World of Smiles

About ten years ago when I was an undergraduate in college, I was working as an intern at my University’s Museum of Natural History. One day while working at the cash register in the gift shop, I saw an elderly couple come in with a little girl in a wheelchair.

As I looked closer at this girl, I saw that she was kind of perched on her chair. I then realized she had no arms or legs, just a head, neck and torso. She was wearing a little white dress with red polka dots.

As the couple wheeled her up to me I was looking down at the register. I turned my head toward the girl and gave her a wink. As I took the money from her grandparents, I looked back at the girl, who was giving me the cutest, largest smile I have ever seen. All of a sudden her handicap was gone and all I saw was this beautiful girl, whose smile just melted me and almost instantly gave me a completely new sense of what life is all about. She took me from a poor, unhappy college student and brought me into her world; a world of smiles, love and warmth.

That was ten years ago. I’m a successful business person now and whenever I get down and think about the troubles of the world, I think about that little girl and the remarkable lesson about life that she taught me.

十年前我還是一名在校大學(xué)生，那時(shí)我在學(xué)校的自然歷史博物館實(shí)習(xí)。一天，在禮品店的收銀機(jī)那兒工作時(shí)，我看到一對(duì)老年夫婦推著一個(gè)坐輪椅的小女孩走了進(jìn)來(lái)。

近看這個(gè)小女孩時(shí)，我注意到她幾乎是完全被放在輪椅里，意識(shí)到她沒(méi)有胳膊和腿，只剩下了頭部、脖子以及軀干了。她穿著一件小白裙，上面還有紅色的圓點(diǎn)花紋。

當(dāng)這對(duì)夫婦推著她走到我身邊時(shí)，我低頭看了看清單。轉(zhuǎn)頭看到小女孩，于是我對(duì)她眨了眨眼睛。從她爺爺奶奶手中接錢(qián)的時(shí)候，我又看了一眼小女孩，她正向我展示我所見(jiàn)過(guò)的最可愛(ài)、最寬大的笑容。就在那一霎那間，她的身體缺陷消失了，我看到的只是一個(gè)美麗的女孩兒，她的笑容使我融化，并幾乎立刻使我對(duì)人生有了一種新的認(rèn)識(shí)。她把我這個(gè)貧窮而不幸的大學(xué)生帶進(jìn)了她的世界，一個(gè)充滿(mǎn)微笑、愛(ài)和溫暖的世界。

那已經(jīng)是十年前的事情了。現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)成為一名成功的商人。無(wú)論何時(shí)當(dāng)我感到沮喪，回想到世界上的煩惱時(shí)，我就會(huì)想起那個(gè)小女孩以及她教給我的那堂不尋常的課。

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