Dreams really do exist. But in the morning when you wake up， they are remembered just as a dream. That is what happened to me.

I always had the dream to dance. When I was young， I would dance around and around in the fields of wildflowers that grew in my backyard. Reality woke me up when I heard a voice saying， “I dont know why you bother trying to dance. You dont have the talent to be a ballerina.” Hearing that， I fell to the ground and wept for hours.

We lived in the countryside by a lake. My mother criticized everything because she thought nothing was ever perfect in her life. She dreamed of a different life but she ended up living in the countryside， far away from the city where she believed her dreams would have come true.

夢的的確確是存在的，但是當你早上醒來的時候，你所記得的僅僅是一個夢而已。這正是發(fā)生在我身上的事。

我一直夢想著跳舞。小時候，我常常在自家屋后開滿野花的田地里跳舞。當我聽到一個聲音說：“我不明白你為什么要浪費工夫去嘗試跳舞，你沒有成為芭蕾舞者的天資?！爆F(xiàn)實讓我從夢里醒了過來。聽了那些話后，我癱倒在地上，哭了好幾個小時。

我們家住在鄉(xiāng)下，附近有一座湖。媽媽遇到什么事都要抱怨，因為她覺得自己的生活處處不如意。她夢想著過另一種不同的生活，結果她卻在鄉(xiāng)下住了下來，離城市很遠，而她認為她的夢想可以在城市得以實現(xiàn)。

I enjoyed hanging out by the water. I would sit there for hours and stare at my reflection. There I was， looking nothing like a pretty ballerina. Reflections dont lie. Once the waves came， my reflection would be gone—washed away， just like my dream to dance.

As I grew older， I began to realize that the reason my dream was even born was that it was something that was inside me. The dream I had was never cared for， so it slowly died. Its not that I wanted it to die， but I allowed it to die the day I started listening to the words， “You cant do it.” When I finally woke up from many years of dreaming， I realized that I couldnt settle for dancing in the wildflowers. I had to move on to the stage.

我喜歡待在湖邊。我可以在那里坐上幾個小時，盯著自己的倒影看。水中的我一點也不像個漂亮的芭蕾舞者，倒影是不會騙人的。每次波浪蕩過來，我的倒影就消失了——被沖掉了，就像我想跳舞的夢想一樣消失了。

長大后我開始明白，我之所以懷有這個夢想，是因為它就在我心里。但是我的夢想從未得到過培育和呵護，因此它慢慢地“死”去了。并不是我希望它“死”去，但是從我聽到“你做不到”這句話的那一天，我就放任它“死”去。最后，當我從多年來的夢想中醒悟時，我才明白：僅僅在野花叢中起舞是不夠的，我得設法到舞臺上去跳舞。

Vocabulary

exist v. 存在;實際上有

bother v. 費心;花費時間、精力

ballerina n. 芭蕾舞女演員

weep v. 哭泣，流淚（wept是過去式形式）

criticize v. 挑剔;指責（criticized是過去式形式）

reflection n. 映照出的影像

wave n. 波浪;波濤（waves是復數(shù)形式）

realize v. 理解;領會;意識到

settle for 勉強接受;將就