The adolescent girl from Tennessee is standing on the stage of a drama summer camp in upstate New York. It’s a beautiful day. But the girl doesn’t feel beautiful. She’s not the leggy, glamorous Hollywood type. In fact, she describes herself as dorky。

Since she was six years old, Reese Witherspoon has wanted to be a country singer. And Dolly Parton is her idol. But this flat-chested wisp of a girl is no Dolly Parton.Nevertheless, all of this summer she’s been acting, dancing and singing---giving it her best。

Play to your strengths. If you’re going to make it in this business, it’s not going to be on sexy—that’s not who you are. Better focus on what you’re good at. Celebrate yourself。

Despite three years of lessons, at the end of camp her coaches tell her to forget about singing. They suggest she think about another career. If Reese did have talent, it was hiding under her skinny, mousy frame and her Coke-bottle glasses。

Still, she takes their words to heart. After all, why shouldn’t she believe the professionals?

But back at home in Nashville, her mother — a funny, happy, upbeatperson — wouldn’t let her mope. Her father, a physician, encouraged her to achieve in school. So she worked hard at everything and was accepted at Stanford University。

And at age 19, she got a part in a low-budget movie called Freeway. That led to a substantial role in the movie Pleasantville. But her big break came with Legally Blonde。

Well, she decided, "if you can’t sing and you aren’t glamorous, play to your strengths. If you’re going to make it in this business, it’s not going to be on sexy — that’s not who you are. Better focus on what you’ve good at. Celebrate yourself." And then came the offer that took her back to her Nashville roots — playing the wife of tormented country star Johnny Cash. A singing role。

All of a sudden the old fears were back. She was so nervous on the set, a reporter wrote, she "kept a sick bucket" nearby and admitted she "would go backstage after a singing scene and shake." But she didn’t give up on the movie or herself。

The humor and drive she learned at home overcame the self-doubt learned on that summer stage. She spent 6 months taking singing lessons again. She learned to play the Autoharp. And the hard work built up her confidence。

Last March, Reese Witherspoon walked up on another stage, the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and accepted the Oscar as Best Actress for her heartbreaking, heartwarming singing role as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line。

Finally, as you read thse accounts of Reese Witherspoon, consider the obstacles she met. The lesson of the strory, I suppose, is that instead of making dozen excuses why you can not realize your dreams, think about this story, just hold to your dream and never give up。

【中文譯文】：

一名少女由田納西州來(lái)到紐約北部，她站在戲劇夏令營(yíng)的舞臺(tái)上，雖然天氣是那么好，她的心情卻一點(diǎn)也不好。因?yàn)樗皇悄欠N身材頎長(zhǎng)、豐腴美艷的好萊塢式美女，實(shí)際上她形容自己是“土里土氣，還有點(diǎn)傻”。

從六歲開(kāi)始，里斯?威瑟斯龐就夢(mèng)想著成為一名鄉(xiāng)村歌手，多莉?帕頓是她心中的偶像。但她可一點(diǎn)都不像多莉?帕頓，她胸部扁平，身材纖細(xì)。然而，整個(gè)夏天她都在盡全力地表演，跳舞和唱歌。

發(fā)揮長(zhǎng)處。如果想在這一行發(fā)展，不要走自己不擅長(zhǎng)的性感路線。更好地專注于自己的特長(zhǎng)，為自己喝彩。

她已經(jīng)上了三年的聲樂(lè)課程，但夏令營(yíng)結(jié)束時(shí)，老師們還是告訴她應(yīng)該忘掉唱歌這件事兒，另謀出路。如果里斯確實(shí)有天分的話，那也是給她纖細(xì)的身材和厚如可樂(lè)瓶底兒的眼鏡遮蓋住了。

雖然心有不甘，可她還是聽(tīng)從了建議，畢竟，她有什么理由懷疑專業(yè)人士呢?

但回到位于納什維爾的家里，她的媽媽—— 一名風(fēng)趣、快樂(lè)、樂(lè)觀的兒科護(hù)士——可不會(huì)讓里斯感到絲毫的沮喪。她的爸爸是一名醫(yī)生，他鼓勵(lì)女兒在學(xué)業(yè)上有所成就。于是，她凡事努力，終于被斯坦福大學(xué)錄取。

19歲那年，她出演了一部低成本電影《極速驚魂》。這為她后來(lái)在《歡樂(lè)谷》中爭(zhēng)取到真正重要的角色奠定了基礎(chǔ)。而她真正的破冰之作是影片《律政俏佳人》。

她暗下決心：“既然自己沒(méi)有歌唱天分，又不是光彩照人，那就盡力演出。要想在這行做下去，就不要在性感上做文章了——自己不是那種類型的。最好在自己擅長(zhǎng) 的方面下功夫。要展示自己。”這時(shí)，她接到片約，邀她出演約翰尼?卡什——一個(gè)飽受折磨的鄉(xiāng)村歌手——的妻子，這是個(gè)需要演員有唱功的角色，該片約又把她 帶回到納什維爾的家鄉(xiāng)。

突然，舊時(shí)所有的恐懼感又回來(lái)了，一名記者報(bào)道說(shuō)，她在臺(tái)上實(shí)在是太緊張了，甚至在一邊“準(zhǔn)備了嘔吐時(shí)要用的痰盂”，她自己也承認(rèn)“每唱完一幕回到后臺(tái)，自己都在發(fā)抖”。但她沒(méi)放棄那部電影，也沒(méi)放棄自己。

她用六個(gè)月的時(shí)間重新開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)聲樂(lè)。她還學(xué)會(huì)了演奏豎琴。不懈的努力讓她重拾信心。

2006年3月，里斯?威瑟斯龐走上了另一個(gè)舞臺(tái)——好萊塢的柯達(dá)劇院。憑借在影片《一往無(wú)前》里飾演的瓊?卡特?卡什這一歌唱角色，她獲得了奧斯卡最佳女演員獎(jiǎng)，她在片中飾演的角色令人心碎，但也讓人心暖。

最后，當(dāng)你讀瑞茜威瑟彭斯的故事時(shí)，想想她遇到的挫折。我認(rèn)為，這個(gè)故事告訴我們，與其找借口解釋夢(mèng)想為什么不能實(shí)現(xiàn)，不如想想這個(gè)故事，堅(jiān)持你的夢(mèng)想，永不放棄。