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，以便為幫助貧困的青少年籌備基金。

上次活動時，他在介紹我時說：“我想告訴大家我把房子借給杰克用的原因。回想起來，這故事跟一個小男孩有關，他的父親是位巡回馬術師，他從小就必須跟著父親東奔西波，挨個馬場或農場去訓馬，所以男孩的學業經常被打斷。高中快畢業時，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場。他詳細地描述了他的夢想，他甚至還畫了一張200畝農場的設計圖，上面標有所有的建筑，還有馬廄和跑道等。他在這個200畝夢想的農場中，詳細地畫了一棟占地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：‘對于像你這樣的年紀人來說，這是個不現實的夢想。你沒錢，你來自一個巡回訓馬的家庭，又沒有資源。要擁有一座農場需要不少的錢。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：‘如果你愿重寫一個比較現實的目標，我會重打你的分數。’

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

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

蒙提此時向眾人表示：“我提起這故事，是因為各位現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200畝農場的中央。那篇作文我現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個學生來我的農場露營一星期。離開之前，他對我說：‘蒙提，說來有些慚愧。做你的老師時，我曾對你的夢想潑過冷水。這些年來，我也對不少學生說過相同的話。幸虧你有這個毅力沒有放棄自己的夢想。’”

不論做什么事，相信你自己，別因為別人的打擊而放棄自己的夢想。

【人生啟迪】

我們每個人都渴望成功，于是我們給自己定好了目標，也努力朝著目標奮斗，但是很多時候卻因為別人的冷嘲熱諷而最終放棄了，當失敗的時候只會抱怨上帝沒有眷顧自己，沒有給自己成功的機會。其實想要獲得成功并不難，那就是堅定不移的朝著你的目標邁進，在別人冷嘲熱諷的時候繼續堅持，也許你離成功只有一步之遙！