为什么有了小孩就意味着搬家?

Why having a kid means moving away

为什么有了小孩就意味着搬家？

D. Watkins from East Baltimore is how I'm often introduced. I'm proud of that, because being from East Baltimore to me means resiliency, heart, grit, and a willingness to take chances.

我经常介绍自己是‘来自东巴尔的摩的沃特金斯（D. Watkins）’。我为此感到自豪，因为来自东巴尔的摩意味着我坚韧，且有毅力和勇气去把握一切机会。

One time in North Carolina, I mouthed off to a pack of angry cops like they don't essentially have a license to kill people who look like me. In Cairo I paid a taxi driver to let me wheel his car around so I could feel like a local. I walked through Abuja, Nigeria, weeks after the United Nations building was bombed, even though I could still smell the smoke. Why? Probably because I'm from East Baltimore, and I always feel like I’ve seen worse.

有次在北卡罗来纳州，我向一群愤怒的警察吐口水，就好像他们根本奈何不了我一样。在开罗，我把钱给了出租车司机，然后开着他的车到处转悠，就好像我是本地人一样。联合国大楼爆炸后的几个星期，我步行穿梭在尼日利亚首都阿布贾市，即使这时候我还是能闻到爆炸后的余烟。为什么我要这么做？可能是因为我来自东巴尔的摩吧——总感觉自己遇到过更糟糕的事情。

Before I found out my wife Caron was pregnant, I was also "D. Watkins who's never leaving East Baltimore." Navy SEALs couldn't drag me out. These streets are part of me: every block, the couch in Latrobe, then off to Calvert Street. East Baltimore was home.

在发现妻子卡伦（Caron）怀孕之前，我还曾是“永远不会离开东巴尔的摩的沃特金斯”，海豹突击队都赶不走我。这些街道是我的一部分：每一个街区，拉特罗布的沙发，以及卡尔弗特街。东巴尔的摩就是我的家。

In fact, the day my wife told me that she was pregnant, I started looking for houses with yards in one of the safer East Baltimore neighborhoods, like Charles Village or Original Northwood in northeast. I don't even know why I suddenly cared so much about having a yard — I never had a yard growing up — but it seems like good parents have yards for their kids. I decided my son — I don't know why I assumed it would be a son — would have a house with a nice yard, in the safest East Baltimore neighborhood.

事实上，在妻子告诉我怀孕的那天后，我便开始在东巴尔的摩较安全的社区之一（例如查尔斯村或东北方向的原始诺斯伍德）寻找带院子的房子。我甚至不知道为什么我想要找一间带院子的房子——我的成长环境中就不曾有过院子——但似乎好的父母就应该为他们的孩子准备一间院子。我决定让我的儿子——我也不知为何会觉得它是个儿子——在东巴尔的摩最安全的社区拥有一间带漂亮院子的房子。

Then I found out we were having a daughter, and suddenly "safe East Baltimore" seemed like an oxymoron. Raising her in a community we know so well is also scary. Will our daughter get the chance to create her own legacy, or be forced to ride the wave of accumulated privilege we have created for her? Between my wife and I, we know everybody here: politicians, rappers, teachers, gang members, pastors, pimps, drug lords, award-winning chefs, the law, and the entire art community, it seems.

孩子出生后，我们发现是个女儿，突然间“安全的东巴尔的摩”变得矛盾起来。在这个我们所熟知的社区将她抚养长大是件很可怕的事情。我们的女儿是否有机会创造自己的财富，还是被迫踏上我们为她准备的道路？这里有着形形色色的人：政治家、说唱歌手、老师、帮派成员、牧师、皮条客、毒品大亨、屡获殊荣的厨师、律师、以及几乎整个艺术界。