人生不設限·愛自己愛到可以嘲笑自己

親朋好友會說我們很好看、他們愛我們、困難的階段就要過去了等等，一天可以說上100次，但我們常常不在乎這些支持的話，非要抓住傷痛不可。我有好一段時間也是這樣，父母常常得花好幾個星期來消除某一兩位嘲笑我的小孩所造成的傷害。然而，當有個跟我同齡的人終于向我伸出手時，我轉變了。記得以前班上有個女生說我“很好看”，讓我飄飄欲仙了一個月。

Our friends and loved ones can tell us one hundred times a day that we are beautiful and we are loved and that the hard times will pass, but too often we shrug off the supportive words and hang on to the hurt. I did that for the longest time. My parents would spend weeks trying to undo the damage done by one or two kids who teased me on the playground. But finally when someone my own age reached out, I was transformed. When one girl in my class told me that I was "looking good," I walked on a cloud for a month.

當然，不久之后，13歲的我有天醒來，發(fā)現鼻頭冒出一顆青春痘，它可不好看。這是一顆熟番茄形的超大青春痘。

Of course, a short time later, I woke up at thirteen years old with a pimple on my nose. It was not pretty. It was a huge, ripe tomato of a pimple.

“看看這個，這也太慘了吧。”我告訴媽媽。

"Look at this, it's crazy," I told my mum.

“不要抓它。”媽媽說。

"Don't scratch it," my mum said.

用什么抓?我很好奇。

What would I scratch it with? I wondered.

帶著這顆青春痘去上學時，我覺得自己是地球上最丑的男孩。每次經過一間教室，在窗戶上看見自己的倒影時，我只想逃開、躲起來。其他的孩子猛盯著我的痘痘瞧，我真希望它消失，但兩天后它卻變得更大，成了全宇宙最大、最紅的青春痘。我開始擔心，有一天這顆痘子會變得比我整個人還重。

I went to school feeling like the ugliest dude on the planet. Every time I passed a classroom and saw my reflection in the windows, I wanted to run and hide. Other kids stared at it. I kept hoping it would go away, but two days later it was even bigger, the largest and reddest pimple in the universe. I began to think it would one day outweigh the rest of me.

這顆怪物青春痘并沒有消失，八個月后還在那里。我覺得自己就像澳大利亞版的“紅鼻子魯道夫”[15]。

The monstrous deformity would not go away! My humongous zit was still there eight months later. I felt like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Australian. Finally my mum took me to a dermatologist. I told him I wanted the pimple removed even if it took major surgery. He examined it with a huge magnifying glass—as if he couldn't see it—and said, "Hmmmm. It's not a pimple."

后來媽媽終于帶我去看皮膚科醫(yī)生。我跟醫(yī)生說，就算要動大手術，我也要把這東西弄走。他用超大的放大鏡仔細檢查——仿佛他看不見這顆痘子似的，然后說：“嗯，這不是青春痘。”

Whatever it is, I thought, let's just get rid of it, shall we?

我心想，管它是什么，幫我弄掉就是了，可以嗎?

"It's a swollen oil gland," he said. "I can cut it off or burn it off, but either way it will leave you with a scar bigger than this little red dot."

“這是皮脂腺腫大，我可以切掉或燒掉，但無論用哪種方法，留下來的疤痕都會超過原來這個小紅點。”他說。

Little red dot?

小紅點?

"It's so big I can't see around it," I protested.

“它大到我都看不見它周圍了。”我提出異議。

"Would you rather be scarred for life?" he asked.

“你寧愿帶著疤痕過一輩子嗎?”醫(yī)生問道。

The giant not-a-zit remained on my nose. I prayed and fretted about it for a while, but finally I realized that the bright red bulb on my nose was no more of a distraction than my lack of limbs. If people aren't willing to talk to me, that is their loss, I decided.

這個巨大的非青春痘繼續(xù)留在我的鼻子上，我禱告，也為它苦惱了好一陣子，但最后我了解到，這顆紅色發(fā)亮的小球不會比我沒有四肢這件事讓我更容易被人消遣。如果人家不愿意跟我講話，那是他的損失。我決定要這么想。

If I caught someone staring at it, I made a joke. I told them I was growing an extra nose to sell on the black market. When people saw that I could laugh at myself, they laughed with me and empathized. After all, who hasn't had a pimple? Even Brad Pitt has pimples.

如果我發(fā)現有人正盯著它瞧，我會開玩笑說我正在養(yǎng)另外一個鼻子，打算將來拿到黑市賣掉。當別人發(fā)現我可以嘲笑自己，就跟著我一起笑了起來，而且心有戚戚焉。畢竟，誰沒長過青青痘?就算布拉德·皮特也有啊。

Sometimes, through our own doing, we make little problems big by taking them way too seriously. Having a pimple is part of the deal. We are all perfectly imperfect human beings, some of us maybe more than others, but we all have our flaws and our shortcomings. It's important to not take every little wart or wrinkle too seriously because one day you will have something truly serious go wrong, and then what will you do? So stand prepared to laugh at life's little knocks on the heads and bumps on the nose.

有時候，是我們自己把事情看得太嚴重，才會讓小事變大。青春痘是其中一個例子。我們都是全然不完美的人類，有些人或許比其他人好一點，但每個人都有缺陷和短處。不要把每個面皰或皺紋看得太嚴重，因為有一天，你碰到真正麻煩的大事，那時你要怎么辦?所以，當生命讓你頭上、鼻子上腫了幾個小包時，不妨一笑置之吧。

Laughter has been shown to reduce stress by releasing endorphin hormones, the body's natural relaxant, boosting your immune system and improving your blood flow while also increasing oxygen to the brain. Not bad, eh? Studies have also shown that laughter makes you more attractive. A double bonus!