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 a 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 don't know why you bother trying to dance. You don't have the talent to be a ballerina.” Hearing that, I fell to the ground and wept for hours.

We lived in the country by a lake. My mother always 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 country, far away from the city where she believed her dreams would have come true.

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 don't 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 why 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. It's not that I wanted it to die, but I allowed it to die the day I started listening to the words: “You can't do it.” When I finally woke up from many years of dreaming, I realized that I could't just settle for dancing in the wildflowers, I had to move on to the stage.

【助读词汇】

-ballerina n. 芭蕾舞女

-reflection n. 倒影，反射，映象

【参考译文】

照料你的梦想

梦的的确克是存在的，但是早上当你醒来的时候，它们仅仅是记忆里的一个梦。这正是发生我身上的事。

我一直梦想着跳舞。小时候我会在后院那一片野花地里跳来跳去。当我听见一个声音说“我不知道你为什么要浪费功夫来尝试跳舞。你又没有成为芭蕾舞者的天资”，现实让我从梦里醒了过来。听到那声音，我扑倒在地上，连哭了好几个小时。

我们住在乡下一个湖旁边。妈妈什么事都抱怨，因为她觉得自己生活里每一件事都不如意。她梦想过另外一种生活，结果她却在乡下住了下来，离她认为可以实现梦想的城市很远。

我喜欢在湖边散步。我可以在那坐上几个小时，盯着自己的倒影看。我就是这模样，一点都不像个漂亮的芭蕾舞者。倒影不会骗人。每次波浪荡过来，我的倒影就消失不见了——被冲掉了，就像我想跳舞的梦想一样。

长大后，我开始明白，我之所以怀有这个梦想是因为它就在我心里。但是我没有照料它，它就枯死了。并不是我希望它枯死，但是当我把“你做不到”这句话听进去的时候，我就放任它枯死了。最后我从多年来的梦中醒来，懂得了在野花丛中起舞是不够的，得上舞台去跳。

【人生启迪】

在一部很有名的好莱坞励志片《当幸福来敲门》里，一位父亲对他的儿子说：“别让别人说你不能成事，即使是我也不行。如果你有梦想，就得保护它。别人干不了，他们就说你也干不成。如果你想干什么，就去干。”对，想干就干，别愧对你的梦想！