英文原文

或许你正站在梦想的此岸遥望梦想的彼岸，或许你正在为身下那条波涛汹涌的河流而感到畏惧，朋友，请你勇敢的站起来拍拍身上的灰尘，朝着梦想的彼岸走去……

Never Too Late to Become What You Want to Be

The first day of school our professor introduced a little old lady to us.
“Why are you in college at such a young age?" I asked later.
She jokingly replied,“I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel."
"No seriously," I asked.

I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

" I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!" she told me.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop.

I was always listening to this “time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to make a speech to our football team.
I’ll never forget what she taught us.
As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her note card on the floor.
A little embarrassed she simply said,
“I’m sorry. This whiskey is killing me!
I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began:

“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success.
You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream.
When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year
and don’t do one productive thing,
you will turn twenty years old. Anybody can grow older.
That doesn't take any talent or ability.

The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.
Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do.
The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral to honor the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.

I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live positively.

重点词汇

1. jokingly adv. 开玩笑地；打趣地

They sent me a pack of waste paper as a gift jokingly.
他们开玩笑地把一包废纸当礼物送给了我。

Kelly: (jokingly) Is that right? I thought you might be a bit older… just joking.
（开玩笑地说）是真的吗?我觉得你可能更老一点……开开玩笑而已。

2. motivate vt. 刺激；使有动机；激发…的积极性

Kindness motivated the action.
仁慈是这一行动的动机。

Motivate individuals and groups to achieve results.
刺激个体和小组达到结果。

3. nonstop adj. 直达的；不休息的；不着陆的

The advanced class is nonstop.
高级课程是不停的。

4. peacefully adv. 平静地

We can only hope they live peacefully as well.
我们也只能希望他们会和平地生活着。

5. positively adv. 肯定地；明确地；断然地

Think and speak about yourself positively.
积极地思考和谈论你自己。