Fake It to Make It

After ten years of working for a Wall Street bank, I determined to go beyond a nine-to-five job. Scanning advertisements, I learned a _________ company was to hire more consultants. With great excitement, I made a(n) _________ with a branch president. That day, it went so well that I was _________ he would hire me on the spot. _________, he told me to come back for 12 more _________ with his top salespeople!

Over the next five months, every one of them _________ me from working as a consultant in finance. "You are better off in a safe nine-to-five job." "Eighty percent of newcomers _________ within their first year." "You have no investment experience." The more they attacked my dream, the more my stomach   _________. I realized I would have to " _________ it till I make it", though.

Eventually, the last interview with the president came. "You've got the job!" he announced, and then added, "On one ____________ that you must resign, participate in our training and take an exam." I ____________. "It's 250 questions long and you must pass it without one point lost on the first ____________! "

I nearly choked at the prospect (前景) of taking a huge leap of faith into the unknown. However, attracted by this great ____________ and the courage I had never had, I ____________ hard and said, "I'll take it."

As instructed, I cut my lifeline to the bank and leapt into ____________ waters. After the training, I took the exam and when the scores were displayed, I let out a loud sigh of ____________.

My experience ____________ the truth of Thoreau's words: "If one advances ____________ in the direction of his dreams and ____________ to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet success ____________ in common hours."

What does taking a risk mean? It means ______ your comfort zone, and at times doing ______ things even if they terrify you. One of the greatest risks I’ve ever taken was auditioning(试演) for my high school’s play. Not only was I a person who had no ______ experience, but also I stuttered(口吃).

The thought of performing in front of people ______ me. The reason why I decided to have a try was that I wanted to get ______ in my school’s theater program. On the day of the audition, there was also a special acting workshop(研习班) which meant to warm us up. I walked in and set my backpack down on the floor. I ______ and saw about twenty people calmly making preparations. Soon we began special acting exercises. We were divided into ______ to prepare parts of the play. I was very anxious. After I delivered some of the lines, my partner said, “Oh, I ______ you are stuttering. Is that for dramatic effect or do you really stutter?” I was ______.

When it was my turn to audition, my heart was beating fast. Across from me, the director and two of his assistants sat on metal chairs. Needless to say, I was really worried about my performance. In the ______, I played the role of a male painter who pretended to be a woman. My partner was playing an evil picture dealer who was determined to marry me. We said our lines and, ______, I didn’t stutter. The whole process went smoothly, and finally the audition was over. I was so ______.

The next Monday I got a call telling me that I had ______ the play. I was overjoyed. It was a lot of fun doing the play, and it was really worth it. It was ______ to me: My stuttering couldn’t prevent me from doing the things I wanted to do, and taking risks, ______ it embarrassed me, was well worth time and effort.

At the age of nine, I was taking swimming lessons at a pool. The day had arrived when I was to be tested to see if I could _______to a higher level class.

Fifteen of us were to _______swimming from one side of the pool to the other and back. I watched as my _______, one by one, tried and failed. Then it was my turn to _______, I mean, my turn to attempt to pass the test. I was about halfway when I got _______I immediately stopped and _______the side of the pool, ending my test. Our instructor, a college student, was standing _______me. “Why did you stop?” he yelled, in a less—than _______voice. “I got water in my nose,” I _______.

That’s when this college student ________me one of life’s great lessons, ________he probably never realized that. Bending down, he shouted, “So?”

“So?” The ________shocked me. It had just seemed ________to me that the answer to pain was to remove the thing causing the ________. My nine- year-old brain had not understood the fact that a valuable ________is worth achieving, however difficult to get there. Recognizing that, I was ________nothing would keep me from completing the test. In fact, I did it rather ________on my next attempt. Seeing me ________the test, almost all the others did so as well.

Life is a journey, and the road won’t ________be easy. We have to focus on the final destination, not the ________along the road.