谢丽尔·桑德伯格在加州大学伯克利的演讲(2016)

Thank you， Marie. And thank you esteemed members of the faculty， proud parents， devoted friends， squirming siblings.2

Congratulations to all of you…and especially to the magnificent Berkeley graduating class of 2016！

It is a privilege to be here at Be rkeley， which has produced so many Nobel Prize winners， Turing Award winners， astronauts， members of Congress，3 Olympic gold medalists…and that’s just the women！

Berkeley has always been ahead of the times. In the 1960s， you led the Free Speech Movement4. Early on， Berkeley opened its doors to the entire population.

One of the women who came here in search of opportunity was Rosalind Nuss. She was pulled out of high school by her parents to help support their family. One of her teachers insisted that her parents put her back into school―and in 1937， she sat where you are sitting today and received a Berkeley degree. Roz was my grandmother. She was a huge inspiration to me and I’m so grateful that Berkeley recognized her potential.

Today is a day of celebration. A day to celebrate all the hard work that got you to this moment.

Today is a day of thanks. A day to thank those who helped you get here.

Today is a day of reflection5. Because today marks the end of one era of your life and the beginning of something new.

Today will be a bit different. We will still do the caps6 and you still have to do the photos. Today I will try to tell you what I learned in death.

I have never spoken publicly about this before. It’s hard. One year and 13 days ago， I lost my husband， Dave. His death was sudden and unexpected. His death changed me in very profound7 ways. I learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality8 of loss. And I also learned that when life sucks you under， you can kick against the bottom， break the surface， and breathe again.9

I’m sharing this with you in the hopes that today， as you take the next step in your life， you can learn the lessons that I only learned in death.

Everyone who has made it through Cal has already experienced some disappointment. You wanted an A but you got a B. OK， let’s be honest―you got an A―but you’re still mad. You applied for an internship at Facebook， but you only got one from Google. She was the love of your life… but then she swiped left.10

The easy days ahead of you will be easy. It is the hard days―the times that challenge you to your very core―that will determine who you are. You will be defined not just by what you achieve， but by how you survive.