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
man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable
4 u$ T  C6 z5 \1 e3 c3 c$ fto 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
2 z/ @' ]$ I' V$ {& J0 n8 Dto be and do when he grew up.

7 l1 A, D4 {  }9 h) ?& s; O'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
drew 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
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.'
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$ J) E* V( z/ {, P'The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked,
# }0 X8 f( r( u3 `: u% _`Why did I receive an F?'

+ y1 Y0 k* p$ }'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.
, S$ S: s: L6 k. w0 I7 E/ I: _Owning 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
pay large stud fees. There's no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher
added, `If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will
0 ^. ~# p3 D5 _" dreconsider your grade.’

'The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father
0 `6 I4 i& i# C7 b" Nwhat he should do. His father said, `Look, son, you have to make up your
  W! B9 A/ N3 V3 w4 q- V$ ^own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for
you.’
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2 V5 ~8 Z8 a6 O4 P'Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same
7 B0 |7 {3 T4 x: `paper, making no changes at all. He stated, `You can keep the F and I'll
% ]9 `5 ^3 D9 [' Z) \5 lkeep my dream.''
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. E9 E- H( g9 e+ R% ~1 SMonty 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
4 g) _" ]. R. F+ D; Pmy 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the
5 t# e6 ~$ R' {* |fireplace.' 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
$ g, ~) I- S& g9 I  y/ Ynow. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During
those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption
3 O, k) ?+ j+ n4 Wnot to give up on yours.’'
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9 J# M) D/ q7 O; f+ e: E2 ZDon't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

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