妹妹在哥哥婚禮上的致辭

前言

 

幾天前，在哥哥的婚禮上，妹妹作為男方家唯一的演講嘉賓演講致辭，妹妹動情地講述了她從小對哥哥的崇拜、依賴，和哥哥對她持之以恒的幫助、關愛。妹妹動情風趣的演講多次贏得了在場嘉賓的熱烈掌聲和歡呼聲。

 

我從妹妹那裏要來了演講原稿，盡管我已經臨場聽過妹妹的演講，再讀講稿，依然心潮澎湃，講稿字裏行間，無不流露出濃濃的的兄妹之情。撇開情感因素，在我看來，講稿本身行文流暢、結構完整，是一篇難得的非常優美的散文。

 

下麵是英文原文，末後是我試著翻譯的講稿中文，與大家分享。

 

 

Thanks Tiffany! It’s gonna be hard to follow that speech. For the people out there who might not know me, I’m Casey — I’m Jesse’s little sister. I wanna start by thanking everybody for coming out to Colorado this weekend — Jesse and I really loved growing up out here. It’s a state that brings us both a lot of joy and pride, so I’m sure Jesse is really happy and grateful to have everyone here together.

 

Growing up, Jesse was always the person I looked up to. He always my one and only role model. I was such a stereotypical younger sibling — I really thought he could do no wrong. I remember when we were in elementary school, we both stayed at school for the after school program. They had a table for the big kids (meaning they fourth and fifth graders) and a table for the rest of the kids. All of us kids in the lower grades always thought the big kid table was the coolest place to be. They got the better activities and more importantly, seconds on the snacks. If you weren’t a big kid, you had to get the ever elusive invite to sit at the big kid table from a big kid themself. I didn’t really know any older kids, so when I was in third grade and Jesse was in fourth grade, I thought “this was my time, I’m finally going to be invited to sit at the big kid table.” I waited, and I waited, until I got the “ok fine I guess you can sit with us” from Jesse and I had never felt so honored. I was so proud to be the only third grader sitting at the big kid table, munching on my second serving of carrots and celery, bc I had connections.

 

One of things I’ve been the most proud of in my life is being Jesse’s little sister. In middle school, I was so proud to be the little sister of the kid who was winning all the mathcounts awards and clicking his little buzzer during the countdown rounds. In high school, he was always the kid with all the accomplishments — I just couldn’t keep up.

 

Since those golden years, Jesse’s grown a lot as a person too — he’s one of the first people I turn to when I’m going through tough times. He’s the one person in the whole world who has the same life experiences as I’ve had, so I never feel like I have to sugarcoat or explain myself. I can always count on him to take me seriously and have insightful things to say. I couldn’t ask for a better older brother.

 

So when he told me he was dating this girl Christine in college, I, of course, was skeptical. No one could ever be good enough for MY older brother. But when Christine stayed with us at home in Colorado over the first few months of the pandemic, I really got to know her better. I got to see how perfect they were for each other. Christine keeps Jesse grounded and keeps his head from getting too big. She makes sure he leaves the house once in a while and sees the world outside of his computer screen. But most importantly, Christine is kind and compassionate enough for the two of them.

 

I’ve always been so proud to have Jesse as my brother, and now I’m so proud to be able to call Christine my sister too. It’ll be an honor for us all to watch them grow old together, so let’s give another toast to the happy couple.

 

 

謝謝蒂芙尼！看來我接下來的演講要想做到和蒂芙尼的演講一樣好，會很難。在座的賓客中可能有些人還不認識我，我是凱西——我是傑西的妹妹。首先，我想感謝大家這個周末能來科羅拉多州——傑西和我真的很喜歡在這裏長大，科州給我們帶來很多快樂和自豪，所以我相信傑西真的很高興和感激大家能來到這裏。

 

在我成長過程中，傑西一直是我敬仰的人，他一直是我的一個且唯一的一個榜樣。我是這樣一個刻板的妹妹——我真的認為他從來不會做錯什麽。我記得我們上小學的時候，我們放學後都留在學校參加課外活動。那裏有一張給大孩子的桌子（這意味著他們是四年級和五年級的學生），還有一張給其他低年級孩子的桌子。我們所有低年級的孩子總是認為大孩子桌是最酷的地方，他們有更好的活動，更重要的是，有更多時間吃零食。如果你不是一個大孩子，你必須得到一個大孩子難以捉摸的邀請，才能坐在大孩子的桌子旁。我真的不認識任何大一點的孩子，所以當我上三年級，傑西上四年級時，我想“這是我的時間，我終於要被邀請坐在大孩子的桌子旁了。” 我等啊，等啊，直到我從傑西那裏得到“好吧，我想你可以和我們坐在一起”，我從未感到如此榮幸。我很自豪是唯一一個坐在大孩子桌旁的三年級學生，咀嚼著我的第二份胡蘿卜和芹菜，因為我有關係。

 

我一生中一直最自豪的事情之一就是做傑西的妹妹。在中學時，我為成為那個贏得所有中學數學比賽獎項並在計時搶答回合中不停點擊小蜂鳴器的孩子的妹妹感到非常自豪。在高中時，他總是那個擁有所有成就的孩子——我就是跟不上。

 

自那些黃金歲月以來，傑西作為一個人也成長了很多——當我遇到困難的時候，他是我首先求助的人之一。他是世界上唯一一個和我有一樣的生活經曆的人，所以我從不覺得我必須粉飾或解釋自己。我總是可以指望他認真對待我，跟我說有見地的話。我不能要求有一個更好的哥哥。

 

因此，當他告訴我他在大學裏和一個叫克裏斯汀的女孩約會時，我當然持懷疑態度，沒有人能配得上我的哥哥！但在疫情爆發的頭幾個月裏，當克裏斯汀和我們一起住在科羅拉多州的家中時，我的確更了解她了。我看到他們是一對多麽完美的組合，克裏斯汀讓傑西腳踏實地，防止他有太自負驕傲，她確保他偶爾離開家，看看電腦屏幕外的世界。但最重要的是，克裏斯汀對他們倆來說有足夠的善良和同情心。

 

我一直為傑西做我的哥哥而感到驕傲，現在我也為能稱克裏斯汀為我的姐姐而感到自豪，我們都將為能見證他們一起變老而深感榮幸，所以，讓我們再次為這幸福的一對幹杯！

 

[小棒棒]

感人的發言，兄妹感情真好。