The selection process for my major remarkably happened with little indecision on my part—and perhaps remains the only decision in my life in which this has been so. At the simplest level, I have always loved structures. When I was a child, I could spend hours toying with Legos, blocks, and any other objects I could stack on top of each other—at least once I put down my sister’s Barbie dolls. Something about the space around me fascinated my imagination, and I held a visceral desire to manipulate it. When it came time to think about college and what I might study, architecture was the inevitable choice. And it seemed logical. I loved to draw, and architecture seemed to me like the most practical way to be creative in my career (though no one has ever entered the architectural profession for job stability or significant financial compensation). I also believed (in the myth) that architecture requires a lot of math, and I liked the idea of my prowess in the subject to a creative, tangible end. Finally, as we all feel at that age, and perhaps should longer in life than we do, I wanted my career to “make an impact.” Architecture, which literally touches people’s lives, promised to satisfy that desire.

对于我来说，选专业这件事或许是我这辈子做的最顺理成章的决定。简单来说，我一直十分喜欢带有结构的东西。我小的时候，可以好几个小时不停地摆弄例如乐高等各种拼搭玩具（至少是在放下我姐姐的芭比娃娃之后，哈哈）。很多时候，我总是观察身边空间的利用，想象着重新组合那些空间。当到了大学面临选专业的时候，建筑学毫无意外地成为了我的选择，并且似乎是个理所当然的选择。因为首先我喜欢画画，而建筑学对于我来说是一个允许我在职业内自由发挥的行业（在建筑行业里，似乎没有人是因为它的工作稳定性或高收入而选择它的）。其次，建筑学也需要很多数学基础，而我很喜欢这种数字逻辑与设计创造的结合。最后，随着我们长大，我们总希望我们的职业能够为社会改变什么。而建筑学和人们的日常生活息息相关，建筑师努力满足着人们对空间的需求。

I faced two options for college. First, I could go straight for a five-year, pre-professional Bachelor of Architecture with intensive focus and long studio hours. Second, I could go for a more conventional Bachelor of Arts and major in architecture with a broader intellectual scope and, still, long studio hours. I applied to both types of schools and eventually settled on the latter, hesitant to limit my learning to one area so soon. Princeton would offer me the breadth of education I still desired and the opportunity to explore subjects I could never encounter in high school while offering the rigorous introduction to architecture and design thinking I had always wanted.

高中毕业时，我面临着两种选择。第一种是读五年的建筑本科预科，专门高强度针对性的学习建筑学，并且长时间在工作室里作画；第二种是去传统的大学里选择建筑学专业，学习通识教育的同时长时间在工作室里作画。我两种类型的学校都申请了，但最终选择了第二种，因为当时并不太愿意那么迅速把自己限制在一个领域里学习。普林斯顿为我提供了很广泛、丰富的学习领域，既满足我一直想学建筑的愿望，又同时让我有机会探索更多在高中时期没能继续的领域。

I soon discovered, however, how few of my assumptions of what architecture would offer were actually true. With computer-aided design, it is possible design an entire soccer stadium without ever touching a pencil to paper. I found countless others who wanted to design buildings with a social agenda, but, as it turns out, the architectural discipline is deeply insecure about whether this is actually possible. And no one ever asked me to do one math problem to earn my Princeton degree.

然而很快，我就发现我对建筑学的很多理解都不够完整。随着科技的发展，电脑软件的普及，建筑师完全不需要在纸上画一笔，就能够设计出整个球场。我知道有很多人是怀着社会情怀选择建筑学，想通过设计建筑而为社会改变什么，但是事实上建筑学这门学科本身也并不知道这个愿望能否实现，人们还在这个领域里探索着。我不可能通过算出了一道数学题而得到在普林斯顿的建筑学毕业文凭。

I loved the subject, for the most part, nonetheless. I learned how interdisciplinary architecture could truly be. Though the correlation remains far from a simple cause and effect, as we would like, architecture remains an art form embedded in the real world. As such, it touches concerns as far reaching as geometric representation, philosophy of aesthetics, political economy, urban sociology. I learned that it is a discipline that examines itself relentlessly, and continually reexamines its relationship with the world around it. After spending hours writing academic papers in this field, it’s become second nature for me to continually reexamine my own intellectual relationship to the issues and concerns I see around me. Finally, while the design process can help create a building, it also applies to product design, filmmaking, urban planning, and countless other endeavors. I not only had to define the solution through my studio courses, but I had to define the problem.

但是无论如何，我依然很喜欢建筑学这门学科，因为它是现实世界里的一种艺术表现。在这四年里，我学到了建筑学是如何与很多其他学科复杂的融合在一起。例如建筑学牵涉到了几何的再现，美学，政治经济，社会学等多个方面，一遍又一遍不厌其烦的研究着建筑本身与周围环境的关系。当我完成了建筑学的数篇论文之后，我自然而然的也开始用建筑学的视角，研究我与周围环境的联系。建筑学教会我们，不仅要通过学过的知识来需找答案，更重要的是还需要一双发现问题的眼睛。

The lesson of my story is how unpredictable your academic experience in college will be, no matter how carefully you research and calculate your decisions. A course description listed by the registrar gives you as accurate an idea of what you will actually learn as does a movie trailer indicate the quality of a film. Based on both my own experience and that of my peers, the difference between expectations of a college major and the result can be just as far apart. The truth is you won’t know exactly what you will learn until you’ve already learned it.

我的经验告诉大家，不论你提前如何详细地研究、计划你的选择，大学学术体验总是那么的不可预测。课程介绍就像电影的预告片一样，并不能完全准确地告诉你一门课/电影会是什么样子。我的小伙伴们和我都有过多次的体会，那就是预想中的专业和一个专业的真正面目可能相差了十万八千里。但是不变的真理是你不会知道你要学的到底是什么直到你已经体会过，学到些什么了。

Fortunately, you will find your education will inform your life and career after college in all sorts of unexpected ways, and often the unexpected synthesis of diverse sets of knowledge create the most unexpected results. Harvard urbanist Edward Glaeser describes the importance of “collisions” in successful cities, whereby a high concentration of educated, creative individuals randomly meet, exchange ideas, and produce the innovative enterprises that spark economic growth. Employers want diversity for this same reason. A Slavic Literature and Language major will stand out in a pool of Business School applicants far more than one more Economics major (don’t quote me on that). My advice is, then, to be open to surprises and ready to adapt accordingly, no matter what you choose to study at the outset. When you are only 18, one year of college is over 5% of your life experiences, and that first 40-50% doesn’t even really count. One new idea can precipitate a whole lifetime of work.

幸运的是，你会发现在大学里受到的教育将会在你以后的职业、人生中以意想不到的形式让你受益。不同领域知识的融合往往会产生惊喜的结果。哈佛的城市规划家 Edward Glaeser 就曾经描述过融合对于一座城市的重要性。例如当城市里有一群来自不同学科背景的，有创造性思维的学者在一个地方偶遇、交流，当他们的思维发生碰撞、融合之后，很有可能会产生新兴的想法，从而促使该地更好的发展。这也是为什么招聘人员想要维持多样性，希望通过融合而产生创新的效益。在商学院的申请者里，一个斯拉夫语言与文学专业比再多一个经济学专业更能引人注目（仅代表个人意见，需要更多研究）。我的建议是无论你选择了什么专业，都尽可能的维持思维的包容性，为未知的惊喜准备。当你18岁的时候，一年的大学生活只占了你大约5%的人生经历，尤其是开头的40%、50%还不太算数，但是你在这不到5%的人生经历里，却很有可能学到改变一生的知识、观点！所以 Be open to surprises and ready to adapt accordingly! （翻译、编辑/欣茵）