It feels like every time my mother and I start to have a conversation, it turns into an argument. We talk about something as simple as dinner plans and suddenly, my mother will push the conversation into World War 3. She’ll talk about my lack of bright future because I don’t plan to be a doctor. And much to her disappointment, I don’t want to do any job related to science, either. In fact, when I was pushed to say that I planned to major in English and communications, she nearly had a heart attack.

“Why can’t you be like my co-worker’s son?” she bemoans all the time. Her co-worker’s son received a four-year scholarship and is now earning 70,000 dollars a year as an engineer. I don’t know what to answer except that I simply can’t be like Mr. Perfect as I’ve called the unnamed co-worker’s son. I can’t be like him. I am the type of the person who loves to help out in the community, write until the sun goes down, and most of all, wants to achieve a career because I love it, not because of a fame or salary.

I understand why my mother is worried about my future major. I’ve seen my mother struggle to raise me on her small salary and work long hours. She leaves the house around 6:30 am and usually comes home around 5 pm or even 6 pm. However, I want her to know that by becoming a doctor, it doesn’t mean I’ll be successful. I’d rather follow my dreams and create my own future.

Hi! My name is Rachel. I'm 14 years old, in the eighth grade, and I live on a dairy farm(牛奶场)in Michigan with my dad, mom, grandma and my 12-year-old brother, Andy. I want to tell you what life is like on a dairy farm!

On our dairy farm, we milk about 55 cows twice a day at five o'clock in the morning and five o'clock in the afternoon. We also have quite a few calves, some bulls and dry cows. Calves are babies, bulls are fathers of the calves, and dry cows are the adult cows who are pregnant(怀孕) and close to having their calves. So we don't milk the dry cow.

My brother and I help my dad with evening housework on school days. My mom works for the Michigan Department of Agriculture(密歇根农业部), so she helps out on the weekend. As we are at school or work on weekdays, my grandma helps my dad milk and feed the animals on weekday mornings. All of us are busy, but we all enjoy our farm life!

My favorite part of living on the farm is talking care of the baby animals. What I hate to do is have to get up so early, especially on the weekend!

When it's time to milk the cows, one person has to push the cows into the milk house, and another gets the cows ready for milking. If you look here, you can see milk flowing from the cow into a milk line and to the big milk tank(贮乳槽)in the milk house. It makes you thirsty, doesn't it?