一得的留学申请文书

一直以来，儿子从小，总会让爸爸我，看他写成的无数的作文，文章，学术论文。

今天，爸爸终于等到了这一篇......

2019.9.18. 深夜

“爸爸，我的大学申请文书写好了，发给你看。”

“啊，好。”

“晕，爸爸看完了，把爸爸看哭了，可以发出去给大家分享吗？”

“可以的。”

“好，谢谢儿子。”

文书原文......

“When you grow even older, you would eventually discover that you are just as ordinary as everyone else”, mom said this to me while driving me home from the airport after a catastrophic SAT test, “you are no less oblivious, no less mediocre, and no less insensitive. Just stop feeling so special and simply act as you are expected. All the world’s problems would be solved if people do what they are supposed to.”

At this exact moment, I realized why mom left dad when I was one.I grew up dirt poor with my father.Mom flew 1,000 miles back to her hometown and stayed there ever since. Dad, now being left an unwieldly 20-pound encumbrance, chose to resign his job to take care of me as he believed that money cannot make up for the lack of parental love if he had hired a nanny. He sold our house and moved us to the suburbs, where he built our own house on a mountain: a house with iron sheets supported by wired logs. Around the house were chicken pens and a tiny field just enough to provide our daily vegetables.

This pastoral lifestyle might sound attractive to city people nowadays, but me as a young boy hated it. I once stepped on a stink bug bare-footed in my bedroom while changing and had to scrap it off the concrete floor. The bugs also used to lay eggs on our laundries hung under that litchi tree whenever it bloomed. Thunder storms also felt much scarier because our roof was metal. Those moments were especially terrible because I was always around much richer kids: Remember the house my dad sold? He used that money to put me through the best private schools in our district.

There is an old Chinese saying, “A poor man’s kid matures faster”, and I wasn’t an exception. In our arboreous classroom, dad taught me how to do things like cooking, carpentry, and masonry. Amazingly, I enjoyed doing all those things that none of my classmates would ever think about doing. My father, a humble gentleman poor in wealth but rich in thoughts, was always there to encourage me to try out what I want. His trust was so great that he even let me plan one of our scarce trips when I was 10. By then I started to notice how come dad was never upset with him being “poor”: He enjoyed doing what he did and was never ashamed of it. This confidence and self-respect that he presents in front of any person, noble or vulgar, have won him much respect in return. As I grew older, I came to realize how important those experiences were, and how significantly they shaped me as a unique person. I then chose to keep my head up and accept being special. Unsurprisingly, this won me respect and deeper friendships from my classmates, just like how it worked with dad. If I had the choice, I would still choose to grow up exactly how I did, again. Because dad has taught me, not in words but in actions, that I didn’t have to be like others to be happy.

Three years ago, I bid my father adieu, as mom, still loving and caring for me, decided to have me over and support me through college in the US. As an independent woman who makes a good living by working hard as a lawyer, it is understandable that my mom’s love for me pushes her to grind away my rebellious edges. College, then, means a place that inspires me to have a deeper understanding of what I might value. How would college shape my life? I am eager to find out. One thing is certain, however, that I will never forget how happy I was on that green, squeaky sleeper train that jolted dad and I across China.

为方便阅读，借助微信翻译工具，原文译成中文如下：

'当你长大了，你最终会发现你和其他人一样平凡”，妈妈在我灾难性的SAT考试失败后开车送我从机场回家的时候对我说：“你也会一样的健忘，平庸，麻木不仁。别再觉得自己那么特别了，只要做你所期待的就好。如果人们都在做他们应该做的事情，世界上所有的问题都会得到解决。'

就在这个时候，我意识到了妈妈为什么在我还是一岁婴儿的时候就离开了我爸爸。我和父亲一起长大，生活非常贫困。妈妈飞了1000英里回到她的家乡，从此就一直呆在那里。爸爸，此时留下了沉重的肩扛20磅般重的负担。他选择辞职照顾我，因为他认为如果他雇了一个保姆，钱不能弥补缺乏父母的爱。他卖掉了我们的房子，把我们搬到了郊区，他在一座山上建造了自己的房子。房子周围有鸡圈和一小块土地，种下刚好够我们每天吃的蔬菜。

这种田园生活方式在如今的都市人听起来也许很有吸引力，但我作为一个小男孩却讨厌这种生活方式。有一次，我在卧室里赤脚踩到一只臭虫，在换衣服时不得不把它从水泥地板上刮下来。那些虫子还经常在挂在荔枝树下晾着的衣服里产卵。因为我们的屋顶是金属的，雷雨也让我感到可怕，那些时刻尤其可怕。因为我总是和更富有的孩子在一起：记得我爸卖掉的房子吗？他用这笔钱供我上了我们区最好的私立学校。

中国有句老话：“穷人家的孩子成熟得更快”，我也不例外。在我们树木繁茂的小屋里，爸爸教我如何做饭，做木工和泥水活。令人惊讶的是，我喜欢做我的同学从来没有想过要做的所有事情。我的父亲是位贫寒的绅士，富有，思想丰富，总是鼓励我去尝试我想要的东西。他对我的信任度如此之高，以至于在我10岁的时候，他甚至让我计划了一次我自己一个人的难得的旅行。到那时，我开始注意到为什么父亲从来没有因为他“贫穷”而感到沮丧：他喜欢做他所做的事情，从不为此感到羞耻。他在任何人面前表现出来的这种自信和自尊，不管是高尚的还是普通的，都为他赢得了更多的尊重。随着年龄的增长，我开始意识到这些经历是多么的重要，以及它们对我这个独一无二的人的影响是多么的重要。然后我选择保持我的个性和接受特殊。这让我赢得了同学们的尊重和深厚的友谊，就像和爸爸一样。如果我有选择的权利，我仍然会选择像我以前一样成长。因为爸爸教会了我，不是用言语，而是用行动，所以我不需要像别人那样过着。

三年前，我向父亲告别，来到了母亲的身边，作为母亲，仍然热爱和照顾我，决定让我在美国上完大学。作为一个靠做律师而生活得很好的独立女性，我母亲对我的爱促使她磨去了我叛逆的棱角，这是可以理解的。那么，大学就意味着一个激发我对自己可能重视什么有更深理解的地方。大学将如何塑造我的生活？我很想知道。然而有一件事是肯定的，我永远不会忘记在那辆绿色的吱吱作响的火车上，我和爸爸在中国旅行时是多么开心。

(全文完)

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