《旅程》米歇尔奥巴马自传阅读笔记（7）孩子是父母最好的投资

读高中时，法语课的老师告诉班上同学说，家里有条件负担得起的，可以和她一起参加去法国的旅行。米歇尔知道父母亲为了她和哥哥以后要上大学，省吃俭用，没有余钱供她去。所以也就没向爸爸妈妈提起这件事。

过了几天，爸爸妈妈把米歇尔叫过来。他们看上去有点困惑。my parents sat me down, looking puzzled. 原来妈妈从另一个同学的母亲那儿知道了学校组织学生去法国旅游的事。妈妈对她说，你为什么不把这件事告诉我们呢？作者回答说，那要花很多钱的。Because it’s too much money. 爸爸语气轻柔地说，That’s actually not for you to decide，he said softly. 这事不是由你来决定的。他又说，And how are we supposed to decide, if we don’t even know about it. 如果我们根本就不知道这件事，我们又怎么去做决定呢？

接下来这一段是作者对她父母近乎白描式的描述。

They were in their early forties the, married nearly twenty years. Neither of them ever vacationed in Europe. They never took beach trips or went out to dinner. They didn’t own a house. We were their investment, me and Craig. Everything went into us.

那年他们刚过四十。结婚在一起将近二十年。他们没有去欧洲休过一次假，也没去过海滨胜地，更没有去外面餐馆吃饭。他们没买房子，而是把所有的积蓄都投资到我和哥哥身上去了。