哈佛学生口述15岁的难忘暑假
College applications often look at a student's performance outside of class in so-called extracurricular activities: volunteer positions, internships, employment, or projects and clubs organized by school but not part of a class. Because this is not an aspect necessary for admission to Chinese universities, many students ask us how to begin becoming involved in such activities and why it is important. Below is a story from one of my own summer vacations。
When I was 15, I read a review for a recent movie release in The Dallas Morning News. It is a somewhat large newspaper in the US, but I had spent most of my life in Dallas, so The Dallas Morning News was my "local" newspaper. It was the summer after my freshman year in high school, roughly equivalent to 初三 in the Chinese system, and I was flipping through [1] the movie review section to make plans for the weekend。
This article reviewed a crude [2], immature comedy--if I remember correctly, a comedy starring Adam Sandler--that was just the sort of silly humor that many people around the world tease Americans for enjoying. The writer, of course, gave the movie a terrible rating. While he may have been correct in his criticism, it seemed odd to me that a critic who probably considered film a profound art form [3] would waste his time writing a review about a silly, thoughtless movie that targeted young adults。
Rather than just think about it, though, I wrote a letter--okay, an e-mail--to the newspaper editor. I attempted to clearly and reasonably explain why I thought the writer was wasting both his and his readers' time: he probably had nothing in common [4] with the audience that would be interested in the topic of his article。
Since I was only 15, I imagine my letter was not very convincing, but, to my surprise, I received a response from the editor saying that she had often thought about many of the points I raised and that she was interested in talking to me more about it. A week or two later, the editor and I met, and our discussion quickly became an informal interview. I had no experience with published writing, so she decided to assign me a couple of trial articles to demonstrate my abilities。
The editor wanted me to focus on topics that were primarily interesting to young people, especially topics in the entertainment industry. I was excited, and within a few days I had written a piece about a rock concert I had attended. I remember reading it again a few years after I had written it and thinking how terrible it was, but I'm not sure how much it mattered [5]. My enthusiasm was apparent, so the editor assigned me to a movie review, and, at the age of 15, I had become a journalist。
At least, I believed I had. The other writers largely resisted the inclusion of my writing in the newspaper. Newspapers have a limited amount of available space on which to publish, and writers in their 40s and 50s were not very excited about the possibility of having to compete with a 15-year-old. I was also not a great writer at the time, and it was unlikely that I would bring progress to the world of journalism. In the end, I wrote or was a major contributor to only ten articles, maybe less. Among them were articles about movies, student protests against the Iraq War, teenage sexuality, and young student voters' perspectives on the 2004 Presidential Election。
Simply by being a small part of a newspaper, however, I learned an enormous amount about the journalism industry. Working was also very different from studying, and while I did not have an interest in pursuing journalism in the future, it helped me think much more about what I wanted to do in life. The experience also taught me that opportunities were there for those who pursued them. When I applied to college, I think the experience and perspective I gained from my short life as a journalist were far more valuable than the actual articles I wrote, not simply because they showed my intellectual curiosity [6] and commitment beyond the classroom [7], but because they taught me more about what I wanted from college and life。
Keep learning,
Jason 杰生
[1] Definition: flipping through; Explanation: "to flip" pages or "to turn" pages are common verbs to describe reading, so "flipping through" means to casually read something。
[2] Definition: crude; Explanation: unrefined, simple, or not well made. "Crude" humor refers to humor that is dumb and not intellectual。
[3] Definition: art form; Explanation: a type or method of producing art, but one that also implies that the art is very intellectual or complex. Here, I describe the writer as someone who considers film "a profound art form," saying that he has an educated and intellectual perspective that contrasts strongly with the silliness of the actual movie。
[4] Definition: in common; Explanation: to have "something in common" is to say that two or more people have a similar trait or share a similar interest. If they have "nothing in common," they have few or no similar traits or interests。
[5] Definition: it mattered; Explanation: the verb "to matter" means "to be important." I am saying here that I am not sure how much it mattered, which means that I have doubts about its importance。
[6] Definition: intellectual curiosity; Explanation: See [4] in our article Post-gaokao / 高考之后
[7] Definition: beyond the classroom; Explanation: "beyond" literally means "further," so I am saying that this experience showed my qualities extended to other areas outside of school, like my job。
美国的大学通常都会对学生参加的课外活动感兴趣，比如志愿者、实习生、工作经历、或者学校组织的不属于学习课程范畴的项目等。因为中国高考并不看重这方便的内容，所以很多学生会问我们怎么参加课外活动，课外活动为什么很重要。下面我就和你们分享一下我的一段暑期经历。
当我15岁的时候，也就是我在高中一年级的暑假(相当于中国制度的初三)，我在《达拉斯早报》(《达拉斯早报》在美国是一份大报纸，但是因为我从小在达拉斯长大，这个报纸对于我来说更像一个地方报纸)中浏览一个关于最近一部电影的评论，准备计划我的周末活动。那段评论是关于一部有点粗制滥造的喜剧，如果我没有记错的话，是Adam Sandler主演的一部美国式幽默。评论的作者对于这部喜剧电影的评价很低。虽然评论员对于影片的评价是正确的，但是我在想，一个资深评论员却要去评论一个很傻的片子，真是一种浪费，这种简单的幽默影片一般是为了青少年人拍摄的。
思考之外，我给报纸的主编写了一封邮件。我尝试着向她仔细说明为什么我认为让资深评论员写这样的评论既是浪费他自己的时间，也是在浪费读者的时间。资深评论员和他的读者可能没有任何的共同点。毕竟我才只有15岁，我并不期待我的邮件有多大的说服力，但是，出乎我的意料，我收到了主编的回复，她说她也多次思考过我提出来的问题，并且很有兴趣和我面谈一次。一两周之后，我和主编见面了，那次见面结果变成了一个不正是的面试。因为我从来没有发表过文章，所以她决定让我试着写一些文章来证明我写作的实力。
主编希望我能写一些在娱乐方面年轻人感兴趣的话题。我非常地激动，几天之后，我就写完了一个关于我刚参加的摇滚音乐会。几年之后再次读到我当时写的文章，真觉得我写得巨烂无比，不过，又有什么关系呢？我的激情显而易见，后来主编让我写了一个电影评论，15岁，我成为了一个记者。
至少，我认为我成为了一个记者。有一些作家反对在报纸上刊登我的文章，因为报纸的版面是有限的，哪些四五十岁的作家可不愿意和一个15岁的孩子竞争。当时，我也不算一个很伟大的作家，u也不太有希望给记者世界带去什么变革。最终，我一共写了(参与到)10篇文章，也可能更少。有一些文章是关于电影的，有一些是关于学生们反对对伊战争的，有一些是青少年对性的态度，有一写是学生们关于2004年总统大选的观点。
作为报纸的一个小小的部分，我却学到了记者界的很多东西。工作和学习的差别真的太大了，虽然后来我没有兴趣成为一名记者，但是这段经历让我思考了更多以后想做的事情。同时，它也教会我，机会是要去争取的。当申请大学的时候，我觉得这段短期的记者经历教会我的东西比我写的文章更有价值。它不光展现了我的好奇心和课堂之外的执著，它更让我明白我在大学和生活中想要什么东西。继续学习吧。杰生
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