佳作欣赏：Follow Your Dream！(ZT)

connie

Follow Your Dream
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  L; S/ a  V) K: m7 B! I- ~I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro.
7 L4 I* Z* l8 L, ~  MHe 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
+ ]; v" ~0 t- |1 f# z8 ~to 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
, k8 f( S* K' I8 X" G0 N* eowning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even
7 v; V- H, t: y. l7 i1 @. s7 xdrew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings,
' R. E$ l1 {( m# o% Xthe 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.

'He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he
; L( o) E! d3 d- K7 A5 o9 C; }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.'

'The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked,
`Why did I receive an F?'

2 D+ u( X3 A% ^'The teacher said, `This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you.
0 |8 z8 K# s9 d8 f- [, yYou have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources.
Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land.
) Z; _; T+ M! u+ a: ?# QYou 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
$ a0 i2 z4 I3 q3 x* ereconsider your grade.’
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'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
$ d9 p4 t: d6 j/ T; }- e6 dyou.’

  U  ~4 ]' y- F, p6 u/ m/ L. i'Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same
: o& O4 [/ W2 Apaper, 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
( a# _* B7 `0 w* x3 M* M. xbecause you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of
3 F4 N/ T) Q, h% fmy 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the
  j- t2 S/ U5 sfireplace.' 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.'
1 m* y" ^$ ?: e- GWhen the teacher was leaving, he said, `Look, Monty, I can tell you this
$ w; V0 Z3 n9 M' }' O5 E0 anow. 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
- }1 o8 j1 \9 s8 u$ F6 |not to give up on yours.’'

Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

driver2004

mercurybird

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