To Stand Tall like a Sequoia
像红杉一样挺拔
The Sequoia is the tallest tree on earth, hitting heights approaching 300 feet. At over 30 feet in diameter, these massive trees show the scars of forest fires and other natural disasters, withstanding them all while producing more oxygen than any other tree.
红杉是地球上最高的树，高达300英尺，直径超过30英尺，树身上显现着由于森林火灾和其他自然灾害造成的伤痕，同时它们产生的氧气比其他任何树都要多。
As readers of the Caledonian-Record know, and our school community heard in Chapel on Thursday, we have a Sequoia among us. Ours is named Sequoia Simonds and lives in Lunenburg, Vermont. Our Sequoia stands about six-feet tall, pretty tall given that he’s only a freshman, but Thursday standing behind the podium in Fuller Hall, he stood even taller as a hero.
正如Caledonian-Record报道的那样，我们学校也有一棵“红杉”，他的名字叫Sequoia Simonds，来自佛蒙特州卢恩堡，是一位九年级新生。虽然他身高只有约6英尺，但是他周四站在Fuller大厅做演讲时，高大地如同一位英雄。
I don’t use the term “hero” lightly. In my Senior English class, we begin each semester discussing what makes a person a hero, and we usually end up with some definition along the lines of “someone who uses their gifts and strengths to serve others and contribute to the greater good in extraordinary ways.” If this definition identifies the key traits of a hero, then Sequoia Simonds is certainly a hero among us.
我不轻易用“英雄”这个词。在我的高级英语课上，我们每学期开始都会讨论一个什么样的人才能成为一个英雄，而我们通常会以“用自己的天赋和力量为他人服务，以不同寻常的方式做出更大的贡献”的人来定义英雄。如果这一定义准确说明了英雄所具备的关键特征，那么Sequoia Simonds肯定是我们当中的英雄。
For those who do not know Sequoia’s story, he was at home with his mom’s fiancé Jimmy Clark when Clark doubled over. As Sequoia’s mom (who had stepped out for a bit) re-entered the room, Clark looked up, wide-eyed and tearful, and then collapsed to the floor, hitting his head on a desk as he fell. Sequoia immediately dialed 911 as his mom hysterically tried to help her fiancé; then Sequoia pushed his mom away and began performing CPR, keeping it up until help arrived. Clark was rushed to the local hospital and then airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he spent several days in a coma before his condition improved enough for his release.
为什么这样说呢？有一次，房间里只有Sequoia和妈妈的未婚夫Jimmy Clark，当时Clark突然间弯下腰很不舒服的样子。而当Sequoia的妈妈外出回来时，Clark抬起头，瞪大了眼睛，泪流满面，然后瘫倒在地板上，头撞在了桌子上。当他的妈妈迫切地想要帮助她的未婚夫时，Sequoia立即拨打了911。然后，把他的妈妈推在一旁，开始为Clark做心肺复苏，一直坚持到救援人员到来。之后Clark被紧急送往当地医院，然后乘坐直升飞机抵到达特茅斯-希区柯克医疗中心，在那里他昏迷了好几天，直到病情好转，才得以出院。
Sequoia had recently learned CPR in his freshman health class, and he kept the Bee Gee’s song “Stayin’ Alive” in his head as he delivered the compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The emergency personnel eventually arrived and took over, but Sequoia had helped save a life by using the knowledge, strength, and skills he had to offer.
Sequoia是在最近的新生健康课上学习了心肺复苏法，在他对Clark进行按压和口对口人工呼吸的时候，他的脑子里一直回荡着Bee Gee的歌“Stayin ' Alive”。紧急救援人员最终到达并安置好了患者，但Sequoia利用他所学到的知识、力量和技能挽救了一个生命。
In his speech in Chapel, Sequoia did not dwell on his heroism or even his accomplishments. Instead, he told us to make sure that we let the important people in our lives know how much we love them, and he also said that when we get a chance to show them how much we love them, or get a chance to serve them—even save their lives—we should not let it go to our heads. We should be humbly thankful that we had the strength and skills to serve and that we have those people in our lives in the first place.
他在礼堂的演讲中，并没有详述他的英雄事迹或是他的成就。相反，他告诉我们，一定要让我们生命中重要的人知道我们有多爱他们，当我们有机会向他们展示我们有多爱他们，或者有机会挽救他们的生命时，一定不要放弃这个机会。我们应该感到庆幸我们有能力为生命中重要的人提供援助。
This remarkable young man is an inspiration in so many ways. He is indeed the embodiment of all of the traits associated with his name: firmly rooted in his family and friendships, drawing strength from his family and school environment, and standing strong through hard times. However, he has done things that no Sequoia tree has ever done. Despite being strong and tall, he has reached down, has drawn close to others, close enough to be the heartbeat for someone whose heart was failing and the breath for someone who could not breathe.
这位优秀的年轻人在很多方面都鼓舞了我们。他确实具有所有与他名字相关的英雄特征：牢固地扎根于亲情和友情中，从家庭和学校环境中汲取力量，并在困难时期顽强地挺身而出。并且，他做了一些红杉根本办不到的事情。尽管他很强壮，也很高大，但并非遥不可及，他也是一个普通人，并且他还救了一个心脏衰竭、呼吸困难的人。
As I said after Sequoia was done speaking, he has inspired me to stand tall like a Sequoia—to aspire to be a hero like our Sequoia. I hope his story gives us all a renewed sense of purpose: to be firmly rooted with confidence in our strengths, drawing strength from our community, and to humbly bend to serve the needs of others.
正如我在Sequoia演讲后所说的那样，他激励了我像红杉一样挺立，渴望成为像他那样的英雄。我希望他的故事能给我们带来全新的目标：坚信我们社区的力量，并谦卑地为他人服务。
