TEXT A

300 Hurdles

Life may give you a negative, but don't despair - it may just develop into a beautiful picture one day. This year, I realized my theory that I have on life. Life is like a 300m hurdle race. Since I run the 300m hurdles, I would know what the race is like.

The first thing to any race is worrying about whether you are going to win or not. This relates to worrying about the petty things in life. Does it really matter if you win? Is it really going to be the end of the world? Or will you be upset if you lose and then forget about it? In life we worry too much and live in the moment too little.

Next is the lining up in our own individual lanes. We each start at different spots, but the race is still the same distance for everyone. This relates to our lives taking us to different places and putting us in different situations, but hopefully we will end up in the same place, but maybe at different times.

Now comes the beginning of the race. We all try to keep up with everyone and pace ourselves with other people. This symbolizes that at times in everyone's lives we worry, about fitting in or being the same as other people, instead of worrying about being unique. If everyone were the same, the world would be incredibly boring.

Now comes the first hurdle. This hurdle is the easiest to get over because you are not worn out from running. We all make it over this hurdle with ease. This symbolizes those obstacles in life that we struggle to get over, but we always manage to do so. You can look at that hurdle in two ways: "I can't make it over, I'm too tired" or "I am one more hurdle closer to finishing this race". This is an example of taking a negative situation and seeing something positive in it.

The next part of the race is every hurdle between the first and last one. These hurdles get tougher and tougher and you may feel as though you can't go on. This happens a lot in life too. There may be a situation that arises where you feel as though you can't make it and all you can think about is

giving up. You may fall over that "hurdle" or struggle getting over it, but somehow you find it in yourself to jump over it and move on with the race.

Next is that last 100m of the race. You feel as though you just want to say, "No I can't do this." Again, you must find it in yourself that you can do it, and you must finish the race stronger than when you had started it.

Now lastly is the last hurdle. This hurdle is the toughest out of all of them. In life we find ourselves falling and falling, and maybe getting too lost in our problems that we feel like we have been through enough and there's no hope. That last hurdle symbolizes these situations. It's one step close to the end of the race.

Once you finish, you look back on it and you realize that you made it not by leaping, but step by step. "Yard by yard, life is very hard. But inch by inch, life can be a cinch."

All it takes is one step at a time, one hurdle at a time.

参考翻译：

300 米跨栏

生活可能给你带来一些消极负面的事情，但是不要绝望——终有一天它可能会发展成为一幅美好的图画。我从自己的人生经历中意识到这个道理。人生就像一场300米跨栏赛。 自从我跑了 300米跨栏，我就明白了这场比赛是什么样的了。

无论任何一种比赛，首先都会担心你是否会赢。这关系到担心人生中的琐碎小事。你是否会赢真的那么重要吗？它真的会会导致世界末日吗？还是说如果你输了你就沮丧，然后忘了这回事呢？生活中，我们担心得太多，而活在当下太少。

其次是排队站在你自己的跑道上。我们从不同的起点出发，但是这场比赛对于每个人来说距离都是相同的。这关系到我们不同的人生把我们带到不同的地方，置于不同的处境中，但是有幸的是我们最终会处于相同的结局，只是时间可能不太一样。

现在，比赛开始啦。我们努力跟上每个人,调整自己的步伐节奏。这代表着在我们的人生中，有时候我们担心是否与他人合得来，是否与大家保持一致，而不是担心独一无二。如果每个人都一样的话，那这个世界就会变得极其无趣。

现在跑到第一个栏了。这一栏很容易就跳过去了，因为你还没有跑得筋疲力尽。我们大家都很轻而易举地跳过这一栏了。这象征着我们人生路上碰到的那些障碍,我们努力去克服，并经常成功解决了。你可以有两种方式来看待这个栏架：“我不能成功，我太累了”或是“我离下一栏更近了，就要到终点了”。这个例子表明了如何用积极的眼光来看待被动的局面。

比赛的下一阶段就是第一栏和最后一栏之间的那栏了。这些越来越难对付，你可能觉得无法继续了。这种情况在生活中也常常发生。可能有这种感觉，自己仿佛做不成了，只想要放弃。你可能被“栏架”绊倒，或是挣扎着过去，但是不知怎么，你使尽浑身解数，终于越过了障碍，并继续在比赛中前进。

接下来是比赛的最后 100米 了。你觉得自己好像要说：“不，我做不到。”再一次,你成功了，你做到了，你完成了比赛，并比你刚开始比赛的时候更加强大了。

现在，终于到了最后一栏了。这是所有栏架中最令你棘手的。生活中，我们发现自己不断跌倒，为种种问题所困扰，感觉自己历经重重磨难，仍然看不到希望。这最后的一栏就象征着这些情况。它离比赛的终点就仅有一步之遥了。

一旦完成了，你回头看看，你就会意识到比赛的成功并不是靠跳跃，而是一步一步过来的。“一码一码地前进，生活似乎非常艰难。但一英寸一英寸地慢慢来，生活就是小菜一碟。（不积跬步无以至千里)。”

所有这些需要的只是每次一小步,每次跨过一个栏。