①I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.

②Truth be told, I never graduated from college.

③And this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

④Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.

⑤That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

⑥The first story is about connecting the dots.

⑦I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months.

⑧But then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.

⑨So why did I drop out? It started before I was born.

⑩My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student.

⑪And she decided to put me up for adoption.

⑫She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.

⑬Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

⑭So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking.

commencement [kəˈmensmənt] n．毕业典礼

biological [ˌbaɪəˈlɒdʒɪkl] a．有血亲关系的

drop out of不参与，退出

adoption [əˈdɒpʃn] n．收养