Do you want to go into publishing?

No.

不。

What about law?

Probably not.

应该不。

Then what are you going to do with a comparative literature major?

That, my friend, is the million dollar question.

朋友，你问了一个十分关键的问题。

I had been convinced that a legal career was the only way that I could hold a position that was both significant and make enough to support myself. The other case studies I was often shown were akin to the starving artist and the underpaid journalist. And granted, finance ideally should not be the only factor, but people have to eat and have something of a roof over their heads. In any case, I signed on to be an editor at my college’s law journal with the hope that my future would bring me to the United Nations and International Court.

我曾经一直坚信，与法律有关的职业是唯一一个使我可以同时拥有较高的社会地位和可观的收入的途径。因为其他行业例如画家和记者都很难两全其美。诚然，理论上来说经济不应该是唯一的考虑因素，但人们需要基本的温饱（食物和房子）。所以我成为我们学校法律杂志的编辑，为了能在以后就业时到联合国或国际法庭等相关的机构工作。

Throughout the process, I loved learning about what students across the country thought about the law and how it influenced us big-picture-wise and even in daily life. But after each round of interviewing legal scholars, editing articles, and publishing a journal each semester, I found myself less enamored with the prospect of a legal career; I returned my energies to foreign language and teaching. I became a Chinese Teaching Assistant for one of my professor’s, as well as a teaching Mandarin at the local high school the following year. (Who would have thought that after so many years of schooling that I would still speak such mediocre Mandarin!?). Still, what was important to me was cultivating an understanding of these different stories that are integral to our cultural foundations across the world.

在当编辑的过程中，我非常享受能够通过工作了解到美国各地的人是如何看待法律以及法律是如何影响生活。但每当我结束采访法律人士，在编辑、发布文章之后，我都发现对法律的喜爱在逐渐减少。同时我发现我重新对外语和教育产生了浓厚的兴趣。因此我开始当中文课的助教，并在当地的高中教中文。因为在外语和教育里我能够更加学习到世界各地的人是如何想的。

The president of my college will often tell folks that the liberal arts education we receive at Williams is not necessarily to prepare us for our first, but our last jobs. Yes, perhaps undertaking a paralegal position would enrich my understanding of the legal world and give me a trade. Maybe learning at a publishing press would have taught me the process of how we gain access to various media. But my fascination with language was the basis for my studying literature as an undergraduate. And here I was receiving lectures on the practicality of a major! Thank goodness I was studying Spanish and Mandarin Chinese; can you imagine if I had been a classicist studying Greek and Latin?

我们威廉姆斯的校长时常告诉我们，在大学里得到的博雅教育是为了我们最后一份工作，而不是第一份工作做准备的。的确，学习法律可以加深我对法律的了解，并且让我毕业之后更容易找到工作；而在出版业学习、实习则让我了解了媒体运作的机制。但是我对语言的热爱才是我本科的基础！它成为我选择比较文学的动力。很多时候人们却在讲究专业的实用性。还好我学习的是“相对实用”的中文和西班牙语，如果我选择了希腊语和拉丁语，别人该怎么看？

Don’t get me wrong. Greek mythology has been the foundation of my literary interests from the beginning. But I sense that there must be some jealousy and pessimism toward the humanities. How could people enjoying themselves so much be learning something useful? I won’t get carried away and say that my writing will save someone who requires surgery or fix someone’s car. The comparisons between the humanities and STEM fields suggest a separation of the two, when indeed both need to coexist in order to produce rigorous, long-term solutions. This life’s dice have rolled, and the results are in: when it came to learning math versus how to explain math in another language, my brain preferred the latter. I continue this love affair with the histories that words share with those who insist on remembering. If the day comes that I need to sell my soul, I will have to profess that with training in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese I can speak to a third of the world on behalf of any paying company.