One day in her senior year， I saw her sitting in the grass， head cradled6 in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. “Oh， nothing.”came a soft reply.“I am just too short. ”The coach told her that at 5"5"" she would probably never get to play for a top ranked teammuch less offered a scholarship， so she should stop dreaming about college.
She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet.
She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just didn’t understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college， if she truly wanted a scholarship， that nothing could stop her except one thingher own attitude. He told her again， “If the dream is big enough， the facts don’t count.”
The next year， as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game， she was seen by a college recruiter8. She was indeed offered a scholarship， a full ride， to a Division I， NCAA women’s basketball team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.
It’s true： if the dream is big enough， the facts don’t count.
我以前常常从厨房的窗户看到她穿梭于操场上的一群男孩子中间，她显得那么矮小。学校在我家的街对面，我可以经常看到孩子们在下课时间打球。尽管有一大群的孩子，但我觉得她跟其他的孩子截然不同。
我记得第一天看到她打篮球的情景。看着她在其他孩子旁边兜来转去，我感到十分惊奇。她总是尽力地跳起投篮，球恰好越过那些孩子的头顶飞入篮筐。那些男孩总是拼命地阻止她，但没有人可以做得到。
我开始注意到她有时侯一个人打球。她一遍遍地练习运球和投篮，有时直到天黑。有一天我问她为什么这么刻苦地练习。她直视着我的眼睛。不假思索地说：“我想上大学。只有获得奖学金我才能上大学。我喜欢打篮球，我想只要我打得好，我就能获得奖学金。我要到大学去打篮球。我想成为最棒的球员。我爸爸告诉我说，心中有目标，风雨不折腰。”说完她笑了笑，跑向篮球场，又开始我之前见过的一遍遍的练习。
嘿，我服了她了——她是下定了决心了。我看着她这些年从初中升到高中。每个星期，她带领的学校篮球代表队都能获胜。
高中那会儿的某一天，我看见她坐在草地上，头埋在臂弯里。我穿过街道，坐到她旁边的清凉的草地上。我轻轻地问出了什么事。 “哦没什么”，她轻声回答，“只是我太矮了。”原来篮球教练告诉她，——五英尺五英寸的身材，她几乎是没有机会到一流的球队去打球的——更不用说会获得奖学金了，所以她应该放弃想上大学的梦想。
她很伤心，我也觉得自己的喉咙发紧，因为我感觉到了她的失望。我问她是否与她的爸爸谈过这件事。
她从臂弯里抬起头，告诉我，她爸爸说那些教练错了，他们根本不懂得梦想的力量。他告诉她，如果真的想到一个好的大学去打篮球，如果她真的想获得奖学金，任何东西也不能阻止她，除非她自己不愿意。他又一次跟她说：“心中有目标，风雨不折腰。”
第二年，当她和她的球队去参加北加利福尼亚州冠军赛时，她被一位大学的招生人员看中了，她真的获得了奖学金，一个全面资助的奖学金，并且进入美国全国大学体育协会其中一队女子甲组篮球队。她接受她曾梦想并为之奋斗多年的大学教育。
是的，心中有目标，风雨不折腰。
愿望给你力量
Wish you strength
The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn’t mind if you call her a girl. That’s because Markita Andrews has generated more than eighty thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school， the painfully shy Markita transformed herself into a cookie-selling dyanmo when she discovered at age 13， the secret of selling.
It starts with desire. Burning， white-hot desire.
For Markita and her mother， who worked as a waitress3 in New York after her husband left them when Markita was eight years old， their dream was to travel the globe. “I’ll work hard to make enough money to send you to college，” her mother said one day. “You’ll go to college and when you graduate， you’ll make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay？”
So at age 13， when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout who sold the most cookies would win an all-expenses-paid trip for two around the world， she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she couldmore Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world， ever.
