佳作欣赏：Follow Your Dream！(ZT)

connie

Follow Your Dream
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0 j$ w! [- g# a4 H# qI 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
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/ g6 J" g/ \% ]* ]7 }' {. XThe 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
man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable
2 B; ?+ o- e' t% N9 _6 W" u1 Yto stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training
horses. As a result, the boy's high school career was continually interrupted.
When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted
to be and do when he grew up.
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'That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday
owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even
$ T3 Q0 Q2 D9 Hdrew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings,
the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot
house 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
* w' s! p. k+ E/ {handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back.
On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, `See me after
class.'

- \% Q; \* _  I  J; D  R'The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked,
`Why did I receive an F?'
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+ T8 r$ y( K; D# Z'The teacher said, `This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you.
2 x& h8 \4 S5 x) YYou have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources.
* R  t4 y/ u' Y/ _' K9 q" EOwning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land.
You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you'll have to
* T) i8 ]( ^5 gpay large stud fees. There's no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher
/ N  W( @' }9 ]4 yadded, `If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will
reconsider your grade.’
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2 m3 \3 h% f8 F/ G! G* W( u'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
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'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
& f# k; ~1 z' x0 I0 ]1 s8 @, Ekeep my dream.''
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Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, 'I tell you this story
because you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of
5 d) }# i- W# G$ U( }my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the
" b1 O: y: q- O, \, n' o# F8 M! o" rfireplace.' He added, 'The best part of the story is that two summers ago
. J& z8 n( p2 {1 }5 ithat same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week.'
3 x0 q7 D' I1 o4 CWhen the teacher was leaving, he said, `Look, Monty, I can tell you this
6 }3 Y9 F. T  E% _now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During
3 N7 p1 I7 c0 c  u* n( p" G7 c- Ithose years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption
2 F7 |- k% _# v% k: m( b7 U5 ]( e9 Tnot to give up on yours.’'
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Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

driver2004

mercurybird

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小叶子

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