Let's Get Started!
让我们一起行动起来！
Every August I am filled with the same excitement and energy, and even though I have been in education for 37 years, I still feel there is nothing like August energy. In August, everything seems fresh and new. With our semester-based schedule, students get a clean slate every semester as they start their new courses. The gradebooks are clear, the relationships with teachers and classmates are new, and the future is bright with possibilities. This is never truer than in August.
尽管我已经从事教育行业37年了，每年的八月我还是同样地兴奋喜悦，感觉任何时候都没有八月能够让人容光焕发。八月，世间万物好似都是新的。学生会根据学校的学期安排表开始学习新课程，同学们会有新的课本，会认识新老师和新同学，未来充满了无限的可能性。这是八月里最重要的事。
I often speak about new beginnings at this time of year. The word “beginning” has its roots in words that mean to take the first step, and for many of us, August is when we take the first step toward completing (or teaching) a new course, competing for (or coaching) a new team, trying (or leading) a new club, or simply making new friends. A new beginning often comes with nervousness and uncertainty, but we take the first steps anyway as a courageous act toward forming our future.
我经常会在这个时候说一些新鲜的事物。“beginning”一词的词根意思是迈出第一步，对我们大多数人来说，八月是我们学习（教导）一门新课程、为团队而战（做指导）、加入（组织）新的俱乐部或结交新朋友而迈出的第一步。新的开始通常都伴有紧张和不确定性，但是我们只有勇敢迈出第一步，才能看到我们的未来。
This year, however, I looked for a synonym for “begin”, and I have come to prefer “start” to define what we do in August. “Start” comes from the Old English word “styrtan” which means “to leap up”. It has evolved to define the action of awakening suddenly and, more recently, to set in motion. We start an engine, start a fire, start the music, even start a fight. Racers line up on the starting line. There’s a reason we say, “Let’s get this party started” instead of “Let’s get this party begun.” The connotation of starting something is active: moving quickly, leaping up, showing energy. This year, I want us to start something; in fact, I want us to start lots of things.
然而，今年我要用“begin”的同义词“start”来定义八月要做的事情。“Start”一词来自古英语词汇“styrtan”，意思是“一跃而起”，现在已经演变成定义一种突然觉醒的行为或行动，如启动引擎（start an engine）、点火（start a fire）、播放音乐（start the music），甚至是挑起战争（start a fight），参赛者排在起跑线（starting line）上，我们都用的是“start”。而且我们通常会说：“Let’s get this party started”而不是“Let’s get this party begun”。“starting something”带有一种积极的含义：快速移动、跳跃、展示正能量。今年，我想让大家开始做一些事，不，是开始做很多事。
It was in this spirit of August energy that Assistant Head for Campus Life Beth Choiniere proposed this year’s theme: What Starts Here Changes the World. She borrowed the idea from a now-viral commencement speech by Admiral William McRaven at the University of Texas, whose slogan is the same as this year’s theme. Admiral McRaven, using examples from his time as a Navy SEAL, encourages his audience to be attentive to small daily tasks, to stand their ground when their values are challenged, to always aspire to succeed and never, ever give up; he urges them to value every person, to stand up to bullies and lift up the downtrodden, and to believe in the power of hope and encourage others. He says that if we do these things, generations to come will live in a better place, and we will indeed have changed the world for the better.
恰逢满满正能量的八月，学校校园生活助理主管Beth Choiniere提出了今年的主题：从这里开始改变世界。她借鉴了海军上将William McRaven在德克萨斯大学的一次毕业演讲，其主题就是我们今年的主题。海军上将McRaven以他当海报突击员的经历为例，鼓励他的听众重视日常琐碎的任务、在价值观受到质疑时坚定立场、时刻渴望成功、永不言弃；他敦促他们珍惜每一个人，勇敢地对欺凌说不、保护弱小，相信希望的力量并鼓励他人。他说，如果我们都这样做，我们后代的生活都会变得更好，而且我们定会将世界变得更好。
Beth showed a clip from that speech to a variety of groups as we entered Orientation Week: student leaders, new faculty and staff, other leadership groups, and workshop participants. Her message each time was not only that what we do here matters, but that what we awaken here and what we energize here has the power to change the world. With nearly 1,000 students from over 50 towns, over a dozen states, and over two dozen countries, our reach is remarkable. With over 250 employees, we have powerful human resources available to us to help us change the world. We just need to decide to start something. But what?
Beth在参加Orientation Week时，给学生领袖、新的教职员工、其他领导者以及会议参与者都播放了这个演讲的片段。她每次所传达的信息不仅是我们在这里所做的事情很重要，我们在这里激励的人和事都具有改变世界的力量。对于来自50多个城镇、十几个州和20多个国家的将近1000名学生来说，我们的影响力非常显著。我们拥有250名员工，有强大的人力资源来帮助我们改变世界，我们需要做的就是决定迈出第一步。但是要做什么呢？
Beth ended her workshops with a call to those in attendance to identify their “why”—their purpose for what they do and how they do it, their reason for being where they are in the role that they play. This question, I think, helps us figure out what we need to start this August—first individually and then as a community. For me, my “why” has been the reason I chose education in 1981, why I chose St. Johnsbury Academy in 1984, and why I applied to become headmaster in 2000. As I have told many over the past few weeks, I see my “why” as my belief that each person possesses powerful and unique gifts that, when shared with others, enrich the person as well as the community in which those gifts are shared. Therefore, my purpose is to help identify those gifts, help them to develop, encourage and enable each person to use those gifts, and then to celebrate their effects on the world around them.
Beth在讲习班结束时，让那些参与者明确自己做这些事情的“想法”—即他们的目的、做法以及他们所扮演角色的重要性。我想这个问题可以帮助我们弄清楚今年八月我们需要做什么--首先是个人，其次是整个社区。对我来说，我的“想法”就是1981年我选择从事教育行业、1984年选择圣约翰学院、2000申请担任校长的原因。正如我过去几周里跟大家说的，我把我的“想法”看作我的信念，即每个人都拥有强大而独特的天赋，当与他人分享时，既丰富了他人也感染了社区。因此，我的目的是帮助人们辨别这些天赋异禀，帮助他们发展成长，鼓励他们充分发挥这些天赋，然后庆祝它们对周围世界产生的影响。
As I have listened to leaders, athletes, faculty, and staff—people from all across our Academy community—speak about their “why”, I have heard one unifying theme: we all believe in the power of human potential and the responsibility of adults to help young people discover their unique brand of excellence. When I think about what we want to start this August, I realize that what we want to wake up, what we want to energize, what we want to quicken, are the hearts and minds of the young people around us. Our driving purpose is the call to engage, inspire, encourage, and empower young people to be their best selves. We believe our students are people who can live up to the message of Admiral McRaven—to be people who are responsible, courageous, respectful, loving, determined, encouraging, and persevering. If we succeed in doing this, awakening in the young people around us the good that is in them and helping them to begin sharing it, not only will we have a great beginning to the school year, but what we start here will indeed change the world.
当我听到学院社区的领导人、运动员、教职员工谈论他们的“想法”时，都有一个统一的主题：我们都相信人类潜在的力量，以及帮助年轻人发现他们独特性的责任。当我想着今年8月份我们要开始做什么的时候，我意识到，我们要唤醒的、激励的、加快的，应该是我们周围年轻人的心灵和思想。我们的目的是号召、激励、鼓励年轻人成为他们最好的自己。我们相信，我们的学生是能够履行McRaven上将的使命的人，是负责任、勇敢、尊重、有爱心、果断、坚持的人。如果我们成功地做到了这一点，唤醒我们周围的年轻人，帮助他们分享其中的美好，我们不仅会拥有一个美好的学年开始，而且我们在这里开始做的一切都将确实改变世界。
