We know that the brain caps off its second and last growth spurt in your 20s as it rewires itself for adulthood, which means that whatever it is you want to change about yourself, now is the time to change it. We know that personality changes more during your 20s than at any other time in life, and we know that female fertility peaks at age 28, and things get tricky after age 35.
我們知道人在20多歲的時候大腦停止第二次也是最后一次重組，以適應成年世界的快速發(fā)育階段。這就意味著不管你想怎樣改變自己，現(xiàn)在就是時間改變了。我們知道在20多歲的時候，性格的改變多于生命中任何時期。我們也知道女性的最佳生育時期在28歲的時候達到頂峰，35歲之后生育變得困難。

So your 20s are the time to educate yourself about your body and your options. So when we think about child development, we all know that the first five years are a critical period for language and attachment in the brain. It's a time when your ordinary, day-to-day life has an inordinate impact on who you will become.
所以你的20多歲正是了解你自身和選擇的時期。當我們想到孩童的成長時，我們都知道1-5歲是大腦學習語言和感知的重要時期。這個時期，日常的普通生活都會對你的未來道路影響巨大。

But what we hear less about is that there's such a thing as adult development, and our 20s are that critical period of adult development. But this isn't what twentysomethings are hearing. Newspapers talk about the changing timetable of adulthood.
但是我們卻很少聽到成年發(fā)展期，而我們的20多歲正是成年發(fā)展期的關鍵。但是20多歲的人卻聽不到這些，報紙討論的只是成年年齡界線的變更。

Researchers call the 20s an extended adolescence. Journalists coin silly nicknames for twentysomethings like "twixters" and "kidults." It's true. As a culture, we have trivialized what is actually the defining decade of adulthood.
研究者稱20多歲是延長的青春期。記者就引用傻傻的外號稱呼20多歲的人，比如“twixters” (twenty-mixters)和“kidults”(kid-adults)。 這是真的。作為一種文化，我們的忽視的正是對成年起到?jīng)Q定性作用的十年（從20歲到30歲）。

Leonard Bernstein said that to achieve great things, you need a plan and not quite enough time. Isn't that true? So what do you think happens when you pat a twentysomething on the head and you say, "You have 10 extra years to start your life"? Nothing happens. You have robbed that person of his urgency and ambition, and absolutely nothing happens.
雷昂納德·伯恩斯坦說過：要想取得成就，你需要一個計劃和緊迫的時間。這是大實話??！所以當你拍著一個20多歲的人的腦袋，跟他說，“你有額外的10年去開始你的生活”，你覺得這改變了什么？什么都沒改變。你只是奪走了那個人的緊迫感和雄心壯志，絕對沒有改變什么。

And then every day, smart, interesting twentysomethings like you or like your sons and daughters come into my office and say things like this: "I know my boyfriend's no good for me, but this relationship doesn't count. I'm just killing time." Or they say, "Everybody says as long as I get started on a career by the time I'm 30, I'll be fine."
然后每天，那些聰明有趣的20多歲的人就像你們和你們的兒子女兒一樣，走入我的辦公室開始說：“我知道我的男朋友對我不夠好，但是我們的關系不算數(shù)。我只是在消磨時光而已。”或者說“每個人都告訴我只要能在30歲的時候開始我的事業(yè)，這就足夠了?！?/div>

But then it starts to sound like this: "My 20s are almost over, and I have nothing to show for myself. I had a better résumé the day after I graduated from college." And then it starts to sound like this: "Dating in my 20s was like musical chairs. Everybody was running around and having fun, but then sometime around 30 it was like the music turned off and everybody started sitting down.
但是實際聽上去卻是：“我馬上就要三十了，卻根本就沒有東西展示。我只是在大學畢業(yè)時有過一份最漂亮的簡歷。” 或是這樣：“我20多歲時的約會就像找凳子。每個人都繞著凳子跑，隨便玩一玩，但是快30的時候就像音樂停止了，所有人開始坐下。

I didn't want to be the only one left standing up, so sometimes I think I married my husband because he was the closest chair to me at 30." Where are the twentysomethings here? Do not do that. Okay, now that sounds a little flip, but make no mistake, the stakes are very high.
我不想成為那唯一站著的人，所以有時候我會想我和我丈夫之所以會結(jié)婚，是因為在我30歲的時候，他是當時離我最近的那張凳子。在場的20多歲的人吶，千萬不要這樣做。這個做法聽起來有點輕率，但是不要犯錯，因為風險很高。