知道，這個場地裡還有這個角落。還有，因為身材嬌小，我可以——到健身房
and say, Hi, I'm Lizzie. I will be your poster child. Put my face on whatever you need, and I will say, 'Hi! I used this program. Look how well it worked.'
說：“嗨，我是麗茲，我會當你廣告的代言人。把我的臉放上去，而我會說，嗨，我使用了這個課程，看看它的效果多麼驚人。
Even though there are amazing things that have come from this syndrome, there are also things that have been very, very difficult, as you can imagine. Growing up, I was raised 150% normally. I was my parents' first child.
雖然這個綜合症能夠帶來很多很棒的事情，但是，其中也有非常困難的事情，正如你能想象的。在成長的過程中，我的父母一直將我像正常的小孩一樣養育長大。我是家裡的第一個孩子。
And when I was born, the doctors told my mom, Your daughter has no amniotic fluid around her. At all. So when I was born, it was a miracle that I came out screaming.
我出生時，醫生告訴我母親，“你的女兒沒有羊水的保護。”完全沒有。所以我能夠嚎啕大哭地來到這個世界，本身就是一種奇蹟。
The doctors told my parents, We just want to warn you: Expect your daughter to never be able to talk, walk, crawl, think, or do anything by herself.
醫生告訴我父母，“我們想讓你們做好心理準備， 你們的女兒可能永遠無法自己走路，說話，爬行或者是做任何事情。
Now, as first-time parents, you would think that my parents would say, Oh no. Why? Why are we getting our first child with all these unknown problems? But that's not what they did.
初為人父人母，你會認為我的父母會說：“為什麼？為什麼隨著我們第一個孩子的到來的，是這些如此棘手的問題？”但是他們並沒有這麼說。
The first thing they told the doctor was, We want to see her, and we are going to take her home and love her, and raise her to the best of our abilities. And that's what they did. I credit pretty much everything that I've done in my life to my parents.
他們告訴醫生的第一件事，就是"我們想見她。我們會把她帶回家。好好愛她，並盡所能撫養她長大。”他們真的這樣對待我。我將我這一生的成就都歸功於我的父母。
My dad is here with me today, and my mom is at home watching. Hi mom! She's recovering from surgery.
我的父親今天就在現場，而我的母親在家裡看著。嗨，媽媽！她正從手術中恢復。
She has been the glue that's held our family together, and she's given me the strength to see that she's going through so much, but she has this fighting spirit that she's instilled in me,
我母親一直是維繫家庭的粘合劑。看見她經歷這麼多事情，給了我很多的力量,因為我繼承了她那勇於奮鬥的精神，
so that I have proudly been able to stand in front of people and say, You know what? I've had a really difficult life. But that's okay. That's okay. Things have been scary, things have been tough.
所以今天我才能自豪地站在眾人的面前，說：“你知道嗎？我的日子過得很艱難。但是沒關係。沒關係。事情是很可怕，很煎熬。”
One of the biggest things that I had to deal with growing up was something I'm pretty sure every single one of us in this room has dealt with before. Can you guess what that is?
其中一樣事情在我的成長過程中，我必須面對——我確定——在這個房間裡的每一個人都曾經經歷過的——你們能猜出來那是什麼嗎？它是以'B'字母開頭的。
It starts with a 'B'. Can you guys guess it? Audience: Boys! Lizzie: Boys? Bullying! I know what you all are thinking. Why can't I sit here with them?
觀眾：“Boys(男孩）!” 麗茲：“Boys(男孩）?”欺凌！我知道你們在想什麼。為什麼我不能和他們坐在一起？
I had to deal with bullying a lot, but as I said, I was raised very normally, so when I started kindergarten, I had absolutely no idea that I looked different. No clue. I couldn't see that I looked different from other kids.
我常常會面對欺凌事件，但正如我所說的，我像正常人一樣被撫養長大，所以當我開始上幼兒園時，我完全沒有意識到，我長得和別人不一樣。完全沒有。我看不見，我和其他小孩有什麼不同之處。
I think of it as a big slap of reality for a five year-old, because I went in to school the first day, decked-out in Pocahontas gear. I was ready!
對於一位五歲的小孩，我覺得那是來自現實的一巴掌。因為在入學的第一天，我穿著寶嘉康蒂風的服裝。我已經準備好一切！
I went in with my backpack that looked like a turtle shell because it was bigger than me, and I walked up to a little girl and smiled at her, and she looked up at me like I was a monster, like I was the scariest thing she had ever seen in her life.
我帶著我的揹包，因為它的體積比我還大，所以看起來像烏龜殼——我走到一個小女孩的面前，向她微笑，她抬頭看了看我，彷彿看見了魔鬼——好像我是她在生命裡看過最可怕的東西一樣。
My first reaction was, She is really rude. I am a fun kid, and she's the one missing out. So I'll just go over here and play with blocks. Or boys. I thought the day would get better, and unfortunately, it didn't.
當下，我的反應是——她真沒禮貌。我是一個非常有趣的小孩， 沒能和我成為朋友，是她的損失。所以，我乾脆到另一邊玩積木，或者和男生一起玩。我以為，日子會變得更好，但是不幸地，並沒有。
The day got worse and worse. A lot of people just wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with me, and I couldn't understand why. Why? What did I do? I didn't do anything to them! In my mind I was still a really cool kid.
日子越來越難過。 很多人只想和我沒有任何關係， 而我無法理解當中的原因。為什麼？我做了什麼？ 我什麼也沒對他們做過！在我心裡，我依舊是一個很酷的小孩。
I had to go home and ask my parents, What’s wrong with me? What did I do? Why don't they like me? They sat me down and said, Izzie, the only thing different about you is that you're smaller than the other kids.
我只好回家問我的父母，“我身上有什麼不對勁的嗎？”“我做了什麼？為什麼他們都不喜歡我？”他們讓我坐下，然後說：“麗茲，你和他們唯一不同的地方，只是你比其他的小孩嬌小。
You have this syndrome, but it's not going to define who you are. They said, Go to school, pick your head up, smile, continue to be yourself, and people will see that you're just like them. And so that's what I did.
你的確罹患了一種綜合症，但它無法定義你是誰。他們說：“到學校去，抬起頭，微笑。繼續當一個真正的自己，人們就會看見你和他們其實是一樣的。”所以，我真的這麼做。
I want you to think, and ask yourself this in your head, right now: What defines you? Who are you? Is it where you come from? Is it your background? Is it your friends? What is it? What defines who you are as a person?
我想在座的各位想想，然後自己問自己：“什麼能夠定義你自己？”你是誰？是你出生的地方嗎？是你的背景嗎？是你的朋友嗎？到底是什麼？作為一個獨立的人，是什麼能夠定義你自己？
It's taken me a very long time to figure out what defines me. For so long I thought what defined me was my outer appearance. I thought that my little tiny legs, and my little arms, and my little face were ugly. I thought I was disgusting.
我花了很長的時間，才找到我的定義。有很長一段時間，我一直認為，能夠定義我的是我的外表，我以為是我那弱小的雙腳，弱小的胳膊，和我醜陋的面孔。
I hated when I'd wake up in the morning when I was going to middle school, and would be looking in the mirror getting ready, and thinking, Can I just scrub this syndrome off? It would make my life so much easier if I could just scrub it off.
我覺得自己令人厭惡。每天醒來，我非常討厭準備上學的時刻。我會看著鏡子，想著：“我可以將這個綜合症除掉嗎？如果能夠將它除掉，我的生活會輕鬆很多。
I could look like other kids; I wouldn't have to buy clothes that had Dora the Explorer on them. I wouldn't have to buy stuff that was 'Bedazzled', when I was trying to be like the cool kids.
我可以長得像其他小孩一樣。我不需要購買印著‘征服者朵拉’的衣服，我不需要為了成為很酷的小孩而買一些能取悅別人的物品。
I would wish, and pray, and hope, and do whatever I could so I would wake up in the morning and be different, and I wouldn't have to deal with these struggles. It’s what I wanted every single day, and every single day I was disappointed.
我會祈禱，希望有一天，當我早上醒來的時候，我會變得有所不同，那我就不必為這些困難所煩惱。每一天，我都如此祈求。而每一天，我所擁有的，只有失望。
I have an amazing support system around me, who never pity me, who are there to pick me up if I'm sad, who are there to laugh with me during the good times, and they taught me that, even though I have this syndrome, even though things are hard, I can't let that define me.
我的身邊，有著很強大的，支持我的力量他們從來不會同情我，但是當我難過時，他們會在我身邊。會和我一同歡笑，他們教會我，即使患有這個綜合症，即使日子很難過，我也不能讓這些事物定義我。
My life was put into my hands, just like your lives are put into yours. You are the person in the front seat of your car. You are the one who decides whether your car goes down a bad path, or a good path. You are the one who decides what defines you.
如何生活下去是由我掌控的， 就像你們才是掌控自己如何生活的人。坐在前座駕駛汽車的是你，只有你自己才能決定車子到底往對或是錯的方向行走。只有你，才能決定是什麼能夠定義你自己。
Now let me tell you: it could be really hard to figure out what defines you, because there were times when I'd get so annoyed and frustrated, and say：I don't care what defines me!
要找到什麼能夠定義你自己，真的很難.因為，有時候當我真的很憤怒時，我會說：我不在乎到底什麼能夠定義我自己!
When I was in high school I found a video, unfortunately, that somebody posted of me, labeling me the world's ugliest woman. There were over four million views to this video; eight seconds long, no sound, thousands of comments; people saying, Lizzie, please - please -
高中的時候，我發現了一個視頻，很不幸的，那是關於我的視頻，視頻上對我的定義是‘世界上最醜的女人’。這個8分鐘的無聲視頻有超過4萬的點擊量，上千的留言，其中有的網民說：麗茲，請你，請求你，
just do the world a favor, put a gun to your head, and kill yourself. Think about that, if people told you that, if strangers told you this. I cried my eyes out of course, and I was ready to fight back and something kind of clicked in my head,
為這個世界做一件好事，請你把槍放在你的太陽穴，然後一槍崩了自己。”你們想想，如果有人告訴你們這一番話，是陌生人告訴你們的一番話。當然，我哭紅了雙眼，我也準備好如何反擊，忽然，我的腦海裡閃過一個念頭，
and I thought, I’m just going to leave it alone. I started realizing that my life is in my hands. I could either choose to make this really good, or I could choose to make this really bad.
我想：“我不會執著在這件事上。”我開始發現，我的生命掌控在我自己的手裡。我可以選擇，讓我的生活變得很好，或是讓它變得很糟糕。
I could be grateful, and open my eyes and realize the things that I do have, and make those the things that define me. I can't see out of one eye, but I can see out of the other. I might get sick a lot, but I have really nice hair.
我可以心懷感恩的張開眼睛，珍惜我所擁有的，然後讓那些我擁有的定義我自己。或許我的一隻眼睛無法看見這世界。 那又怎樣？ 我還有另一隻。我或許常常生病， 但是我擁有很健康的頭髮。
You do, you do! Thanks. You guys are like the best little section right here. You made me lose my train of thought! Okay... where was I?
觀眾：你的確有！麗茲：謝謝！你們是這個房間裡最好，最貼心的一群。你們甚至讓我忘了下一句要說什麼！好的。。。我剛剛說到哪了？
Audience: Your hair! Hair! Hair. Ok, ok, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So I could either choose to be happy or I could choose to be upset with what I have and still kind of complain about it,
觀眾：你的頭髮!頭髮！對，對，對，謝謝。所以，我可以自己選擇要很快樂，還是為我所擁有的感到難過，並且抱怨。
but then I started realizing: Am I going to let the people who called me a monster define me? Am I going to let the people who said, “Kill it with fire!” define me? No; I'm going to let my goals, and my success,
但是，我想：“我要讓那些喊我是魔鬼的人定義我嗎？我要讓那些喊著“用火把她燒掉”的人定義我嗎？不，我會讓我的目標，我的成就，
and my accomplishments be the things that define me - Not my outer appearance, not the fact that I'm visually impaired, not the fact that I have this syndrome that nobody knows what it is.
成為定義我的事物——不是外形，不是我的視力問題，不是這個根本沒人知道的綜合症。
So I told myself I'm going to work my butt off and do whatever I could to make myself better, because in my mind, the best way that I could get back at all those people who made fun of me, who teased me, who called me ugly,
所以我告訴自己，我會拼了命的努力，做任何我能夠做的，讓自己變得更好，因為對我而言，能夠報復那些取笑我的，嘲諷我的，說我長得很醜的，
who called me a monster was to make myself better, and to show them: You know what? Tell me those negative things, I'm going to turn them around, and I'm going to use them as a ladder to climb up to my goals. That's what I did.
說我是魔鬼的人的最佳方法，就是讓我自己變得更好，從而證明給他們看，你知道嗎？你們對我的那些負面想法，我會反過來利用他們，把它們當階梯一樣使用，好讓我能夠更接近我的目標。我是這麼做的。
I told myself that I wanted to be a motivational speaker, I wanted to write a book, graduate college, have my own family, and have my own career. Eight years later, I’m standing in front of you, still doing motivational speaking.
我告訴自己，我想成為一個激勵別人的講師，我想寫一本書，我想從學院畢業，擁有自己的家庭，擁有自己的事業。八年後，我站在你們的面前，依然到處舉辦講座。
First thing, I accomplished it. I wanted to write a book; in a couple of weeks I will be submitting the manuscript for my third book. I wanted to graduate college, and I just finished college.
第一件事，我做到了。我想寫一本書的目標，幾個星期後，我將會交上我的第三本書的手稿。我說過我想從學院畢業。 不久前，我畢業了。
I'm getting a degree in Communication Studies from Texas State University in San Marcos, and I have a minor in English.
我將從聖馬科斯的德克薩斯州立大學獲得傳播學的學士學位，我將從聖馬科斯的德克薩斯州立大學獲得傳播學的學士學位，而我副修的專業是英文。
I really, really tried to use real-life experience while I was getting my degree, and my professors were not having it.I wanted to have, lastly, my own family and my own career.
我嘗試用我真實生活的經歷，來拿到學位，但是我的教授沒有因此而讓我輕鬆過關。最後，我想擁有自己的家庭和事業，
The family part is kind of down the line, and my career part, I feel like I'm really doing well with it, considering the fact that when I decided I wanted to be a motivational speaker, I went home,
家庭是我的計劃中的最後一部分，但是關於我的事業，我認為我做得還不錯，因為當我決定我想當一位講師後，我回到家，
I sat in front of my laptop, went to Google, and typed in: How to be a motivational speaker. I'm not even joking. I worked my butt off. I used the people who were telling me that I couldn't do this to motivate me.
坐在電腦面前，在谷歌的網頁搜尋了：“如何成為一個勵志講師。”我不是在說笑。我非常的努力往我的目標前進。 我將別人對我的否定，轉換成激勵我的動力。
I used their negativity to light my fire to keep going. Use that. Use that. Use that negativity that you have in your life to make yourself better, because I guarantee you -guarantee you -You will win.
我利用他們對我的負面評語來鞭策自己繼續前進。利用它！利用那些在你生命中的負面能量，來讓你自己過得更好，因為我向你保證，我保證，你一定會戰勝他們。
Now I want to end, with asking you again. I want you to leave here, and ask yourself what defines you. But remember: Brave starts here. Thank you.
今天結束以前， 我想讓你們做一件事，我要你們在離開時，問問自己，到底什麼能夠定義你自己。但是切記：勇氣從這裡開始。謝謝。
