Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.

My father is famous in our family for saying “Take the extra minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “extra minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.

I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say “I love you” or “I forgive you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he was 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.

I know there will still be occasions when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality. And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.

As a senior high school student, my future is always on my mind. To be exact, thoughts of the future have kept me up countless nights and made me worry enough to do poorly on more than one test. Because of this, words of wisdom are a source of comfort. Steve Jobs gave a speech to Stanford’s graduating class in 2005 and his words resound repeatedly in my mind whenever I think about my future.

It wasn’t always like that, though. It started when I became a junior, when college came into view. It’s the first big step to making your life your own. So when Jobs discussed his life as a student, some fears were eased. He, too, felt the need to attend college to make something of himself. He faced what many are extremely afraid of: uncertainty. His lack of understanding caused him to stop attending college and focus on what he felt was important. His story had a happy ending, of course, since he certainly turned out well.

This doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t attend college, but rather that they shouldn’t worry so much. You’ll get where you need to go, even if your path is a bit more winding（蜿蜒的）than you’d like.

Jobs talked about the hardships in his work. His love of his work helped him carry on and he got where he was meant to be, which restates the point: don’t panic.

One particular part of his speech stayed with me. Steve Jobs quoted（引用）the saying “Stay hungry, stay foolish” and it has become my motto. Staying foolish is realizing that you are still a fool, no matter how much you’ve learned or experienced. There is always more to explore. Staying hungry is wanting to find those things about which you are still uneducated.

Steve Jobs’s level of success is attainable, and I aim to prove that. With the will power to go into the world living every day like it’s my last and allowing the future to take care of itself, I will do great things. In the last moments of my life, I’ll be proud of what I have done and hope to have all the wisdom a person could wish for.

A sweet,coming-of-age film has attracted numbers of audiences,including the judges at the Academy Awards. The movie CODA is shining a light,having won Best Picture of 2021. CODA means Children of Deaf Adults,and is about Ruby, a hearing teenage girl growing up with deaf parents and a deaf brother. As opposed to following her own dreams of becoming a singer,she finds herself mostly at home,being an interpreter for her family.

This is an English language version of the 2014movie La Famille Belier,however,CODA takes this story to a new level. Unlike the French version, which used hearing actors, the writer and director Sian Heder insisted on using deaf actors, a first for Hollywood. The film reveals the hardships and challenges experienced by deaf people who are parenting and working in a hearing world. Using deaf actors who understand this reality and who sign fluently has been a game-changer.

“For too long, the industry has rewarded actors and directors who have exploited the trope(比喻)of faking sympathetic disabilities to win awards for themselves without bringing in deaf people or people with disabilities to ensure authenticity(真实性).”Howard A. Rosenblum, CEO of the National Association of the Deaf said. Such authenticity has earned CODA many distinctions, including multiple awards at the 2021 Sun-dance Festival, as well as three Oscars.

Thanks to CODA, cinema lovers may now be able to better understand and respect a world that has been mostly silenced.“It’s a culture that has been ignored and blocked off from access. I hope that people are going to be exposed to deaf culture through this film,and exposed to American Sign Language who might never have seen a scene before where a deaf family is sitting around a dinner table.”Heder said.

This is a feel-good movie full of emotion,love, and the challenges of life. It has touched the hearts of people across the world,both hearing and deaf, and is uniting all.