“Always” and “never”, two words opposite in meaning, tend to characterize the vocabulary of black and white thinkers. Black and white thinking means seeing the world in terms of ________. If things aren’t _____, then black and white thinkers feel terrible. What a _____ way to live! In real life, situations are almost always shades of _____, not absolute black or white. Black and white thinking ________ to exacerbate（加剧）depression, conflicts in marriage, anxiety and many other everyday _____. Give yourself and the ones you love a break and ____ the beauty of shades of gray.

When small children are learning to use words and organize their thoughts, it is _______ for them to see and ________ their world in very black and white terms. When young children feel they are not ______, they think they _______ be hated. When a child feels his/her parents don’t pay ______ attention to him/her, that child will say, “You never pay attention to me.” Developmental psychologists _______ this “primitive thinking”.

_______, adults often regress（倒退） to primitive thinking. Adults tend to regress to primitive thinking _____ they have a hard _______ and feel frustrated by their own emotions. A regression is a slipping back from mature thinking to immature thinking.

If you learn to ________ the gray thinking in the difficult experiences you encounter in your life, you will be _____equipped to come out on top. Regression is not the only conclusion when you feel stressed, angry and confused. You can start to recognize when you are ______ to black and white thinking, and then make the choice to get rid of those extreme thoughts in favor of ____ living.

In 1984, I, a passionate student, was heading for the university with the dream of sitting on a Supreme Count bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a passionate _______ and one with quite a different tale to tell.

My grandma, a(n) _______ woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she _______ cancer. I made the choice to _______ from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to _______.

Then I got married with another _______: building my family with a combination of adopted and _______ children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then _______ son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

You can imagine how _______ occupied I became, raising four boys on my own. Our home was a complete zoo—joyous zoo. Not surprising. I never did ______________ it back to college full-time. ______________ I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant ______________ as few as one class each semester.

The hardest part was feeling ______________ about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There ______________ were times when I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set a(n) ______________ for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

In 2006, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my ______________ degree!

I am not special, just singe-minded. It always ______________ me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the ______________ it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in our life on one day. It’s a ______________. Remember: little steps ______________ big dreams.

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 the fourth grade, I ____ trying. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was lazy, difficult, ____.

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 ____ 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 ____ 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. ____, 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.Over and over, I practised reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role ____, 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 ____ for doing something that should have been done in the first place , but all things considered it was one of the best days in my life. Today, I’m a full-time college student, ____ to become sociologist.

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great ____ stories of triumph(胜利) 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.