The very wealthy English Baron Fitzgerald had only one child, a son, who understandably was the apple of his eye. His wife died when the child was in his early teens. So Fitzgerald devoted himself to fathering the kid. Unluckily the son died in his late teens.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald’s wealth greatly increased. He spent a lot on art works of the masters.

Later Fitzgerald himself became seriously ill. Before his death, he had carefully prepared his will as to how his wealth would be settled—to sell his entire collection at an auction.

Because of the large quantity and high quality of his collection, a huge crowd of possible buyers gathered for the auction. Many of them were museum directors and private collectors eager to bid. Before the auction, the art works were shown, among which was a painting of Fitzgerald’s son by an unknown artist. Because of its poor quality, it received little attention.

When it was time for the auction, the auctioneer gaveled the crowd to attention. First the lawyer read from Fitzgerald’s will that the first art work to be auctioned was the painting of his son.

The poor-quality painting didn’t receive any bidders... except one — the old servant who had served the son and loved him, and who for emotional reasons offered the only bid.

As soon as the servant bought the painting for less than one English pound, the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked the lawyer to read again from the will. The crowd became quiet, and the lawyer read from the will, “Whoever buys the painting of my son gets all my collection.” Then the auction was over.

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取)to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.

Devon Gallagher, a college graduate from Philadelphia, wants the world to know exactly where she’s been during her worldwide vacation in a special way.

The traveler, who was born with a bone disease, had her right leg amputated(截肢) at the age of four. Although the amputation caused setbacks for Gallagher early on, she now sees it as inspiration for living her best life. To spread that message, Gallagher has taken to social media, where she shares photos of her travels across the globe, but instead of using geo-tag (地理位置标签), she writes her location across her artificial leg before taking a picture.

Now she has been taking pictures across the Continent, which show her cycling over the canal in Amsterdam, Holland, relaxing on a wall overlooking the city of Barcelona, Spain, posing with a waffle (华夫饼) in Brussels, Belgium, taking in the impressive Parthenon temple in Athens, Greece, and enjoying a river cruise in Budapest, Hungary, all with the well-known locations written on her artificial leg.

“I get a new leg every two years and I can choose the design on it. One day I had a sudden thought to get a chalk-board,” Gallagher said. “My mum and grandmother weren’t too keen on the idea, but my friends thought it was great and told me to go for it, so I did.”

“When I’m writing on my leg, people often stare, looking puzzled, but once I share the photos, I receive only positive feedback. Seeing this, I feel much fired up and decide to try more. My leg hasn’t stopped me from doing anything I’ve wanted to do. I don’t know if it’s my determination to prove to myself that I can do it, but regardless, I’ve been able to keep up with my peers and lead a pretty great life,” said Gallagher.

Gallagher shows us that you should never let anything stand in the way of your dreams. And if life gives you an artificial leg, make art.