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生，那時我在學校的自然歷史博物館實習。一天，在禮品店的收銀機那兒工作時，我看到一對老年夫婦推著一個坐輪椅的小女孩走了進來。

近看這個小女孩時，我注意到她幾乎是完全被放在輪椅里，意識到她沒有胳膊和腿，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花紋。

當這對夫婦推著她走到我身邊時，我低頭看了看清單。轉頭看到小女孩，于是我對她眨了眨眼睛。從她爺爺奶奶手中接錢的時候，我又看了一眼小女孩，她正向我展示我所見過的最可愛、最寬大的笑容。就在那一霎那間，她的身體缺陷消失了，我看到的只是一個美麗的女孩兒，她的笑容使我融化，并幾乎立刻使我對人生有了一種新的認識。她把我這個貧窮而不幸的大學生帶進了她的世界，一個充滿微笑、愛和溫暖的世界。

那已經是十年前的事情了。現在我已經成為一名成功的商人。無論何時當我感到沮喪，回想到世界上的煩惱時，我就會想起那個小女孩以及她教給我的那堂不尋常的課。

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