1 . While youth is often a time of great promise and achievement, a life well lived can also be filled with any number of next chapters and second or even third — acts that add depth, nuance (细微差别), and meaning to our stories. At 65 years old, Somerset native Carole-Ann Warburton experienced a plot twist that led to the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream she’d never even spoken of aloud.

After an illness incapacitated (使失去正常生活能力) her, Warburton was left with the question of what to do going forward. During her convalescence (康复), her daughter brought around some real estate listings for the sort of homes in which she thought her mum might best spend her golden years. Coincidentally, amongst the notices was an offering for a small barbershop with an above-stairs apartment.

For Warburton, although she admitted “the place was awful”, it was love at first sight and the perfect opportunity to do something she’d longed to do for almost as long as she could remember — work in a bookshop. Less than three months after coming to her decision, Warburton handed in her retirement notice, sold her house, bought the store, and using a personal inventory (库存) totaling between 8,000 and 9,000 titles — she launched her new bookshop, The Book Rest.

A decade on, The Book Rest recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Although the pandemic has slowed foot traffic, since Warburton’s driving motive isn’t monetary profit, but rather, something of a deeper, more special personal value, she has no plans to close up the shop.

Having achieved her own dream, Warburton sees every day in the bookstore as an opportunity to help others realise theirs as well. “All the dreams are in the books,” she told The Guardian. “They are all there waiting to be picked up... Someone can walk in tomorrow and say, I have been looking for that for an awfully long time!” And as gatekeeper to her own small universe of literary wonders, Warburton says she plans to stay around as long as she can to ensure that they do.

4 . At the age of 17 years 64 days, Mack Rutherford has become the youngest person to fly around the world alone! Mack’s journey around the world lasted five months and he flew across 52 countries in total. His record-breaking flight began in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on 23 March, 2022. He was 16 years old when he took off and celebrated his 17th birthday by himself in his plane.

Mack faced many challenges during his adventure. Because of his small-sized aircraft, he had to land whenever the weather got too rough. However, at some points he literally (确实地) couldn’t land, such as when flying non-stop for 10 hours over an ocean. At other points, he faced extremely hot weather, such as in Dubai. In Sudan, a country in Africa, Mack also faced sandstorms which made it hard for him to see where he was going. Mack battled strong winds and pouring rain during his flight, but he never stopped smiling, joking and updating his flowers on his social media account along the way, and managed to expertly pilot his plane to safety.

And if Mack’s surname “Rutherford” sounds familiar, it’s because his elder sister Zara also flew around the world earlier this year, and still holds the female version of the record! The Rutherford siblings (兄弟姐妹) were inspired by their parents to become pilots. “I have known for certain I wanted to fly since I was eleven,” Mack said, “My dad Sam is a professional ferry pilot, my mum Beatrice is a recreational private pilot.”

Mack hopes to inspire young people to begin working towards their own goals, “No matter what background you have, I believe it is never too early to work towards your dreams and you shouldn’t limit yourself by others’ expectations.” With both feet firmly back on the ground now, it’s time for Mack to turn his attention towards catching up on his schoolwork!

5 . The ability to walk is the sort of thing many people take for granted, but for Ella Weiske, it’s a monumental achievement. Ella was born with cerebral palsy (脑瘫) and requires a wheelchair to get around, yet she always dreamed of walking across the stage to collect her high school diploma on her own two feet.

In spring of 2023, Ella finally got that chance! The teenager spent months before her graduation from Ripon High School in Wisconsin building strength and practicing walking on an innovative new device called a Trexo. All of her efforts were worth it when she stepped onto the stage to a standing ovation (起立鼓掌) from teachers and students.

Walking on graduation day was important to Ella so her family raised $45,000 with an online fundraiser to buy the Trexo device, which is a wearable robot designed to help children walk. The device is controlled by a tablet, and it helps Ella gently move her legs. She can adjust how much support is needed, walk angles, and speed.

Ella says just the feeling of her feet hitting the floor makes her happy, but it’s the independence the device offers that gets her really excited. She dreams of hanging around downtown, going to her brother’s baseball games, and opening up her world with help from her robotic legs. But first, graduation!

On the big day, Ella was able to use her Trexo device to walk across the stage with the other members of the class of 2023. The entire school body was on their feet, cheering for her, as she collected her diploma with help from her sister, Liz Weiske. It was an emotional moment for the teachers and students who have rooted for Ella for the past 4 years.

Just graduating is an achievement on its own, but Ella’s life-changing walk meant so much to her, and to everyone who knows and loves her. We’re so proud of Ella for working hard to accomplish her goals.

6 . Melanie Perkins is co-founder of Canva, which allows users to create graphic designs for free in its simplest version, from social media posts to professional presentations.

The Canva journey started back in 2007, when Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia. At that time she was teaching students how to use programs like InDesign and Photoshop. Students found the programs hard to learn, and even harder to use. She imagined the future of design would be entirely different. It would be online and very simple.

Perkins got the idea of creating a great new product. At the time, it was just a dream; after all, she and Cliff Obrecht, another co-founder of the company, were just university students with no funding and no technical or entrepreneurial (创业的) knowledge need to create the product and the company.

However, what Melanie and her then friend Obrecht ( now husband ) did have was determination. They took the plunge and created their first design start-up called Fusion Books. It was an easy online platform for designing high school yearbooks. That turned out to be a success, and gave them wings for the next step: Canva.

However, they needed funding. Finding the right people took two years but there was always a lot of rejection for entrepreneurs in their early days, But every time they got a hard question or a reason why people wouldn’t invest, they stayed focused on what they could change. “The normal thing to do after your 100th, 80th or even 20th' no' would be to stop, but you just have to insist trying,” Melanie said.

A key person in getting Canva of the ground was Cameron Adams, an ex-Google employee who brought the technical expertise they needed.

Now Canva is a global business, but neither Perkins nor Obrecht considers that they have collected a fortune just for themselves. They want to do as much good as possible with their money.

7 . Marathon is one of the most difficult races in track and field, at a little over 42 kilometers. To be a world-class marathoner, you must run that distance in two and a half hours. But for some, completing a marathon race is a lifelong dream.

Jacqueline’s dream of being a world-class runner began when she was a child in Kenya. She soon realized she had the talent and the willpower to compete. She also knew she would have to train full-time, which meant not being able to work to help support her family. But she was confident that she could bring home prize money.

Jacqueline traveled to China to compete in the Zheng-Kai marathon knowing she had a good shot at winning the race, but more importantly, the $10,000 prize that went with it. She was leading the women’s division when a male runner arrived at the water station. The man had trouble drinking water because a birth defect(缺陷)had left him without hands, and he struggled to drink from a plastic bottle. But any assistance from fans or race officials would result in his disqualification. Jacqueline noticed the man and immediately knew that he needed help. She grabbed a water bottle and helped him get the water his body needed to complete the race.

Runner after runner passed Jacqueline. Her hopes of winning were getting lost in numerous runners ahead of her. With only 4 kilometers left in the race, and certain that the male runner would now finish, Jacqueline picked up her pace and finally finished second.

That day, Jacqueline missed out on first place, but she finished something more important: humanity. She returned home with the smaller prize of second place, but to her family, she brought home something much more valuable to home: the right example.

9 . In the summer of 1969, six-year-old Mike Massimino watched wide-eyed on the television as Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon. He immediately made his mom turn his elephant school play costume into that of an astronaut for Halloween.

As a child attracted by the universe, he dreamt of becoming an astronaut. But his wish caught up with him when he realized he didn’t have the ideal skillset to make it as an astronaut: He was afraid of heights, had poor eyesight and couldn’t swim.

Given all of Massimino’s difficulty in qualifying as an astronaut, he worked for a different career. However, when the Challenger exploded, Massimino decided he wouldn’t wait any longer to realize his dream.

NASA’s elite program of astronaut s introduces a new class every couple of years. If you don’t make it, you won’t be considered again until the next round. Massimino first applied (申请) to the program in 1989. Eight months later, he received his rejection (拒绝) letter in the mail. Unsurprised, he began carrying out space research, working toward his PhD in engineering at MIT. He applied again two years later for the 1992 astronaut class. He got rejected again. Years later, for the class of 1995, Massimino’s application turned out unsuccessful. The interview was as tough as one would imagine.

Massimino failed because of something he could not change—not having 20/20 vision (视力). He didn’t stop there. After extensive research, he had vision training for nearly a year, having taken advice from others in the space science field, helping his eyes focus more clearly on objects (物体) in front of him.

Sending out his fourth application to NASA like a shot in the dark with a note from his eye doctor on his improvements, Massimino got a call. They would let him retake his eye test. He passed.

“Making a decision to give up on my dream after coming so close was unthinkable,” he said, “One in a million is not zero. I knew that if I gave up, I would always wonder what would have happened.”