Everything Happens For The Best

"Everything happens for the best," my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. "If you can carry on, one day something good will happen. And you'll realize that it wouldn't have happened if not for that previous disappointment."

Mother was right, as I discovered after graduating from college in 1932. I had decided1 to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer. I hitchhiked to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station-and got turned down every time.

In one studio, a kind lady told me that big stations couldn't risk hiring inexperienced person-"Go out in the sticks and find a small station that'll give you a chance," she said.

I thumbed home to Dixon, Illinois. While them was no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father sad Montgomery Ward2 had opened a store and wanted a local athlete to manage its sports department. Since Dixon was where I had played high school football, I applied3. The job sounded just right for me. But I wasn't hired.

My disappointment must have shown. "Everything happens for the best," Mom reminded me. Dad offered me the car to job hunt. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.

As I left his office, my frustration4 boiled over. I asked aloud, "How can a fellow get to be a sport announcer if he can't get a job in a radio station?"

I was waiting for the elevator when I heard MacArthur calling, "What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?" Then he stood me before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game.

On my way home, as I have many times since, I thought of my mother's words: "if you carry on, one day something good will happen. Something wouldn't have happened if not for that previous disappointment". I often wonder what direction my life might have taken if I'd gotten the job at Montgomery Ward.

这是美国第40任总统罗纳德.威尔逊.里根(Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911-2004), 根据自身的真实经历撰写的一篇文章。在踏入政坛前，里根担任过运动广播员、救生员、报社专栏作家、电影演员、电视节目演员和励志讲师，并且是美国影视演员协会的领导人。他“开朗的乐观态度”给世人留下了非常深刻的印象，在本文中，就流露出一种百折不挠的坚韧和乐观。