追隨夢想

Follow the dream

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has often let me use his house to put on fund-raising events to raise money for poor youth.

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 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.

“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.

“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.’

“The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, `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. 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 reconsider 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.’

“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.’”

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 my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the 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 now. 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 not to give up yours.’”

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

【助讀詞匯】

◇ranch n.（尤指美國或加拿大的）大牧場

◇itinerant  adj. 巡回的 n. 巡回者

◇gumption  n. 魄力，勇氣

【參考譯文】

追隨夢想

我有個(gè)朋友叫蒙提·羅伯茲，他在圣思多羅有座牧馬場。我常借用他寬敞的住宅舉辦募款活動(dòng)，以便為幫助貧困的青少年籌備基金。

上次活動(dòng)時(shí)，他在介紹我時(shí)說：“我想告訴大家我把房子借給杰克用的原因。回想起來，這故事跟一個(gè)小男孩有關(guān)，他的父親是位巡回馬術(shù)師，他從小就必須跟著父親東奔西波，挨個(gè)馬場或農(nóng)場去訓(xùn)馬，所以男孩的學(xué)業(yè)經(jīng)常被打斷。高中快畢業(yè)時(shí)，有次老師叫他寫一篇作文，題目是長大后的志愿。

“那晚他寫了7張紙來描述他的偉大志愿，那就是將來有一天能擁有一座屬于自己的牧馬農(nóng)場。他詳細(xì)地描述了他的夢想，他甚至還畫了一張200畝農(nóng)場的設(shè)計(jì)圖，上面標(biāo)有所有的建筑，還有馬廄和跑道等。他在這個(gè)200畝夢想的農(nóng)場中，詳細(xì)地畫了一棟占地4000平方英尺的住宅。

“他花了好大心血把作文完成，第二天交給了老師。兩天后他拿回了作文，第一頁上打了一個(gè)又紅又大的F，旁邊還寫了一行字：下課后來見我。

“腦中充滿夢想的他下課后去找老師：‘為什么給我F？’

“老師回答道：‘對(duì)于像你這樣的年紀(jì)人來說，這是個(gè)不現(xiàn)實(shí)的夢想。你沒錢，你來自一個(gè)巡回訓(xùn)馬的家庭，又沒有資源。要擁有一座農(nóng)場需要不少的錢。你要花錢買地，花錢買純種馬匹，花錢照顧它們。你沒有辦法做到這些。’他接著又說：‘如果你愿重寫一個(gè)比較現(xiàn)實(shí)的目標(biāo)，我會(huì)重打你的分?jǐn)?shù)。’

“這男孩回家后反復(fù)思量了這個(gè)問題，然后他征詢父親的意見。父親只是告訴他：‘兒子，這個(gè)問題你得自己拿定主意，但它對(duì)你來說是一個(gè)非常重要的決定。’

“最終，在思量了一個(gè)星期之后，他決定原稿交回，一個(gè)字都不改。他告訴老師：‘即使拿個(gè)大紅字，我也不愿放棄夢想。’”

蒙提此時(shí)向眾人表示：“我提起這故事，是因?yàn)楦魑滑F(xiàn)在就坐在我這座占地4000平方英尺的房子里，而這座房子就位于一個(gè)200畝農(nóng)場的中央。那篇作文我現(xiàn)在仍保存在壁爐上面。”他頓了一下又說：“有意思的是，兩年前的夏天，那位老師帶了30個(gè)學(xué)生來我的農(nóng)場露營一星期。離開之前，他對(duì)我說：‘蒙提，說來有些慚愧。做你的老師時(shí)，我曾對(duì)你的夢想潑過冷水。這些年來，我也對(duì)不少學(xué)生說過相同的話。幸虧你有這個(gè)毅力沒有放棄自己的夢想。’”

不論做什么事，相信你自己，別因?yàn)閯e人的打擊而放棄自己的夢想。

【人生啟迪】

我們每個(gè)人都渴望成功，于是我們給自己定好了目標(biāo)，也努力朝著目標(biāo)奮斗，但是很多時(shí)候卻因?yàn)閯e人的冷嘲熱諷而最終放棄了，當(dāng)失敗的時(shí)候只會(huì)抱怨上帝沒有眷顧自己，沒有給自己成功的機(jī)會(huì)。其實(shí)想要獲得成功并不難，那就是堅(jiān)定不移的朝著你的目標(biāo)邁進(jìn)，在別人冷嘲熱諷的時(shí)候繼續(xù)堅(jiān)持，也許你離成功只有一步之遙！