文书点评：迟来的梦想（Delayed Dream）

To this day, the very thought of red oak bark tea nauseates me; my mouth still retains that bitter flavor. As a child in a rural community in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, even the threat of home remedies like red oak bark tea was usually sufficient to scare the sickness out of me. Once, when my mother administered powdered alum to my sore throat, I concluded that my family must have had enough of me. They assured me, however, that alum was not supposed to make you gag quite that much.

I never considered becoming a doctor as a child. My family could rarely afford the luxury of proper medical treatment. Thus, unpleasant home remedies were my earliest experiences of healthcare, and I cannot say that they were exactly prepossessing. Nor was my opinion unusual in my environment: in my rural farming town, doctors were the people you went to when all your family remedies had failed, and you couldn’t get out of bed to go to work anymore. Medicine was seen less as a way to improve your quality of life than as an expensive method of postponing the inevitable.

I could not point to a specific date as the day I decided that I wanted to commit my life to medicine. Rather, it was a gradual realization that grew out of my love for biology and my sense that the path I was taking was not meant for me.

Merely attending junior college was an enormous achievement for me, as none of my family had ever graduated from high school. Initially, I intended to earn my associate's degree in biology. Unfortunately, my family’s difficult financial situation prevented me from following my interest in this field, for I soon had to find a full-time job to help out at home. I continued taking classes at night, but unfortunately, no lab courses were offered in the evening. Finally, after four years, I completed the requirements for an associate’s degree in economics. That was when I realized that I wanted to explore biology further. At moments, I even began to think of attending medical school, only to dismiss these daydreams as no more plausible than winning the lottery.

I soon married and entered a very difficult period in my life. Trying to keep my husband happy and my marriage together, after earning my associate's degree I quit the job I had enjoyed since high school graduation. I proceeded to change jobs every six months or so for the next two years before separating from my husband. When I knew there would be no reconciliation, I decided to follow the dream I had put on hold, and I applied to the institution I now attend to study biology. Being a doctor may not have been a lifelong dream for me, but it is my calling.

点评：

该文是写一名女性为自己的迟来的医学梦想奋斗的故事。早年对家庭式治疗的厌恶，萌生起她对生物学以及医学的兴趣。但碍于家庭环境不得不中止对生物学的学习。经过四的工作与学习，完成了经济学学位后，面对自己梦想与婚姻的压力的她最终知道没法协调二者的关系，最后选择了去完成自己的梦想，将自己迟来的梦想变成现实。如果中期的折变起伏如果能够再加得点笔墨，结构将会显得更有层次。

译文：

迟来的梦想

至今，这种红橡木茶的特别想法依然使我感觉到恶心；我口里面依然保留着那种苦涩的口味。作为一个出生在落基山脉山脚下的乡村的小孩，弱小的我就连像红橡木茶之类的家庭药物都足够把我吓得作呕。曾经当我妈妈将粉末状的明矾放入我疼痛的喉咙时，我甚至断定我们家不想要我了。他们向我保证，不无论如何，明矾不会使我作呕成那样的。

在小的时候我从来没有想过去当一名医生。我的家几乎不可能承受正常药物治疗的昂贵费用。因而讨厌的家庭治疗就变成我的最早的家庭保健卫生的体验。同时我不能说这些治疗方式十分有效。这不是我在当地与众不同的看法。而医生是当你家里所有的治疗方法都无效和你无法再去工作的时候可以去找的人。这样看来，比起能提高你的生活质量，药物治疗更像是一种推迟医治可能的昂贵方法。

我不能确定具体是哪天我决定奉献我的一生到医学领域。更确切地说，我逐步形成对生物学喜爱的认知和对我选择的道路不是为自己的感悟。

对于没有一个成员能从高中毕业的家庭来说，能够进入高等学校学习是我的一个巨大成就。最初，我打算在生物学方面挣得我的相关学位。不幸地，我家困难的财务状况阻止了我对这方面的兴趣，因为我很快就要找一份全职的工作来帮家里渡过难关。虽然我有上夜校，但不幸的是，那里不提供实验室课程。终于在四年之后，我完成了一个经济学相关学位所要求的课程。这时我发觉正是我想更深入探讨生物学的时候了。时常，我甚至想申请进入医学学校，不料消除这些幻想竟和赢彩票一样不真实。

我很快就结婚了和进入了我生命中的一个非常困难的时期。从我高中毕业取得相关学位后我辞退了我曾经很喜欢的工作，以求尝试讨好丈夫和维持婚姻。大约在离开丈夫前两年我试着每六个月转一次工。当我知道我没有办法去协调我的家庭和事业，我决定跟着我的已有把握的梦想走，同时我申请到我现在所就读的生物学院。成为一名医生不会再成为我终生的一个空想，而是我的职业头衔。