A mother planted many kinds of vegetables in her garden. One morning she said to her daughter, "Betty, come here. Look at all these little yellow marks on the leaves of the cabbages. They are eggs of a kind of insects. They are very beautiful but very bad for cabbages. This afternoon you must find all the eggs on the leaves and kill them. In this way, you will help us have better, greener and bigger cabbages.

Betty didn't think she should do it at once and in the end she forgot all about it. Her mother was ill for a few days and couldn't work in her garden. When she was well, she took Betty to the garden to see the cabbages. To their surprise, the insects had eaten up every leaf. When Betty saw this, she was upset and began to cry. Then her mother said to her, "We should never put off what we have to do today till tomorrow. And you must learn to deal with the things while they are small, or it will turn into a big problem."

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch (牧马场). The last time I was there he told me his story.

When he was young, his family is too poor to have a house to live in. One day when he was in a high school, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up. That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of owning a horse ranch. He also drew a picture to show a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a beautiful farm. The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F. Roberts asked, “Why did I receive an F?” His teacher said, “This is an unrealistic (不现实的) dream for a young boy like you. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money.” Then the teacher added, “ If you rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider (重新考虑) your grade.”

The boy went home and thought about it for a long and hard time. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, “Look, son, you have to change your own mind on this.” Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy handed in the same paper, making no changes at all. He told his teacher “You can keep the F and I sill keep my dream.”

Monty said a lot of kids’ dreams can be stolen. Don’t let anyone steal your dream. Follow your heart, no matter what others think. Have enough gumption (毅力) till your dream comes true.

We all have our own ways of sharing our life experiences with others. Photographers use cameras, artists use brushes, musicians use songs and writers use stories.

Spencer Johnson’s story Who moved My cheese? shows changes exist（存在于）in our life.

Life changes and so do we. We must change ourselves to face the changing environment, or we will fail. Just look at the cycle（循环）of the seasons. Trees bud（发芽）in spring and in summer their leaves turn green. In autumn their leaves start to fall onto the ground. When winter arrives, there are no leaves on trees. Next spring the cycle begins again. We know it is colder in winter and hotter in summer, so we can dress properly.

Since we accept the cycle of nature, we should also accept the changes in our life.

We can prepare ourselves for changes by becoming more flexible（灵活的）. We can regard the changes in our life as chances.　　1