Beginning Anew

Beginning Anew
Muril L.Whetstone
130037018 李桂芹
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When you find yourself tied down to doinga job that just isn’t you,it is easy to wish to be able to start off along a completely new path.Unfortunately,this is often easier said than done,the path stony and difficult to follow.For Muriel Whetstone,however,it turned out to be a journey well worth the effort.
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• 1. I dreamed Sundays.I began living for the weekend at 8:30 Monday mornings.I felt bitter towards my boss.The thought of answering other people’s telephones,typing other people’s work and watching other people take credit for my ideas and opinions would throw me into week-long bouts of depression.I hated my job.I hated my life.I hated myself for not having the courage to change either one.
8.However,I would not take back one tear or
change one thing about the last couple of
years.It hasn’t been a snap:From the beginning I
knew it would not be.And it’s not so much the
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entire weekend in the eye of an emotional storm.
• 5.But while I was feeling uneasy about the
bridge I’d just crossed,I also began to feel a
renewed sense of hopefulness about the
possibilities on the other side.I have had a
long love affair with the written word that was
separate and apart from any of my roles.What
we shared was personal:It belonged to mean
results of the action that have reshaped
me(although that’s important,too)as it is the
realization that I have
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within myself what it takes to do what I set out to do.I feel more in control these days and less like
my undergraduate degree and become a full﹣time journalist. 4. I quit my job on one of my good days,a Friday.Almost at once I was filled with anxiety.What would I tell my husband and what would be his reaction?How would we pay our bills?I must be crazy,I thought.I was too old to begin again.I prayed,Lord,what have I done?I wondered if I was experiencing some sort of early mid-life crisis.Perhaps if I crawled back to my boss on my hands and knees and pleaded temporary madness,he’d give me my job back.I spent that
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• 2.When most of my friends were planning colleage schedules and partying into the night,I was changing dirty diapers and walking the floor with a crying baby.At 19 years old I was the mother of two,and pitifully young wife.Everything I did for years,every decision I mde ,was done with my family in mind.
• 3.And then I tuened 29,and 30 was only a breath away.How long could I live like this?Certainly not until I retired ,I began to feel that if I didn’t do something soon,something quickly,I would die of unhappiness.I decided to follow my childhood 4
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while holding a book with the other.More than a few times I’ve nearly
broken under the pressure.I’ve shed tears on the bad days,but smiles are plentiful on the good ones.
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1.Take credit for:因…d得到好评 2.week-long:持续一周的，为时一周的 3.bout:一阵 4.either：adj两者之中任一的；prep任何一个； conj或者；adv也,根本 5.a breath way:即将来临 6.change dirty diapers:换脏尿布 7.an emotional storm:情感风暴/波澜 8.a long love affair:一段很长的恋情 9.soak up:吸收，吸取 10.at every opportunity:利用一切机会
and would always be mine despite anything
going on outside of me.I wasn’t quite sure
what
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my journey would involve,but I was positive who would be at the other end.I steeled myself to travel the road that would lead me to a better understanding of who I was and of what I wanted out of life.I shared my mixed feelings with my husband.He was worried as I was,but he was also warmly supportive,And so I stepped off the bridge and onto the path,nervous but determinded.I soon discovered that I loved to learn and that my mind soaked up knowledge at those times felt right.But somethings,after realizing what was expected of me,I would be weighed down by self –doubt and uncertainty.
• 7.I eventually had to seek employment to help with expenses.In fact ,I’ve had more jobs in the couple of years than I care to count.Many times I’ve had to stir a pot with one hand
a flag on a breezy day,blowing this way or that dependind on the wind.
• 9.I no longer dread Sundays,and Wednesdays are just as pleasant as Fridays.Now I get credit for my ideas,and my opinions are sought after.I love my life again.And I can clearly see a new woman waiting patiently just a little way down the road,waiting for me to reach her.
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11.Weigh down:使忧心忡忡 12.a fresh start:一个全新的开始 13.shed tears:流眼泪 14.set out to do:着手去做某事 15.undergraduate：(大学)本科生 16.journalist:记者