I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the _______at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I _______ trying. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was _______, disrespectful and rebellious.

It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the _______ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was _______ lost, and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I had no education and was _______ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day.

_______, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right _______. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of _______ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so ________. Over the years, as I grew into the ________ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books. ________, I practiced reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I knew I wanted to be a good role model, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I ________ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done ________.            

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they ________ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.

When in college, I liked natural world, but didn't love it. And the more I looked at what was _________ —an exploding world population, exploding levels of resource consumption, etc. --the_________ I became.

Then, I decided to _________ and something funny happened. It's a long _________, but basically I became a birdwatcher. At first I did this not without significant _________, because anything that _________ real passion is uncool. But little by little, I developed this _________first for the new species discovered and then, magically, I could _________ my heart overflow with love whenever I looked at a bird, any bird. That's where a (n) _________ mixture surfaced —my anger about the __________ was only increased when I learned more about the__________ that birds face; however, as I engaged in bird conservation, it became surprisingly __________ a live with that anger.

I guess my love for birds forced me to face a less self-centered part of myself that I’d never even known __________. It was a self that I had to either __________ or reject. My anger actually is rooted in the__________ that we're alive for a while but will die before long. Once again, I can either __________ this fact or, by way of __________, embrace it. .

When we stay in our room shrugging our shoulders, the problems outside are incredibly__________.But when we go out and put ourselves __________ real people, or even just real animals, there's a very real chance that some love might __________.

A couple of weeks ago, my grandfather was explaining his favorite expression, “Nothing is ever easy.” The following day, as I tried to complete my work, I happened to _______ a big bee on the skylight (天窗). It was high up, but I thought _______ it would take no more than 5 minutes. An hour later, the bee still remained. All that had _______ was that the living room was a mess and that I was dizzy (头晕目眩) from _______ into the sunlight. I didn’t expect to waste an hour on an insect so _______ but by doing so, I understood what my grandfather meant.

In our daily lives,we often think that we can solve problems just by taking the time. Besides, we often imagine what can work in our favour but we _______ think of all the negative things that can affect us. However, it is important to remember that your day or week or year may not go as _______ and that is completely normal. It is _______ acceptable to feel challenged — even at a task you thought was simple — because that is part of life.

If you can _______ that nothing will ever be easy, then life may seem slightly more manageable. In middle school, I thought high school might be easier because I could choose the classes I wanted to ________. In high school, I thought ________ might be easier because I could have a schedule best suited for myself. Yet each time, I was both wrong and disappointed. After accepting that school wouldn’t be easy, I found myself with a more positive attitude and ________ results.

Of course, there should be preparations made to account for expenses or time. Doing so can help you ________ your goals in a better way. However, there is no need to beat ourselves up (过分自责) when something stands in our ________. Maybe we cannot see a(n) ________ coming our way, but we can always give ourselves the extra time to catch it.