Rowan stared at two emails open side by side on a laptop screen, both offering an internship for the coming summer. One was from a small design studio downtown; the other was from a well-known tech company two states away. Both had good reputations, and both had said yes.
罗文盯着笔记本电脑屏幕上并排打开的两封邮件，两封都是邀请去实习的，时间是即将到来的夏天。一封来自市中心的一家小型设计工作室；另一封来自两个州之外的一家知名科技公司。两家都口碑不错，而且都说了愿意录用。
The studio offer was unpaid but flexible, and the manager had promised real client work within the first week. The tech company offer came with a decent stipend, a dorm-style apartment, and a rotation through three different teams. Rowan's older roommate, Griffin, leaned over the couch to read both messages again.
工作室的邀请没有报酬，但很灵活，经理还承诺第一个星期就能接触真正的客户项目。科技公司的邀请则有一笔像样的补贴、一间宿舍式的公寓，还可以在三个不同的团队轮岗。罗文的室友格里芬年纪稍大，他从沙发上探过身子，又把两封信读了一遍。
"The tech one pays you," Griffin said. "That's not nothing."
“科技公司那个给你付钱，”格里芬说，“这可不是小事。”
"I know," Rowan said. "But the studio is smaller. I'd actually get to make things, not just sit in meetings."
“我知道，”罗文说，“可是工作室规模小一点。我是真的能做出东西来，而不是光坐着开会。”
Rowan had been weighing this for three days, and neither option was clearly better than the other. If money were the only factor, the choice would have been obvious. It wasn't, though, and that was exactly what made the decision so hard.
罗文已经为此权衡了三天，两个选择没有哪一个明显更好。如果钱是唯一的因素，答案就一目了然了。但偏偏不是，而这正是这个决定如此艰难的原因。
That night, Rowan called a professor who had mentored a few students through internships before. "There's no wrong answer here," the professor said. "One offer builds your resume faster. The other builds your portfolio. Ask yourself which one you'll actually be proud of in September."
那天晚上，罗文给一位曾指导过几名学生实习的教授打了电话。“这里没有错误的答案，”教授说，“一个机会能让你的简历更快丰满起来，另一个则能充实你的作品集。问问你自己，到九月的时候，你会为哪一个感到骄傲。”
Rowan hadn't thought about it in quite those terms before. The stipend was tempting, and moving somewhere new for a summer had its own appeal. But when Rowan imagined explaining the internship to a friend afterward, the studio work was the one worth describing in detail.
罗文以前从没有这样想过。补贴很诱人，在一个新地方过一个夏天也自有它的吸引力。可是当罗文想象着事后向朋友讲述这次实习时，值得细细描述的，是在工作室做的事。
Griffin wasn't fully convinced. "Just don't pick the harder one because it feels more impressive," he said, flipping through a textbook.
格里芬并没有完全被说服。“只是别因为难的那个显得更厉害，就选了它，”他一边翻着一本教科书一边说。
"I'm not," Rowan said, though it took another full day of thinking to be sure that was true.
“我没有，”罗文说，不过又想了整整一天，才确定这话是真的。
By Thursday evening, Rowan had made a decision that felt less like a compromise and more like an honest answer to the professor's question. The unpaid internship meant a tighter summer budget, but it also meant real, visible work by August.
到了星期四傍晚，罗文做出了一个决定，它与其说是一种折中，不如说是对教授那个问题的诚实回答。无薪的实习意味着这个夏天的预算更紧张，但也意味着到八月时，会有真实的、看得见的成果。
Rowan opened the reply to the design studio first. "I'd love to accept," Rowan typed, and hit send before any more doubt could creep back in.
罗文先打开了给设计工作室的回复。“我很乐意接受，”罗文敲下这句话，在更多的疑虑冒出来之前就点了发送。
