My mom is a strong black woman who raised her kids to have the same sense of strength and pride. This spirit was epitomized by a single wall in our small, two-bedroom apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Two pictures hung proudly: one larger-than-life photo of my siblings and I and the other a picture of my mom at 12 years old staring into the eyes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
我母亲是一位坚强的黑人女性, 她培养孩子时, 也教导我们要拥有 同样的坚强意志和自豪感。 这种精神就体现在一堵墙上, 就在我们芝加哥南部的双床公寓中, 两张相片被自豪地挂在墙上: 一张是我们兄弟姐妹的放大照, 另一张是我妈妈 12 岁时的照片, 她凝望着马丁 · 路德 · 金博士的眼睛。
When I was younger, I used to stand on my tippy-toes, stare at that picture, close my eyes tightly, and just pretend that it was me gazing up at the man who revolutionized the Civil Rights Movement, who marched on Washington and who transformed a generation by his words, "I have a dream."
我小时候经常会踮起脚尖, 盯着看那张照片, 紧闭双眼,想象那是我自己, 直视那个改变民权运动的人, 他在华盛顿举行游行, 并用那句“我有一个梦想“ 改变了一个时代。
But I did get to meet him. Now, obviously, I didn't meet Dr. King, but I met a man named Dr. Vincent Harding. He worked with Dr. King from day one and even wrote some of his most iconic speeches. You see, this was a really important moment for me as a kid, because it was the first time that I realized that it wasn't just Dr. King who led this revolution, but he was surrounded by a movement made up of anonymous extraordinaries.
我真的见到了他。 很显然,我并非真见过金博士, 但我见过了文森特·哈丁 (Vincent Harding)博士。 他一开始就跟金博士一起工作, 甚至还为他写了一些最具影响力的演讲。 对儿时的我而言, 这真是非常重要的时刻, 因为这是我第一次意识到, 并不仅仅是金博士领导了这场革命, 还有一群非凡的无名英雄 聚集在他身旁。
Anonymous extraordinaries are people who work selflessly and vigorously for what they believe in, people who are motivated by conviction and not recognition. It took me a long time to realize the significance of this moment, until I was much older.
无名英雄是那些为他们的信仰 无私奉献、勇往直前的人, 而促使着他们的是信念,而非赞誉。 我花了很长时间,直到长大后 才领悟到这一刻的重要性。
And like I said, I grew up in Chicago. I grew up in a rough, poor neighborhood, but it didn't really matter to me as kid because I literally have the most incredible family in the world. Two things that I did struggle with a lot growing up was one -- that my dad has been sick my whole life. He suffers from Parkinson's and pancreatitis, and as a kid, it was so hard for me to watch my hero in so much pain. And my other issue was with me. I guess you could say I had an identity crisis. I had to move four times during high school, and my freshman year I went to an extremely racist high school. Kids were so cruel. They gave us hate letters, wrote terrible things on our lockers and because I'm biracial, they would tell me, "You can't be both. You have to choose, black or white." And in the end I just resented being either. And then all of a sudden, my senior year rolls around, 2008, and being mixed, being racially ambiguous is this new cool fad, like, "Natalie, now it's OK for you to like you. You're pretty now." I was over it. I was tired of caring about what other people thought and I just wanted to hurry up, go through my classes, whatever school I was going to be at next, and graduate.
如刚才所说,我在芝加哥长大。 成长在一个贫穷、艰难的社区, 但对于小孩的我而言, 这并不是什么大问题, 因为我拥有世界上最无与伦比的家庭。 我成长中深受困扰的两件事 其中之一是—— 我父亲常年患病, 他患有帕金森氏症和胰腺炎, 作为孩子,看着我的英雄 要忍受如此痛苦, 非常残酷。 另一件事情是关于我自己。 你可以说我有身份认同危机。 高中时,我换了四次学校, 高一时,我进了 一所极端种族主义的学校。 孩子们非常无情, 他们给我们写满含仇恨的信件, 写可怕的内容放进我们的柜子里, 因为我是混血儿,他们告诉我, “你不能两种都是, 你需要做出选择,黑人或者白人。” 最终,我是两边都不受待见。 然后转眼间, 2008 年,我升到了高年级, 混血,种族融合成为一种新的酷时尚, 比如人们说:“娜塔莉,你现在 可以做自己了,你现在很漂亮。” 我受够了这些, 我厌倦了在乎别人的想法。 我只想加快速度, 不管接下来上什么学校, 早早完成学业, 尽早毕业。
It wasn't until I was 17 and I saw a film called "Invisible Children" that something happened. Child soldiers, children as young as my nephews being abducted, given AK-47s and forced to kill, not just anyone, but oftentimes forced to kill their own parents, their own siblings -- a rebel army committing mass murder for no political or religious reason, just because. 25 years. 25 years this conflict has been going on. I'm 20 years old, so that makes this conflict five years older than me. One man, one man with one charismatic voice, started this whole thing. His name is Joseph Kony.
直至到 17 岁那年, 我看了电影《被遗忘的孩子》后 发生了一些事。 童子军, 那些跟我侄子年龄一样小的孩子, 遭到绑架,拿着 AK47 步枪, 被强迫去杀人, 不仅去杀害他人,甚至有时 被迫去杀害他们的亲身父母, 他们自己的兄弟姐妹—— 一支叛军部队,没有任何 政治或宗教原因实施大屠杀。 毫无理由。 25 年, 这场冲突已经持续了 25 年。 我现在 20 岁, 所以这场冲突比我大 5 岁。 一个人, 一个有磁性声音的人, 发动了整起事件。 这个人名字叫 约瑟夫·科尼(Joseph Kony)。
When I saw this film, something happened. Something started kind of stirring inside of me, and I couldn't identify what it was. I didn't know if it was rage, if it was pity, if I felt guilty because this was the first time I'd heard about a 25-year-long war. I couldn't even give it a name. All I knew is that it kicked me off my ass and I started asking questions. What do I do? What can one 17-year-old do? You've got to give me something.
当我看这部电影时,发生了一件事。 某种东西开始在内心涌流, 我分不清它是什么。 我不知道是愤怒,还是同情, 或者是愧疚,因为这是我第一次 听说一场持续 25 年的战争。 我甚至都不能给它起个名字。 我只知道这件事踹了我一脚, 于是我开始不断追问。 我能做什么? 一个 17 岁的孩子能做什么? 你得告诉我点什么。
And they gave me something. The founders and filmmakers at Invisible Children told me that there was this bill, that if we could just get this bill passed, it would do two things: one, it would apprehend Joseph Kony and the top commanders in his rebel army, and two, it would provide funding for the recovery of these regions that had been devastated by 25 years of war. And I was like, done. Let me at it. I swear I will do whatever I can to make this happen.
他们给了我一些信息。 ”被遗忘的孩子“ 的创始人和制片告诉我 有一个法案, 如果我们能够让这个法案通过, 可能会发生两件事情: 第一,将会逮捕约瑟夫·科尼 以及叛军部队中的其他高级指挥官。 第二,它可以为这些 已经被战火摧毁 25 年之久的 地区提供重建资金。 我当时是说,好的,让我搞定它。 我发誓我会尽一切可能让它实现。
So myself and 99 other idealistic 18- to 20-year-olds hopped on a plane to intern in San Diego with Invisible Children. I was postponing college. We weren't getting paid for this and you could call it irresponsible or crazy -- my parents did. But for us, it would have been insane not to go. We all felt this urgency, and we would do whatever it took to pass this bill.
所以我和其他 99 名 18 到 20 岁的理想主义者 跟 “被遗忘的孩子” 团队 一起乘飞机去圣地亚哥实习。 我推迟了上大学时间, 而且并没有获得任何酬劳, 你们可以称它为不负责任或疯狂—— 我父母就是这样说我的。 但对我们而言,不去才是疯狂。 我们都清楚行动的紧迫性, 我们会做任何可以推动 法案通过的事情。
So we were given our first task. We were going to plan an event called the Rescue of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers where participants would come in a hundred cities worldwide and rally in their city center until a celebrity or a political figure came and used their voice on behalf of these child soldiers, and at that point each city was "rescued." But the catch was, we weren't leaving the cities until we were rescued. I was given Chicago and nine other cities and I told my bosses, I was like, "If we're going for big-name people, why not go for the queen bee? Right? Why not go for Oprah Winfrey?" They thought I was a little idealistic, but I mean, we were trying to think big. We were doing an impossible thing, so why not try to reach more impossible things? And so we had from January to April to get this done.
于是我们领到了第一个任务。 我们要策划一个活动, “拯救约瑟夫·科尼童子军”, 旨在让全球一百个城市的参与者 聚集在各自所在城市的中心, 直到有名人或有政治影响力的人物 站出来发声捍卫这些儿童兵的利益。 这样,每座城市才能被"拯救”。 但关键点是在获得声援之前, 我们不会离开城市。 我分配到了芝加哥和其它九个城市, 我告诉活动负责人们,这样讲, "如果要获取名人支持, 为什么不直接找名人本人,对吗? 为什么不去找奥普拉·温弗瑞 (Oprah Winfrey)?” 他们都觉得我有点理想化了, 但我的想法是我们要心怀梦想。 我们在完成一件艰巨的任务, 为什么不去尝试达成 更多 “看似不可能” 呢? 我们有一月到四月的时长 去完成这件事情。
This is the number of hours that I spent on logistics, from getting permits to rallying participants and finding venues. This is the number of times that I was rejected by celebrities' agents or politicians' secretaries. That is amount of money that I spent personally on Red Bull and Diet Coke to stay awake during this movement.
这是我花在物流上的小时数, 从获得许可到召集参与者 到找到场馆。 这是我被名人的经纪人 或政客的秘书们 拒绝的次数。 这是我个人花在 活动中为了保持清醒购买的 红牛和健怡可乐花费的费用。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
You can judge me if you want to. That is my hospital bill from the kidney infection I got from an overconsumption of caffeine due to this event.
随便你怎么看待我。 这是我由于这次活动 摄入过多的咖啡因 导致肾脏感染的住院费,
(Laughter)
(笑声)
These were just some of the ridiculous things that we did to try and pull this event off.
这些只是我们在推动 这个活动进展的过程中 出现的一些荒谬事。
And so April 21 rolls around and the event begins. A hundred cities around the world. They were beautiful. Six days later, all the cities were rescued but one: Chicago.
当 4 月 21 号临近活动开始了。 全球 100 多个城市,它们都非常漂亮。 六天后,所有的城市都 获得了 “拯救”,只剩下一个: 芝加哥。
So we were waiting in the city. People started coming from all over the world, all over the country to be reinforcements and join their voice with ours. And finally, on May 1, we wrapped ourselves around Oprah's studio and we got her attention.
因此,我们在城市里等待着。 全球各地的人们开始涌向这里, 全国人们都来助力, 并加入与我们声援的队伍。 最终,在 5 月 1 号, 我们聚集在奥普拉的演播室四周, 而我们引起了她的注意。
This is a clip from a film called "Together We Are Free" documenting the rescue event and my attempt to get Oprah.
这是《在一起我们就能自由》的 电影视频片段, 记录了那次声援活动以及 为获得奥普拉的关注所做的努力。
(Video) Oprah Winfrey: When I drove into the office, there was a giant -- when you came in, was there a group outside?
(视频)奥普拉·温弗利: 当我驾车来到办公室时, 有一大群人…... 你进来时有没有发现一大群人?
Crowd: Yes.
人群:没错。
OW: Holding up signs asking if I would talk to them for just five minutes, so I was happy to do so. And they are with a group called "Invisible Children," and I told this group outside that I'd give them a minute to state their case.
奥普拉:他们举着 “是否愿意和他们 交谈五分钟” 的标语牌, 所以,我非常乐意。 他们跟一个叫 “被遗忘的孩子” 组织相关, 我告诉屋外的人群, 我会给他们一分钟来说明情况。
Man: Oprah, thank you so much for having us. Basically, these folks out here have seen the story of 30,000 children abducted by a rebel leader named Joseph Kony. And they're out here in solidarity, and they have been out here for six days. This started 100,000 people worldwide. Now it's down to 500 standing strong so that you can raise the profile of this issue and we can end the longest-running war in Africa and rescue those kids that are child soldiers still in East Africa. Oprah, I have to say this girl Natalie here, she's 18 years old. She was an intern for us this year, and she said, "My one goal is to get Oprah." She had 2,000 people come out on Saturday, but it rained. She stood here in the rain with 50 people. When they heard she was here, hundreds started coming. People are here from Mexico, Australia. Natalie's 18. Don't think you're too young. You can change the world any day. Start now. Start today.
男人:奥普拉,谢谢你 接受我们的请求。 总体来讲,这里大家 都听过关于三万名儿童 被一个名叫约瑟夫·科尼的 叛军首领绑架的故事。 他们团结在此, 他们已经在外面等待六天了。 活动一开始全球就有十万人参与。 现在轮到这 500 人勇敢地等待着, 等待你提升该问题的关注度, 而且我们就可以结束 非洲那场持续的战争去拯救 那些仍然在东非的童子军了。 奥普拉,我得向你介绍 这个叫娜塔莉的女孩, 她 18 岁, 她是我们今年的实习生, 她说:“我的一个目标是见到奥普拉。 周六有两千人来支持她, 但天下雨了。 她和五十个人站在这儿的雨中等候。 当人们得知她在这里, 数百人也开始赶过来。 参加的人有来自墨西哥、澳大利亚。 娜塔莉 18 岁。 不要认为你太年轻。 你每一刻都可以改变世界。 从现在开始。 从今天开始。
(Cheers)
(欢呼)
Man: Was it worth it?
男声:这值得吗?
Crowd: Yeah!
人群:值得!
Natalie! Natalie! Natalie!
娜塔莉!娜塔莉!娜塔莉!
(Music)
(音乐)
Together we are free! Together we are free!
在一起我们就能获得自由! 在一起我们就能获得自由!
(Applause)
(掌声)
So you would think that this is the moment in my life, the pinnacle that made me an extraordinary. And it was an awesome moment. I mean, I was on top of the world. Ten million people watched the "Oprah Winfrey Show." But looking back, that wasn't it. Don't get me wrong. Like I said, it was great moment. It made for a heck of a profile picture on Facebook for a week.
所以你们可能会觉得 我生命中的一个时刻, 人生巅峰让我与众不同。 这确实是让人惊叹的时刻, 我在世界之巅。 上千万的人观看 《奥普拉脱口秀》, 但回望过去,却并非如此, 不要误解我。 和我刚刚说过一样, 这是伟大的一刻。 我将之设为 Facebook 背景图长达一周。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But I had been extraordinary all along, and I wasn't alone.
但我一直都是不同凡响, 而且我并不孤单。
You see, even though my story was featured in this film, I was just one of a hundred interns who worked their tails off to make this happen. I'm up in the air, but the guy that I'm sitting on his shoulders, he's my best friend. His name is Johannes Oberman and Johannes worked with me from day one in Chicago, just as long hours, just as many sleepless nights as I did. The girl on the right, her name's Bethany Bylsma. Bethany planned New York City and Boston, and they were seriously the most beautiful events that we held. The girl on the left, her name's Colleen. Colleen moved to Mexico, moved, for three months, to plan five events there, only to be kicked out the day before the events because of the swine flu. And then there was this family. This family, they didn't get to come to the rescue. They couldn't make it out, but they ordered a hundred boxes of pizza for us, delivered them to the corner of Michigan and Randolph where we were all silently protesting. You see, it was people like this doing whatever they could, simultaneously, single-mindedly, without a care to who was watching, that made this happen. It wasn't about us getting on Oprah, because when I got down from their shoulders, the war hadn't ended. It was about that bill. Oprah was just a checkpoint on the way to that bill. That bill was the point. That bill is what we had our eyes set on from day one. That was going to help us end Africa's longest-running war. And that is what brought a hundred thousand people out to the rescue event from around the world.
你看,即便我的故事 被记录在这个影片中, 我不过只是上百个实习生中的一员, 他们的点滴努力让这一切成真。 我在高高在上的位置, 但我是站在他肩膀上的那个人, 他是我最好的朋友。 他的名字叫约翰内斯·奥伯曼 (Johannes Oberman) 约翰内斯从在芝加哥的 第一天起就跟我一起工作, 从事的时间跟我一样长, 经历的不眠之夜跟我一样多。 右边这个女孩叫 贝瑟妮·波尔斯玛(Bethany Bylsma), 贝瑟妮策划了纽约和波士顿的活动, 它们无疑是我们举办的 最精彩、出色的活动。 左边这个女孩,她叫科琳(Colleen)。 科琳搬到了墨西哥三个月, 在那里策划了五场活动, 由于猪流感原因, 活动在开始前一天临时取消。 然后就是这家人。 这家人,他们没有机会参与声援活动。 他们无法参加, 但他们却为我们订购了一百盒披萨, 配送到密歇根州和伦道夫 那个我们静坐的角落。 像这样一群人 在做他们力所能及之事, 并行不悖,一心一意, 不在意谁在旁观, 他们依然默默无闻地让这一切成真。 这无关我们获得奥普拉支持, 因为我从他们的肩膀上下来, 战争不会因此就结束。 这却事关那项法案。 奥普拉只是通向那项法案的一个关卡。 法案才是关键。 法案是我们第一天就锁定的目标。 它将帮助我们结束 非洲持续最久的战争。 它是我们让全球成千上万的人 出来参与拯救活动的目的。
And it paid off: 10 days after we were on Oprah, the bill was introduced into Congress. A year after that, it got unanimously 267 cosponsors in Congress. And then one week after that, President Obama signed our bill into law.
功夫不负有心人: 上完奥普拉节目的十天后, 法案被递交国会。 一年之后,它获得了国会 267 名支持者一致通过。 在那一周之后, 总统奥巴马签署了法案成为法律。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And none of us interns got to be there. We didn't get to be there in this moment. Our founders were there. They're the guys cheesing in the background. But that moment right there is what made all of it worth it. It's what a hundred thousand anonymous extraordinaries worked for so hard to make that happen.
我们每一个实习生都不在现场。 因为这一刻我们无法前往。 而我们的创始人在现场。 他们就是那些在背后欢呼的人。 但那一刻让这之前 所有的努力都值得了。 是成千上万的无名英雄, 努力工作推动才达成的目标。
You know, the Oprah moments, they prove that the supposedly impossible can be done. They inspire us. They boost our confidence. But the moment isn't a movement. Even a lot of those moments strung together don't fuel a movement. What fuels a movement are the anonymous extraordinaries behind it.
奥普拉时刻, 他们证明了不可能的事也可以实现。 他们激励了我们,增强了我们的信心。 但那一刻不是运动本身。 即便是很多这一时刻 加在一起也无法点燃一次运动。 点燃一次运动的是 站在后面的无名英雄。
You know, for me, what kept me pushing on through the rescue was the thought of those child soldiers. It became personal. I was able to go to Africa at one point. I met these incredible people. I have friends that have been living in this conflict their entire life, and it was personal to me.
你知道,对我而言, 促使我参与这次拯救活动的原因, 源自于对这些童子军的担忧。 这非常个人化,我曾一度去非洲, 我遇到这些不凡的人, 我有些朋友终其一生, 都生活在这个冲突地区, 这对我很有影响,
But that doesn't have to be what drives you. You know, you may want to be the next Shepard Fairey or the next JK Rowling or the next whoever. It doesn't matter, but whatever you want, chase after it with everything that you have -- not because of the fame or the fortune, but solely because that's what you believe in, because that's what makes your heart sing. That's what your dance is.
但这并不一定是驱动你的动力。 你也想成为下一个艺术家 谢帕德·费尔雷(Shepard Fairey), 或者下一个 J · K · 罗琳, 或下一个某某, 没有关系,但不管你想要什么, 全心追逐它, 不为功名利禄, 只为坚定信仰, 只为回归初心。 那就是你的舞台。
That's what is going to define our generation, when we start chasing and fighting after the things that we love and that we want to fight for.
那就是定义我们这一代的东西, 当我们开始追逐我们的所爱事物, 为我们想要奋斗的东西而奋斗。
I cared too much in high school about what people thought about me. That's what so awesome about this conference, is so many of you are so young. Find that thing that inspires you that you love, and just chase after it. You know, fight for that, because that is what is going to change this world and that is what defines us.
在中学我太关心别人如何看我。 这就是这次会议的精彩之处, 在座各位都是如此之年轻, 找到激励你,让你热爱的事情, 然后去追逐它, 为之奋斗, 因为这将改变整个世界, 并且定义我们。
Despite what people think, my Oprah moments, my being on TED, doesn't define me, because if you were to follow me home to LA, you would see me waiting tables and nannying to pay the bills as I chase after my dream of becoming a filmmaker. In the small, anonymous, monotonous every-single-day acts, I have to remind myself to be extraordinary. And believe me, when the door is closed and the cameras are off, it's tough. But if there's one thing that I want to drive home to you, one thing that I can say, not just to you but to myself, is that it is the acts that make us extraordinary, not the Oprah moments. Thank you.
不管人们怎么想, 我的奥普拉时刻, 我站在 TED 的演讲都无法定义我, 因为如果你跟我回到洛杉矶的家中, 你会看到坐在桌旁, 当起保姆去支付账单, 因为我正在追求 成为电影制片人的梦想。 在琐碎的、重复的、单调的 每一天的活动中, 我都提醒自己要卓尔不群。 相信我,当门关上了,摄像机关闭了, 现实是非常艰难的。 但有一点我想告诉我大家, 不只是对大家说,也是对我自己说, 正是这些行动让我们成就不凡, 而非奥普拉时刻,谢谢。