佳作欣赏：Follow Your Dream！(ZT)

connie

Follow Your Dream


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I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro.
He has let me use his house to put on fund-raising events to raise money
for youth at risk programs.
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The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, 'I want to tell you
why I let Jack use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young
' H8 P# p$ Y) g% R% l. x$ b, Z7 pman who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable
% d7 T) K- h( q3 g; rto stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training
7 ]  y' ~& l: i" P9 u. Dhorses. As a result, the boy's high school career was continually interrupted.
) [3 t2 ^' J- }When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted
6 @  g7 E  U- X$ A& I0 Vto be and do when he grew up.

! g( }/ Q9 t( A'That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday
- a4 H  X4 ^+ {+ `owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even
drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings,
6 z& `, H! W$ `6 }the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot
2 K( b# N0 j4 z. Zhouse that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.
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'He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he
handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back.
: Z6 Y' D" U' ^On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, `See me after
# L/ s" T% J. Kclass.'

'The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked,
! [5 u3 W0 g$ q' A`Why did I receive an F?'

'The teacher said, `This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you.
You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources.
' @0 O) _$ A6 |, P6 R* }- UOwning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land.
8 A6 e0 ?  e9 v; F! I( Z( }3 NYou have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you'll have to
pay large stud fees. There's no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher
9 e" }) c: ]5 J( w4 R$ [& \added, `If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will
+ b% ^. R  a8 n! Freconsider your grade.’

'The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father
what he should do. His father said, `Look, son, you have to make up your
own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for
you.’
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4 ]0 |3 Q( G$ D+ ]$ ]# I'Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same
paper, making no changes at all. He stated, `You can keep the F and I'll
keep my dream.''
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Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, 'I tell you this story
' m& u( N  }8 a) w; zbecause you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of
my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the
! D/ l$ q+ j: yfireplace.' He added, 'The best part of the story is that two summers ago
that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week.'
When the teacher was leaving, he said, `Look, Monty, I can tell you this
now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During
4 D9 ?4 ~) @+ N! gthose years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption
7 i0 B0 R' n' o  _' \not to give up on yours.’'
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Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

driver2004

mercurybird

Fine

小叶子

顶