When I was a teenager growing up in France, I wanted to leave school and have my own life. The only way I could _________ this was to work in the local paper factory in my town, or get married. I was very nervous when I told my _________ I wanted to leave school. I thought he would say, “No! You are going to college.” I was very _________ when he said, “OK. Let’s go to the paper factory.”

Two days later, he took me to the factory. I imagined everyone to be friends, _________ together and having fun. I even imagined there would be music and singing. I _________ I had watched too many movies as a teenager.

When we arrived at the factory gate, my father spoke to the guard (门卫) and one minute later we were _________ . I walked around the factory looking at the building, the workers,   listening to the noise. It was _________ . I ran back to my father and said, “I want to go home.” He asked me, “What do you think of the factory?” “Too bad,” I answered. “And marriage is even _________ !” he said.

I went back to school the next day thinking about studying hard _________ I could get into a good college. I enjoyed studying English so I decided to major in (主修) languages at college.       

Thanks to my father and our __________ to the paper factory, I now work at the United Nations and my father is very proud of me. I married a very good man and my life is much better than it would have been working in the factory!

Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. Finally, there was only one family between the ticket office and us. This family made a big impression on me.

There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. You could tell they didn't have a lot of money. Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children talked excitedly about the clowns. It was clearly a very important day out for them. The father and mother seemed happy as they could be.

The ticket lady asked how many tickets the father wanted. He proudly answered, “Please let me buy eight children's tickets and two adults' tickets, so I can take my family to the circus. ”

The ticket lady told him the price.

The man's wife lowered her head. There was no longer a smile on the man's face. He quietly asked, “How much did you say?”

The ticket lady again told him the price.

The man obviously didn't have enough money. But how could he tell his kids the bad news?

Seeing what was happening, my dad took a $ 20 note from his pocket and dropped it on the ground. （We were not rich ourselves at all!）He then tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, you dropped this”

The man understood my father was helping him. He picked up the money, looked straight into my dad's eyes, and in tears replied, "Thank you. This really means a lot to me and my family. "

Although we did not go to the circus that night, we didn't feel sorry for it at all.

Mistakes are Great Teachers

Mistakes are great teachers. Success comes to those who are willing to risk making mistakes to achieve their goals and wishes, and who are able to learn from those mistakes. And in order to learn from mistakes you must be willing to pay for them.

Mistakes can be very valuable, but when you try to get others to pay for your mistakes, then you lose the chance to learn from them. When something goes wrong, it's usually very easy to find someone else's mistakes, but is that useful?

Much of the value of mistakes comes from the fact that they need a cost that must be paid. The person who learns the most from a mistake is the one who pays the price for that mistake.

When you make a mistake, what you shouldn't do is running away from it. You need to accept it because you can learn a lot from it. The mistake has been made, so make the most of it. Pay the price, learn the lesson, and grow much stronger.