So, like one day I was walking home from school and I heard the radio off in the distance and as I got closer, it was coming from above, which was a strange kind of orientation.

有一天，我走在放學回家的路上，聽到遠處傳來收音機的聲音，走近一聽，聲音是從頭頂上傳來的，這是一種奇怪的方位感。

And I look up and we had a two-story house and my mom, who's tiny, is perched on the top of the two-story house, like very precariously.

我抬頭一看，我們家有一棟兩層樓高的房子，我媽媽個子很小，就站在兩層樓高的房子頂上，岌岌可危。

And when you're little and you're short, it just, everything is amplified.

當你又小又矮的時候，一切都會被放大。

And I was like, Mom, I was like, is everything okay?

我想，媽媽，我想，一切都還好嗎？

Like, what are you doing up there?

比如，你在上面做什麼？

And in her very Jersey accent, she's like, uh, Rhi, I'm fine.

她用她的澤西口音說，呃，蕾，我很好。 And in her very Jersey accent, she's like, uh, Rhi, I'm fine.

You know, the roof had a leak in it.

你知道，屋頂漏水了。

I called the roofer.

我給屋頂工人打了電話。

He said, it's going to be at least 500 bucks.

他說，至少要 500 塊錢。

I said, screw that.

我說，去他媽的。

I went to the garage.

我去了車庫。

There was extra asphalt.

還有額外的瀝青。

I'm going to fix it.

我會修好它的。

And I was just like, okay, you know, that's mom.

我當時就想，好吧，你知道，這就是媽媽。

Another time I came home and I heard the radio like blaring from the back of the house.

還有一次，我回到家，聽到屋後傳來收音機的聲音。

So I walked to the back of the house and I saw the bathroom and it was like, the door was cracked open.

我走到房子後面，看到了浴室，門好像是開著的。

And as I pushed the door open, the whole room was filled with dust particles.

當我推開門時，整個房間都充滿了灰塵顆粒。

There's like pipes sticking out of the wall.

牆上好像有水管伸出來。

It looked like a bomb went off.

看起來就像炸彈爆炸了一樣。

I'm like, Mom, what are you doing?

我想，媽媽，你在做什麼？

Like, is everything okay?

比如，一切都還好嗎？

And she said, you know, the tiles had cracks in them and I didn't want the bathroom to get moldy.

她說，瓷磚有裂縫，我不想讓浴室發黴。

So I'm retiling the bathroom.

所以我要重新鋪設浴室的瓷磚。

Now, Tom, you got to get this again is the 1980s.

現在，湯姆，你得把這個再弄一遍，那是上世紀80年代。

My mom is high school educated.

我媽媽受過高中教育。

This was pre-internet, pre-YouTube, pre-Google.

那時還沒有互聯網，沒有 YouTube，也沒有谷歌。

I never knew like where I would find my mom or what I'd find her doing, but that radio was always my clue.

我從不知道在哪裡能找到媽媽，也不知道她在做什麼，但收音機總是我的線索。

So one day it was in the fall and in New Jersey, you know, the daylight savings had already passed.

有一天是秋天，在紐澤西，夏令時已經過去了。

So it was dark and it was spooky and I went home and it was totally silent and the house was dark, which is very odd for my family.

我回到家，家裡一片寂靜，漆黑一片，這對我的家人來說非常奇怪。

So I walk in and I had that pit in my stomach that you have when you're nervous that something's wrong.

所以我走進去，我的胃裡就像有個坑，當你緊張的時候，你就會覺得出了什麼問題。

And I start walking around the house and I didn't know where my mom was and I felt like something bad had happened.

我開始在屋子裡走來走去，我不知道媽媽在哪裡，我感覺好像發生了什麼不好的事情。

Then all of a sudden I heard these tiny clicks and clacks and I followed the sound to the kitchen and I saw my mom hunched over the kitchen table.

突然，我聽到咔嗒咔嗒的聲音，我循聲來到廚房，看到媽媽趴在廚房的桌子上。

It was like an operating room.

這裡就像一個手術室。

She had like electrical tape and screwdrivers and in a dozen or so little pieces, her Tropicana orange was completely dismantled.

她拿著電工膠帶和螺絲刀，抽成十幾個小塊，把她的 Tropicana 橘子拆得七零八落。

I was like, mom, that's your little radio.

我當時想，媽媽，那是你的小收音機。

What happened?

怎麼了？

Are you okay?

你還好嗎？

Is it broken?

它壞了嗎？

And she said, oh, it's fine.

她說，哦，沒關係。

You know, the antenna was off and the dial was not working right.

要知道，天線是關著的，錶盤也不正常。

So I'm fixing it.

所以我正在修復它。

And that was the first time I thought to ask the question that I really needed to ask all along, which was, how do you know how to do so many different things that you've never done before yet?

那是我第一次想到要問一個我一直都想問的問題，那就是：你怎麼會知道如何做這麼多你從未做過的不同事情？

No one's showing you how to do them.

沒人教你怎麼做。

And she like put down her screwdriver and she cocked her head and she looked at me and she's like, what are you talking about?

她放下螺絲刀，歪著頭看著我，說，你在說什麼？

It's not that big of a deal.

沒什麼大不了的。

Nothing in life is that complicated.

生活中沒有什麼是那麼複雜的。

You can do anything you set your mind to.

你可以做任何你想做的事。

If you roll up your sleeves, you get in there and you do it.

如果你擼起袖子加油幹，你就能做到。

Everything is figureoutable.

一切皆有可能。

And I was like, like just in that moment.

就在那一刻，我就覺得

And I will tell you this, I don't know, Tom, for sure whether she said those three words or that's what my childhood brain heard and translated because you know how we do that kind of thing.

湯姆，我要告訴你的是，我不確定是她說了這三個字，還是我童年的大腦聽到並翻譯了這三個字，因為你知道我們是怎麼做這種事的。

But that phrase got embedded in my soul on such a deep level.

但這句話卻深深地印在了我的靈魂深處。

And I just said it over and over again, like from continuing to get rejected on like sports teams and cheerleading and going again and again and like getting out of an abusive relationship to getting every part time job I've ever gotten, every full time job I've ever gotten, building the entire business.

我說了一遍又一遍，從不斷被運動隊和啦啦隊拒之門外，到一次又一次擺脫虐待關係，再到找到每一份兼職工作，每一份全職工作，建立起整個事業。

Like I still use that phrase every single day.

就像我現在每天還在用這句話一樣。

I realized as I became an adult, it's been the single biggest driving force of my life.

當我長大成人後，我意識到這是我生活中最大的驅動力。