I grew up in a small town and the main entertainment was football on Friday night. It was just a sleepy little town where parents wanted to raise their children away from crime and 1 of a big city, and where teenagers like me 2 leaving to find something bigger and better.

    All that changed one summer night. My friend Lisa, Martin and Tyler held a party for my eighteenth birthday at Lisa's house. 3 they kept handing alcohol to me, I was pretty 4. I asked Tyler to take me home. With some 5, we made it out to his car and drove home. News came next morning. My friend Martin was 6 in a car accident. That night after Tyler and I left, Martin, who was   7 more drunk than me, got into his car and 8 towards the highway to go home. Driving on the wrong side of the road, he never saw the truck coming. The driver didn't see him 9 to avoid the car. They hit head on. Martin died immediately, and the driver was thrown 10 the truck windshield（挡风玻璃）and died a week later.

    Whenever I 11 back on that day, I can't help thinking that it was my 12 to drink so much that night. 13 things would be different. I know Martin 14 the choice to drink and drive that night, but I will always feel 15 for what happened. I may not change the world with my story, but I do hope that by 16 my story I can make you 17 that you not only have a responsibility for yourself but also for others. Don't ever think that your choices are yours 18. Every choice is like a stone dropped into 19water—each ripple (涟漪) represents someone who your choice 20. That's quite an influence, isn't it?

    My parents fixed in me the ideas of family, faith and patriotism(爱国主义) when I was young1we struggled to make ends meet, they2 to me and my four brothers and sisters how 3we were to live in a great country with 4 opportunities.

    I got my first real 5 when I was ten. My dad injured his back working in a factory and had to be6as a hairstylist. The owner of the shopping center gave Dad a(n)7on his rent for cleaning the parking lot(停车场) three nights a week, which meant a little 8that looked like a lawn mower(割草机). Mom and I emptied garbage cans and 9 waste by hand. It took two to three hours to clean the lot. I'd 10in the car on the way home because of tiredness.

    I did this for two years, but the11I learned have lasted a lifetime. I 12discipline and a strong work ethic(道德准则), and learned at a(n)13age the importance of balancing life's 14interests­in my case, school, homework and a job. This really15during my senior year of high school, when I worked 40 hours a week at a fast­food restaurant while taking college­pre 16.

    The hard work 17I attended the U.S Military Academy and went on to receive graduate degrees in 18and business from Harvard.19 I joined a big Los Angeles law firm and was elected to the California State Assembly(议会). In these jobs and in everything else I've done. I have never forgotten those20in the parking lot.

    I do not know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the choice at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I stopped 1. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was your2degenerate (颓废): lazy, rebellious, and disrespectful. I had lost all social 3 I terminally (不可救药的) followed, what was fashionable.

    Not long after that, I dropped out of school and 4 my downward spiral. Hard physical labor was the5for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of twenty-one, I was6 lost and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I was uneducated and7 in a dead-end job carrying roof materials up a ladder all day.

    But now I believe in do-overs, in the8 to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right 9 Mine came from a10source.

    It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It's funny that after a life of 11responsibility, now I was in charge of something so 12Over the years, as I grew into the title of Dad, I began to learn something about myself13 Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work, and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

    It took me almost three years to learn 14to read. I started with my son's books. Over and over, I practiced reading books to him15 I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role model,16 after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I passed my GED test on my son's fourth birthday. This may not sound like 17and I am not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done in the first place, but all things considered it was one of the18days in my life. Today, I am a full-time college student, studying to become a sociologist.

    Growing up, I19 heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they applied to me. Now I believe it is a (an)20anyone can make: To do it all over again.

    I was late for the school bus and rushing to get ready. My dog, Tippy, got to the front door and lay down in front of it – his way of asking to be petted. I1his begging for affection (喜爱), hurdled(跨) over him and ran for the waiting bus.

    2, that afternoon, when I came home, Mom said to me3, "Honey, I have some4news that I need to tell you. This morning, while you were at school, Tippy was hit by a car and5 I'm so sorry."

    "No! It's not true!" I was6 I couldn't believe her. "Tippy, come here! Come on, boy!" I called and called for him. I waited. He didn't come. Feeling7, I wandered into the living room. I didn't cry that night. I still couldn't believe that he was8.

    When I got off the bus the next day, there was dead silence at home.9 my sobs (哭泣) bubbled up and erupted (喷发) like lava (熔岩) from a volcano. I couldn't stop10. I hadn't even petted him when I left.11could I have known that was my last chance? I cried until I felt empty inside.

    Time passed, and against my will, I started to12some things. I realized what little control any of us have over what happens 13 a dog. We can do everything right, but14things can still happen. But good things can happen too. That's15. The best way to 16 the hard times is to figure out what you need to do to get through them when they come, and to remember that hard times always17.

    I now deeply understand the "circle of life". Everyone is born, everyone18, and that's the way it is. If dogs never died, there would be no19for others like Belle – my new dog.

    Best of all, I realized that Tippy20all of my good memories of him. And they come to me every time I call!

    From childhood, Moira loved to write. Throughout school she1writing, but pursuing it2was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. "Medicine was a fairly3choice," Moira says, "and writing was a career where it wasn't a4that you'd have high income."

    She became a doctor but still wanted to write something. However, being a doctor was so5that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She6a novel – a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university. She got excellent7. Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to8her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her9as an author.

    "I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we10all possible areas that she thought needed11. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything." It wasn't long12Moira found another agent who was13if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. "I got back a really brief letter: 'Thank you, I'm no longer interested.' It was really14."

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time15for her own enjoyment. She16herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. "The characters17a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just18." One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    "19it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the20," says Moira.

Hawthorne worked as a clerk in a small company. He suffered a heavy blow when he lost his job. His boss had spoken 1, "Your services are no longer needed." Hawthorne left the building filled with despair. By the time he reached home, he was in deep 2. When he entered his house, he blurted out(脱口而出)to his wife Sophia, "I lost my job. I am a complete failure." A tense silence followed. 3, a smile crept across Sophia's face. "What great news!" she responded, "Now you can write the book you have always wanted to write."

"But I have no job and no prospect of a job," he objected completely without hope. "If I 4 to be an author, then what will we 5? Where will the money come from?"

Sophia took her husband by the hand and 6 him to the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she took out a box that was full of 7. "Where on earth did you get this?" Hawthorne asked. "To whom does it 8?"

"It's ours!" Sophia replied. "I always knew that one day you would become a great writer 9 you were given the chance. From the money you gave me for housekeeping every week, I have 10 as much as I could so you would have your chance. Now there is enough to 11 us a whole year. "

What a(n) 12! What a wife! The 13 husband did concentrate on writing that year, and the novel he wrote became a literary masterpiece. The book is The Scarlet Letter. Sophia had an even greater 14,—she turned Nathaniel Hawthorne from a poor clerk into a world famous 15.