Working hard comes naturally to me. The company I work for hired me as a claims researcher and in one year promoted me to head of the Northeast Region Follow-Up Team.

“When are you going to finish?” My husband Joe said as he climbed into bed. “In a few minutes,” I replied. My track record offered Joe little reason to believe me. Finishing was always just a moment or two away. Then after I knew he was sound asleep, I’d gather my paperwork and move to the kitchen table and work for a few more hours.

Somewhere along the way, I found my enthusiasm for living was replaced with hard boring work that robbed me of both peace and pleasure. As the company expanded, my responsibility grew heavier every day.

Resigning would end the madness and Joe encouraged me to do so daily “Just do it, Annie. Quit. You’re heading for a break down.”

One day an email appeared on my computer screen. When I opened it, the words “Administrative assistant for senior vice president” caught my eye. No, I thought. They’d think I was crazy. Who in their right mind would stop back to a secretarial position from a management position?

At home that evening my interest in the new job persisted. I had ten years of experience as an executive secretary long before I ever arrived at the company.

The next morning I told my boss I intended to apply for the job. “You’re in for a huge salary cut, and you’ll lose your bonus,” he said, “You’re a leader, Annmarie, not a follower. How is it that you think this makes any kind of sense? You’re crazy.”

“Not yet,” I said “But if I stay in this position much longer, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up that way.”

Admittedly, the manager of human resources was shocked too, but from a budgetary standpoint it’s hard to say no to someone who’s asking for a salary cut and a decrease in benefits. That’s pretty much a novelty(新鲜事) you don’t run into every day.

I closed the door to my office that last day with very few regrets about leaving my management position. By the end of my first day in the new position I knew I had made the right decision. No office, staff, salary, or bonus check can ever replace this new feeling of waking up every morning and actually wanting to go to work. When I leave at the end of the day, I take nothing with me but my desire to come back tomorrow knowing that I am respected and appreciated.

My husband always tells me I can’t put a price on peace of mind. It looks like my path to peace turned up none too soon!

The Make-up Guy

Dave was a make-up(化妆) artist who regularly held makeup artistry classes at the local community college. He was well known as an excellent trainer and enjoyed great popularity.

Usually, the majority of his students were middle-aged housewives, who wanted to improve their make-up skills so as to make themselves more attractive. But this time, it was beyond him that his class was attended by a man as well.

The new student was a gentleman in his best years with a seemingly boundless interest in make-up artistry. He was keen(热切地) to learn as much as he possibly could and asked questions whenever and wherever possible. He was so absorbed in learning that he wouldn’t stop until he was satisfied with the result of his work.

Understandably, the man was the number one subject of conversation when the other women were alone.

Speculations(猜测) quickly started to spread. Why did he learn make-up? Was he to seek for a woman to be his life partner? How about my neighbor’s youngest daughter? Why on earth would he attend such a woman class? Who could it be?

Doubts like this came crowding in.

The community college was placed in a remote rural area, which was why the other participants were quite doubtful of the man's intentions.

Throughout the lessons, ignoring the curious women around him, the man carefully listened and wrote everything down learned, leaving the women more and more curious and puzzled.

When the day and class were slowly coming to an end, the gossiping women simply could not hide their curiosity any longer, for they knew it was time to remove their doubts, otherwise?

Finally, one of them couldn’t resist her curiosity, so she picked up the courage and asked him why he was so interested in make-up artistry.

What followed was a dead silence. After what seemed a century, he slowly opened his mouth and here came the most inspiring beautiful reply.

In my memory, my dad always encouraged me to be my best self, explore the world, and believe in those who cared and loved me, which helped to make me who I am today. Besides, I’ve grown up with a pretty good model that my father always was.

One year, my father nearly lost his life. He was twenty-seven years old then. For several months, he’d been suffering from stomach pains. My dad was a former track star, so he knew how to handle pain. Convinced it was nothing serious, he just made a face until it was over whenever it flared up. My mom and dad were visiting his parents in Englewood, New Jersey when extreme pain struck my dad again. However, that time, the pain didn’t fade away although my father tried to take control of it. Meanwhile, my dad developed a high fever. My grandparents rushed him to a nearby hospital. The doctors in the emergency room were confused about his condition. My dad’s symptoms seemed consistent with appendicitis (阑尾炎), but the pain wasn’t localized to the lower part of his stomach, where the appendix (阑尾) is located. While they were debating what to do, a 33-year-old surgeon named Dr. Ibrahim, spoke up, “It must be an appendix.” Dr. Ibrahim guessed it was a rare condition and insisted that my dad should receive an operation immediately, although others were against his decision.

Dr. Ibrahim turned out to be very correct. My dad was wheeled into surgery and his appendix was removed just before it could burst and cause a deadly infection. At last, he got rid of danger.

What if my father hadn’t been in Englewood that day? What if young Dr. Ibrahim hadn’t considered? He was in the right place at the right time, and it saved his life. Now I am a father of two children. Like my father I will never forget Dr. Ibrahim.