Your college years, the one time in your life when you can truly appreciate the art of staying up late.
大學是你人生中可以真正欣賞熬夜藝術的時光。
Others may be fooled into thinking that your sleepless nights are the result of intense study, but we know the real reason why you're burning the midnight oil.
別人都天真地以為你的每個不眠之夜都在刻苦讀書。然而只有我們知道，你的夜為何而熬。
Does this sound familiar? Every evening, after returning to your dorm, you sit checking your smartphone for a few minutes, which quickly turns into a few hours. When you do eventually get round to looking at your homework, you can only manage to write a few words before the tedium of it all overwhelms you.
你或許對以下情況十分熟悉。每晚回到宿舍，你想：要么就坐下先刷幾分鐘手機吧！然而，不知不覺就刷了幾小時。終于，你漫不經心地拿出作業本，寫上寥寥兩筆，困倦卻又立刻涌上心頭。
To stop from dozing off, you decide to play a video game — just a few rounds, to reinvigorate your mind and put the pep back in your step so you can start working again. But the next time you check the clock, it's already the wee hours of the morning.
為了保持清醒，你決定打打游戲，打兩盤就好。只要把困意消遣走，把精力玩回來，你就可以重新開始工作。但玩著玩著，你再次確認時間時，卻發現已經凌晨。
That's when the "panic monster" in your brain takes over and you realize there's no time left to procrastinate. So you grab a hold of your pen and get to work, on the one hand ruing the lack of time you have to complete your task, while also accepting compliments from your roommates who praise you for studying so hard.
那焦慮的怪獸悄然而至，掌控了你的大腦，終于到了不得不奮筆疾書之時。你拿起筆，開始挑燈夜戰，一邊抱怨著時間不夠用，一邊把室友對自己“夜晚還在努力學習”的謬贊當成動力。
You tell yourself you stay up late because you are a hard worker, never admitting that the only person you're fooling is yourself.
你麻痹自己：“熬夜，因為我努力。”但或許你自己都害怕承認，你的努力是裝給別人看的，你這根本就是在欺騙自己。
And so you start to feel guilty.
至此，你是否也感到了罪惡？
"Zhang, it's 8 o'clock! Are you really still at work? How diligent you are! I think someone's destined to get a promotion next year!"
“小張啊，晚上八點了還在加班！這么用功，明年你準升職啊！”
That's what your boss said, a whole 12 months ago. It turns out he's not much of a clairvoyant though, because it's been a year now and not only have you not been promoted, you're more exhausted than ever.
你的領導十二個月前就幫你立好了FLAG。而現實卻是，他似乎并沒有預知未來的千里眼。你努力了一年，非但沒有升職，還險些累壞了自己。
In the dark of night, only a few spots of light can be seen in your almost-empty office. Now and then, the silence is broken by a sudden flurry of keyboard taps, with you among the solitary few still around to be disturbed by them. Despite working overtime every day, you still haven't managed to reach the goals you set for yourself.
像往常一樣，辦公室的一片黑暗中，只看得見那么一兩道微光。偶爾幾聲鍵盤的敲擊是那么刺耳。你似乎是那加班的寥寥幾人中的常客。但雖然你每天都在加班，可也依舊沒有達到想要的目標。
But why should this be? You're careful not to get distracted by your phone, and rarely sit around daydreaming. Still, you've hardly anything to show for all the extra time you spend in the office. So you hold your head in your hands and cry out: where did the time go?
但這是為什么？你每時每刻都在警醒自己不能刷手機，也很少發呆，卻似乎也拿不出什么成果，證明你確實加了班。你扶著額頭獨自糾結：時間啊，到底都去哪兒了？
Well, perhaps you've failed to notice that the inefficiency of your efforts could never hope to lead to an effective result.
也許你自己都沒有發現，你在努力，卻使錯了力。你無效率的努力并沒有帶來任何效果。
You might feel busy every day, but in truth you're accomplishing little.
你也許每天都覺得自己很忙，但事實上你啥都沒完成。
All your time is spent imagining a grand future, without ever actually doing what's required to make that dream a reality.
你也許每時每刻都在妄想一個宏偉的未來，卻從來沒有為了實現它而真正去付出實踐。
In your mind, you work harder than anyone else, but your results show this to be a lie.
你自我感覺，你比任何人都工作努力。但結果卻告訴你，你在對自己撒謊。
So please, have a rethink. Let's stop it with the lying. Are you really trying hard, or are you hardly trying?
請重新思考：為何不停止這無用的謊言。我真的在努力嗎？還是我根本就沒努力？
（來源：中國日報雙語新聞編輯部）
