What You'll Wish You'd Known은 PG가 고등학생들을 대상으로한 스피치를 위해 쓴 글입니다. 그러나 학교 당국이 초대를 거부해서 연설은 없었고 결국 글만이 남았죠. 이 글은 저보다 10살은 어린 이들을 위한 글이란 이유로 제가 가장 오랬동안 미루어둔 그의 글입니다. 하지만 거의 모든 대학생과 직장인에게도 이 글은 유효할 것이라 생각됩니다. 어쩌면, 오히려 더.
If I had to go through high school again,
I'd treat it like a day job. I don't mean that I'd slack in school. Working at something as a day job doesn't mean doing it badly. It means not being defined by it. I mean I wouldn't think of myself as a high school student, just as a musician with a day job as a waiter doesn't think of himself as a waiter.
(중략)
Right now most of you feel your job in life is to be a promising college applicant. But that means you're designing your life to satisfy a process so mindless that there's a whole industry devoted to subverting it. No wonder you become cynical. The malaise you feel is the same that a producer of reality TV shows or a tobacco industry executive feels.
(중략)
Your life doesn't have to be shaped by admissions officers. It could be shaped by your own curiosity. It is for all ambitious adults. And you don't have to wait to start. In fact, you don't have to wait to be an adult. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age.
참고로 이 글은 결코 "열정" 이나 "지금 당장"을 대책 없이 강조하는 faked enthusiasm에 대한 것이 아닙니다. PG는 학교를 그만두고 하고 싶은 일을 찾으라고 말하지 않고, 그 정반대를 말했습니다. (보통 학업 성적이 우수해야 PG가 말하는 '언제나 많은 선택권'을 가지기 쉽습니다.) 다만 학생 신분을 자신의 아이덴티티로 삼아서 결국 인생에 중요하지 않은 일로 바빠지거나 시간을 낭비하지 말라는 것이죠. It means
not being defined by it.