When I was a kid, I thought I would grow up to be an actress. I thought I would live in New York City, in a high-rise apartment building, with my husband and family of, oh, five or six kids. I thought I'd live an urban, impossibly sophisticated life. Money would be no object. Perhaps there would be a private plane. (I should mention here that these fantasies were firmly rooted in the 1980's.) Well, I grew up and left the city for the country. I married and had one child -- an only child, just like I had been. My husband and I work hard to make ends meet. But my life - my rich, imperfect, complicated, contented life -- is the one I've built for myself. It's an honest life. It's a life of integrity. It's a life I love. But to have it, I had to lose my fantasy straight out of the pages of a magazine of what it was that I thought I wanted - of who I thought I was. I was underselling myself, it turned out.
To love, to really live is to become willing to lose people, places, things, dreams, even to lose versions of ourselves that no longer serve us. And in place of what is lost, something new emerges. It may not be what we imagined. But it is beautiful and it is ours.
相关单词：sophisticated
sophisticated解释：adj.老练的，精密的，尖端的，高雅的
sophisticated例句：
She has become very sophisticated since she went to live in London.移居伦敦后她变得世故多了。
This is a very sophisticated machine.这是一台非常精密的机器。
相关单词：contented
contented解释：adj.满意的，安心的，知足的
contented例句：
He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。
相关单词：integrity
integrity解释：n.正直，诚实，诚恳，完整，完全，完善
integrity例句：
The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
He is a man of the highest integrity.他是个极其正直的人。
相关单词：emerges
emerges解释：v.出现( emerge的第三人称单数 )；露头；形成；事实
emerges例句：
Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society. 语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
The man emerges from water. 那个人露出水面。 来自《简明英汉词典》
