It has been an unwritten rule that those who become 30 years old must have already been in a stable (稳定的) place. _________, they might be considered a failure.

I am turning 30 tomorrow and I ask myself, “Should I _________ this deadline?” I am still renting an apartment, and living alone. This seems far from _________ for most, but it looks nice to me.

When I graduated years ago, I _________ worked as a journalist because I had been dreaming of writing stories for the _________ since childhood, and I thought I would stick to it forever. But as time flies, I realize that it will be unwise to _________ myself to just one path. Therefore, I decide to start my another pursuit—studying law.

Was I _________ before? No. I have learned that there is no single formula (公式) for _________ and happiness. Our lives are filled with _________ possibilities. While I really love my current career, I have also been interested in being a __________. So why should I __________ the dream to the end just because I am 30 already?

Turning 30 can also be a chance to do whatever you like. You needn’t care about how others will __________ your decisions. The most important part is that you are just being yourself and __________ it. Turning 30 is just like any other birthday. Stop feeling __________ about your age and try to __________ all the opportunities and surprises that life throws on your way.

As a schoolgirl, I lived a few years on the island of Mauritius. I_________much of my free time lying around on the soft shores of the Indian Ocean. But all this_________at the age of 16, when I returned to the town of Cumbernauld, Scotland in what felt like the coldest winter ever.

It took me some time to_________this life, returning home from school in the dark, head bowed against the freezing _________, shoes filled with icy water. After one_________walk home, my Aunt Sandra, with whom I then lived,_________me with steaming corned beef hash (咸牛肉丁). Like a_________ dog, I tore into it.

“What was that” I asked, feeling the warm glow of the meal reaching my bones. “Have you ever_________corned beef hash before” said my aunt, in her strong Scots_________

No. But now, Tuesday nights were “corned beef hash night”. A real__________warmer, my aunt’s hash was made with a tin of corned beef, fried onions and much potato. It was the first meal I learned to cook on my own. As a student, I would cook it for friends, throwing a fried egg on top for luxury.

Unlike other popular foods of the time, corned beef will never be__________. It doesn’t really look like meat, but you’ll soon forget that when you __________the salty, sour and spicy flavour.

Corned beef is__________as the food of the poor. This meat may never__________it into the kitchens of foodies, but they are missing the trick! Frying this beef with onion and potato__________transforms it—it isn’t paradise, but it’s pretty close.

Since finishing my studies at Harvard and Oxford, I’ve watched one friend after another land high-ranking, high-paying Wall Street jobs. As executives with banks, consulting firms, established law firms, and major corporations, many are now ______ on their way to impressive careers. By society’s standards, they seem to have it made.

On the surface, these people seem to be very lucky in life. As they left student life behind, many had a ______ drink at their cheap but friendly local bar, shook hands with longtime roommates, and moved out of small apartments into high buildings. They made reservations at restaurants where the cost of a bottle of wine ______ a college year’s monthly rent. They replaced their beloved old cars with expensive new sports cars.

The thing is, a number of them have ______ that despite their success, they aren’t happy. Some ______ of unfriendly coworkers and feel sad for eight-hour workweeks devoted to tasks they hated. Some do not respect the companies they work for and talk of feeling tired and ______ . However, instead of devoting themselves to their work, they find themselves working to support the lifestyle to which they have so quickly become ______ .

People often speak of trying a more satisfying path, ______ in the end the idea of leaving their jobs to work for something they ______ or finding a position that would give them more time with their families almost always leads them to the same conclusion: it’s ______ . They have loans, bills, a mortgage to ______ , retirement to save for. Eventually, they recognize there’s something ______ in their lives, but it’s hard for them to give up the path.

In a society that tends to ______ everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our ______ in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs? When we get ______ in pursuing money over meaning. These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to ignore-and the very ones we need to consider most.