陽光總在風雨後 Things Change

Like everyone else in my graduating class, I had watched the economy turn from bad to worse during my senior year. We graduates had degrees, but very limited prospects[前景]. I packed up my car and drove to Southern California to find work. But what I thought would take a week dragged[拖] into two, and then four, and 100 job applications[申請] later, I found myself in the exact same spot as I was before.

就像畢業班的其他人一樣，我在大四那年眼見着經濟由不景氣轉爲蕭條。畢業生雖然有學位，卻前途渺茫。我收拾好自己的汽車，開車去南加利福尼亞找工作。我原以爲只需要一週，卻拖成了兩週，接着變成四周；申請了上百份工作之後，我發現自己依然停留在之前的原點上。

You know that feeling when you wake up and you are just consumed with dread[恐懼]? Days felt like weeks, weeks like months, and those many months felt like an unending eternity[永恆] of destitution[窮困].

你知道那種當你一覺醒來，內心充滿恐懼的感覺是怎樣的嗎？一天像一週那麼漫長，一週彷彿過去了一個月，當時好幾個月就像窮困潦倒一直沒有盡頭似的。

So what did I do to maintain my sanity[神志正常]? I wrote. Something about putting words on a page made everything seem a little clearer—a little brighter. I channeled my frustration[沮喪] into a children’s book. Beyond the River was the story featuring a little fish who simply refused to give up on his dream.

那麼我如何防止自己發瘋呢？我寫作。將言語寫在紙面上會讓事情更爲明晰——稍微明朗起來。我將沮喪轉化爲一本兒童書。《逆流而上》講的是一條小魚永不放棄夢想的故事。

And then one day, I was offered a publishing contract for my first book! After that, things slowly began to fall into place. Things change. If you work hard, give it time, and don’t give up, things will always get better. Our dreams lie in wait[隱蔽靜候] just a little further upstream…all we need is the courage to push beyond the river.

後來有一天，我得到了一份出版合約，要出版我的第一本書！自此以後，情況開始慢慢走向正軌。陽光總在風雨後。如果你爲之努力，保持耐心，永不放棄，事情總會好轉。夢想就在上流不遠處靜候我們……我們需要的不過是奮力逆流而上的勇氣。