我的老友記：從老朋友身上學到的
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“與老友傻樂相伴，莫大幸哉！”——拉爾夫·瓦爾多·愛默生
When you’re a child, making friends does not require too much effort. Still, as much as I love children, I know that they can be very mean creatures. I know it first-hand, and as the sister to an adolescent girl, I am reminded of it often.
童年時，交朋友無需刻意便能做到。雖然很喜歡小孩，但我還是覺得他們有時候很自私。我就有個豆蔻年華的妹妹，因此深有體會。
But with similar schedules and mostly innocent oblivion, having the opportunity to make friends is presented to us all the way through our formative years. And somewhere along the way, if we’re lucky we can make really good friends, who when we reach adulthood, start to feel like old friends.
可是，成長時期的相似經歷和單純懵懂卻又爲我們提供了諸多交友機會，而且幸運的話，或許我們還能遇到知己，一起走向成年，形若老友。
There are many friends that will come into your life – some you will passively lose touch with, some will become more like acquaintances; and yet still, some you will actively choose to no longer be friends with. It’s a reality that we begin to realize in our collegiate years and it continues beyond those years. But your old friends seem to stick around, and no matter how near or far they are, they continue to be a part of your life.
人一生中會遇到各種各樣的朋友——有些漸漸就失去了聯繫，有些會變得越來越親密，而有些則被我們主動從朋友名單中刪除。這一事實不僅存在於學生時代，更將延續到以後的歲月。但是，不論離得近還是遠，老朋友似乎總能在你身邊，已然成爲你生活中不可或缺的部分。
From old friends we learn how much we grow. They’re the people who’ve usually witnessed everything from our major accomplishments to our innocuous mistakes, to the moments we’re least proud of. They told us to do better and sometimes they forced us to do better. And we know that if we’re happy with who we’ve become, they played a role in that process. From old friends we recognize that life and people and things aren’t meant to stay the same.
我們從老朋友身上看到自己的成長。老朋友對我們無所不知：從我們取得的重大成就到我們所犯的細小錯誤，乃至我們甚感窘尬的糗事。老朋友鼓勵、甚至逼着我們做得更好；如果我們當真成長得不錯的話，那也是因爲老朋友一直在敦促我們。我們從老朋友身上看到，生活以及人和事不可能一直保持不變。
There is a freedom that comes with old friends that newer friendships can sometimes fail to bring. There are no impressions to be made with people who know you well. There are few filters to send your thoughts through as you engage in conversation. There is a great comfort that comes with knowing that a friend has loved you for a long time; and that this person who doesn’t have to, continues to love you anyway.
老朋友帶來的自在感絕不是新朋友能比的。老朋友對你知根知底，因此你不必刻意留下好印象。和老朋友談話，總能時不時地心有靈犀一點通。只要想想有這麼一個人，一直以來甚或以後都無條件愛着你，是多麼令人欣慰！With old friends there is often great laughter about the shared history of your pasts. And in your youth, pasts are often filled with many playful instants but also careless choices. There is a solemn recollection of the difficult periods that you have been through. There is an understanding of how you came to be who you came to be.
和老朋友回憶你們過去的往事總能逗起歡聲笑語。年輕時有着太多有趣的瞬間，也少不了莽撞的選擇。那些你們共同經歷的艱難時期，充滿了凝重噓唏的記憶。你清楚自己是怎樣一步一步走到現在的。
With old friends, you realize true friendships are difficult to create, to cultivate, and to hold onto. And the profound gratitude that you have for having a friend long enough to call them an “old friend,” feels wonderful.
因爲老朋友，你懂得真正的友情是多麼難能可貴、多麼不易呵護維持。能有這樣彌久珍貴的“老朋友”，你心存感激、備感美好。
Old friends hold a mirror in front of us and allow us to see how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to go to be the person we can be. Old friends show us a reflection of all the parts that we still need to change, and some of the parts we’ll hopefully never change. Old friends remind us that the past was both good and bad, that the future is something to look forward to, while keeping us grounded in the present. And no matter the passage of time, when we’re with our old friends, we have a feeling of home – a place where we can be stupid with people who love us.
老朋友猶如鏡子，提醒我們走過的路以及爲了實現目標而要征服的路程；老朋友指正我們所有亟待改變的地方，哪怕有些我們或許永遠都改變不了；老朋友使我們明白過去有苦有樂，未來值得期盼，而現在才最該腳踏實地去珍惜。不論時光如何流逝，只要老朋友在身邊，我們都會有家的感覺——在那裏，我們可以和至親至愛的人一起發傻一起歡樂。
