介绍： 2 The rise of the "trauma essay" in college applications
大学申请中的“创伤作文”层出不穷

Speaker：Tina Yong，Writer、Researcher.

00:00
Secondly, the trauma essay makes one assumption that is extremely problematic. It's not always the learning opportunity through which you can gain more confidence or develo...

介绍： 2 The rise of the "trauma essay" in college applications
大学申请中的“创伤作文”层出不穷

Speaker：Tina Yong，Writer、Researcher.

00:00
Secondly, the trauma essay makes one assumption that is extremely problematic. It's not always the learning opportunity through which you can gain more confidence or develop better time management skills. Sometimes it's just a sucky thing that really sucks. And asking students to prove how they turn their pain into progress ignores this truth and falls prey to the toxic positivity narrative that everything happens for a reason, ignoring the very valid resentment and anger that many victims still feel.
第二，创伤作文有一个很有问题的预设。它不可能永远是个学习的机会，让你借此取得更多的自信或者培养更好的时间管理能力，有些烂事就是烂事。让学生证明他们是如何化痛苦为成长不仅无视了事实，也陷入了有毒的正能量故事，即万物皆有因，无视了很多受害者仍不能释怀的非常正当的怨恨和愤怒。

00:33
Lastly, the things we write aren't just informed by our experiences, they shape how we view those experiences as well. And if we're writing about our trauma to prove to an admissions officer that we are worthy of a decent education, then it becomes necessary to sanitize our pain, to make it marketable and strategic, to scrub away all the suffering, so all that's left is what will fit into the narrow margins of what is palatable.
最后一点，我们写下的内容不仅仅来源于我们的经历， 还会影响我们对这些经历的看法。 如果我们写下自己的创伤，是为了向招生官证明我们值得接受优质教育，那就有必要净化痛苦、 让它很有市场、很有技巧、抹消所有的磨难，这样剩下的就是符合“喜闻乐见”这一有限范围内的内容。

01:02
And this is what I see as being the fundamental contradiction at the heart of the trauma essay. It seems to give the writer free reign on vulnerability, but actually leaves them very little room to be vulnerable. Your story has to be just sad enough that it gains sympathy, but not so sad that it makes you seem beyond help. Just critical enough to inspire change, but not so much that it actually criticizes systemic structures. Just honest enough to seem real, but not so unfiltered that it creates discomfort.
这就是我认为创伤作文最核心的矛盾之处。看似是让作者自由支配自己的脆弱，实则只为他们的脆弱留下了一隅之地。你的故事得正好悲惨到足以引发同情，但不能悲惨到显得你无可救药。你的批判性想法得正好足以促成改变，但不能过火到批判系统结构。诚实到显得很真实，但不能放飞到造成不适。

01:38
The protagonist also overcomes whatever struggle they're facing by the end of the 500 word count, instilling the reader with a sense of optimism that despite our deeply unequal society, it is possible to rise through the ranks and overcome all the “-isms.”This, of course, is not the reality of our world today.
故事的主角得在500字结束之前，克服他们眼前的困难，向读者传递乐观的情绪，认为就算我们的社会严重不平等，依旧有可能提高地位，克服各种“主义”。这当然不是当今世界中的现实情况。

01:58
And for me, this looked like settling for the familiar story of the stinky lunch, one that's been told so many times that it's devoid of any real meaning, instead of talking about the ongoing social and political disenfranchisement of immigrants, the permanent loss of cultural identity that I suffered, or the sense of disbelonging that still haunts me every time I make a grammar mistake or someone mispronounces my name. These are all struggles that never really go away, but are carefully tucked away in my essay because they don't fit the linear narrative that is being constructed.
对我来说，这就像是自己咽下我刚说的恶心午餐的故事，翻来覆去都说烂了，还没有任何真正的意义，却没有人去讨论当下剥夺移民的社会、政治权利问题，我永远痛失文化身份的问题，或是缺乏归属感问题，每当我犯了个语法错误，或者有人读错我的名字时就会涌上我的心头。这些都是无法排遣的痛苦，但在作文中，我都得小心翼翼地把它们藏起来，因为它们无法融入精心打造的流畅故事线里。

02:35
But how are universities to blame for all of this? I mean, they never explicitly asked students to trauma-dump in their essays, and many admissions experts have actually come out and discouraged discussing explicit trauma in essays. However, I still don't think that universities are blameless.
大学应该为此负什么责任呢？它们从来没有明确要求学生在作文里大倒苦水，有很多招生专家其实站出来劝阻学生在作文里谈及明确的创伤。但我不认为大学是无辜的。

02:53
The reason why the trauma essay is so ubiquitous is because it seems to be working. Anne Trubek, who helped low-income high school students at Oberlin College write their essays, expresses the ethical dilemma that she faces. "By pushing students to reveal their horror stories, I risk taking away their dignity, but by not pushing, I could be hindering their chances of getting into their dream school."
创伤作文之所以大行其道是因为它似乎很有效。安妮·特鲁贝克（Anne Trubek） 帮助欧柏林学院的低收入高中生撰写作文，她说出了她面临的道德困境。“要是我鼓励学生展示他们可怕的故事，我就冒着夺走他们尊严的风险，但如果我没有鼓励他们这么做，我就在阻碍他们被梦校录取的机会。”

03:21
Whether trauma essays and acceptance letters are actually causally correlated is impossible to tell from the outside. So this could all just be speculation and myth. But in failing to resolutely clear up these speculations and myths about whether trauma essays are rewarded or discouraged, universities are indirectly enabling the rise of the trauma essay and all of its harmful implications.
创伤作文和录取信有没有严密的因果关系，从外部来看是无法断言的。所以我们只能通过推断或者流言判断。 但是，大学并没有坚决清除这些推测和流言，讨论它们到底鼓励还是不鼓励写创伤作文，所以它们间接导致了创伤作文和后续伤害的层出不穷。

03:47
So what are they to do about all of this? Well, first of all, I think that this is a problem that goes much deeper than individual universities, and even perhaps the institution of higher education itself. It's rooted in the cultural obsession with appropriating trauma and making it consumable, as well as the systemic tendency to tokenize oppressed people and their experiences.
那它们该做些什么呢？首先，我认为这不仅仅是某个大学的问题，甚至不是高等教育体系本身的问题。它归根结底来源于挪用创伤、让它为人津津乐道的文化执念，还有一个系统上的习惯，总是想标签化这些受压迫的人和他们的经历。

04:11
But there are still things that universities can do to make things better. First, they can be more transparent about their admissions guidelines. If it's really true that they don't want to reward trauma storytelling just for the sake of it, then they should be more forthcoming about this expectation. They could also restructure their prompts to avoid putting pressure on students to talk about past hardships and adversities and instead refocus prompts to ask students about their goals for the future and their academic interests.
但为了改善这个局面，还是有大学能做的事的。首先，它们可以让招生标准更加公开透明。 如果它们确实不想奖励无谓的创伤故事，那就应该更直接地表明这个要求。它们也可以重新组织一下题目，避免给学生施加压力，谈论过往的艰难和困境，而是将题目聚焦在要求学生谈一谈对未来的目标和学术兴趣。

04:42
Secondly, admissions counselors should be trauma-informed and trained in working with BIPOC folk. As the unofficial gatekeepers to the secrets of getting into your dream college, they should wield their power responsibly and not pressure students to talk about traumatic experiences that they're not yet ready to talk about.
第二，招生顾问在与黑人、原住民和有色人种（BIPOC）交流时，应更了解他们的创伤，更加训练有素。作为保守踏入梦校秘密的非官方守门人，他们应该负责任地发挥他们的力量， 不要逼迫学生说出他们还没准备好谈论的创伤经历。

05:00
Lastly -- and this one's for anyone who's actually applying to a postsecondary institution sometime soon -- remember that you are more than the bad things that happened to you. I know that when it seems like every other classmate of yours is writing an essay that could be adapted for an HBO original drama, that you may feel like your experiences are not worth talking about. But I promise that they are. You just have to find your voice and use it.
最后，也送给每一位在不久的将来要申请高中后教育机会的申请人，记住，你身上发生的坏事不是你的一切。我知道，你的每个同学都在写那种可以改编成 HBO 原创电视剧的作文， 你可能会觉得你的经历根本不值一提。但我可以向你保证，它们值得一提。 你只需要找到你的发言权，去使用它。

05:29
Now as much as I don't want to live that nail-bitingly stressful time of my life ever again, I can't help but wonder: what would I have written about if I got the chance to apply to UBC again? This time absent the pressure to strategically use my immigrant background to gain sympathy points.
虽然我不想再经历那段神经紧绷的时光，但我不禁想：如果我可以再申请一次UBC（不列颠哥伦比亚大学），我会写些什么呢？这次，不再有巧妙利用我的移民背景博取同情分的压力。

05:48
Maybe I would have written about how I overcame my fear of public speaking and became comfortable with being the loudest voice in the room. Or I could have written about watching trashy reality television is what first sparked my interest in political science. Or maybe I still would have written about my immigrant story because that was a big part of my life journey and still impacts me to this day. But I would have done it on my own terms. Instead of being written as a one-dimensional, trauma-turned-triumph trauma drama, I would have been able to tell a story that actually reflects who I am today and acknowledge the fact that my journey is ongoing and it doesn't begin or end with my racial identity.
也许我可以写一写我如何克服公开发言的恐惧，适应成为在场最愿意发表意见的人。我也可以写一写看很烂的真人秀是激起我对政治学的兴趣的第一个火种。也许我还是可以写一写我的移民故事，但只是因为它是我人生旅途中的一大篇章，时至今日依然在影响着我。但我会用我自己的方式写下这个故事。我不会把它写成单一维度的、“克服创伤，取得胜利”的创伤大戏，而是让它讲述现在的我是谁，证明我的旅程还在进行中，它不会因我的种族身份开始或结束。

06:35
This is the kind of ownership that I wish for everyone to one day have over their story. And now it's up for universities to decide whether they get to tell it.
这就是我希望每个人都能拥有的对他们自己故事的主导权。现在就取决于大学给不给他们机会说出这个故事了。

Thank you！