Can you imagine a person who achieved lots
of marvelous records in different fields of sports like flying, ballooning,
sailing, mountain climbing, running, swimming and more? That superman’s name
was Steve Fossett, and “Adventurer Steve Fossett Set More Than 100 World
Records in Five Different Sports” on voaspecialenglish.com was the story of him.
He did not look like a remarkable challenger like Amelia Earhart, but the
records that he achieved during the end of 20th century to early 21st
century are really remarkable. Two famous records he established are the first solo
flying and the first solo ballooning around the world. He achieved these records
based on his physical, mental, and also financial strength. He was not only an
adventurer but also a successful business person, so he paid for most of the cost
of these challenges by himself. And it’s surprising that he achieved most of
the records after he succeeded on his business, not on his youth. Unfortunately,
he died from a plane accident suddenly in 2007, but his glorious records are
still alive.
There are too many things to think or
mention about such a great person, but I try to focus on the reason why he
wanted to do many challenges. First of all, he might have been a person who was
eager to breakthrough something at any time. Most people have desire to
overcome challenging things; however, his desire might have been bigger than
the others by far, and his experiences of achievement may have driven him more
eagerly. Second, he might have had an aspect of a risk taker. Like
most risk takers, he thought that he carefully reduced risks before he tried to
do something, but what he had done was still too risky for most people to do. Anyway,
I think his physical strength is a good model for us, especially in the business
area. I want to follow him, but I don’t prefer any risks!
When I looked at the clock, it showed me that
it was nearly nine o’clock. I was stupid from sleep then, but my view became
clear within a moment. The outside of the window showed me a sunny view but
white world. The snow on the ground was shining, and a pond had frozen over. “Oh,
no! I’m going to be late!” I shouted and jumped out of bed, and rushed into the
bathroom. I washed my face, put on a suit, gathered and packed all the things
into the baggage, put on a coat quickly and ran out from the room.
It was a very important day for me because I was
going to have a job interview for an airline company in Chicago; in addition, this
was the company I wished to join the most. I came to the United States from Korea,
and I had learnt English and aeronautics for over 6 years. I wanted to join an
airline company in the United States because the U.S. airline company led the
airline business of the world. I saw most of my friends already had gotten
their job, but I kept pushing myself to study hard to realize my dream.
While I took an elevator down to the ground
floor, I regretted that I made a wrong choice to make a reservation for this
hotel. It was comfortable, but it was not near to the central part of the city.
I decided to stay in this hotel easily because it looked nice for its price,
and it was near to the airport. I thought that the job interview took place in
or near to the airport. Though I realized that the job interview took place in
the central part of the city before yesterday, I didn’t change the hotel
because I thought it was trouble to make another reservation; furthermore, I
thought that it wasn’t difficult to get to the company by waking up early. I
also regretted that I didn’t wake up early. I was so nervous by thinking of the
job interview that I could not fall asleep until the break of dawn last night.
I felt a headache caused by a lack of sleep. I cursed myself to be so careless.
When I checked out with getting irritated at
the front desk, I noticed that there was no bill left in my purse. I paid the
room charge by credit card, and I rushed out from the entrance with my credit
card grasping. In order to get a taxi, I ran for the roadway, but I fell down
on the ground at once. The sidewalk had been completely frozen. As I held my
body by touching the ground, I didn’t get injured. But my credit card was completely
broken in front of me. It broke into pieces, and it seemed not to be usable.
Worse than that, it was the only credit card then; consequently, I lost all
means of payment. I realized that I could not take a taxi.
I got confused. I stood up quickly and started
to run again. Anyway, I thought that I had to get closer to the company though
it was an impractical idea to go the company by running. I ran along an alley,
and I got to the roadway. I kept running along the roadway to the direction of
the central part of the city. I tried to lift my thumb to hitch a ride while I
was running, but no one cared about me. It was reasonable if I kept my right
mind. I had no signboard to show where I would like to go. It was an urban area.
Hitchhiking was illegal in this state. And what is more, a man
running with his thumb up must have looked eccentric.
When I came to a crossing, I stopped running.
While I waited for traffic lights, two cars crashed right in front of me. It
looked like the cars skidded and crashed because the road was frozen. Cars were
bent terribly, and it seemed that the drivers must have got injured. By seeing
such a terrible accident, I recovered my consciousness. I looked at my watch, and
I realized that I was hardly able to get to the job interview on time. I
decided to give up trying to get to the job interview, and I also decided to
help the victims of the car accident. I called an ambulance and the police.
Fortunately, some ambulances and patrol cars
came there very quickly. After I saw ambulance attendants and police officers
dealing with the accident, I sat down on the ground, for I was relieved and
exhausted. And then I lay down on the grass. I was out of energy. My face must
have been pale because of exhaustion and despair.
Suddenly, a new ambulance came and stopped in
front of me, and an ambulance attendant jumped out and asked me, “Are you all
right?” I was too tired to respond, so I said nothing and gestured for him to
go away. Against my expectation, he said,“OK, you will be all right,” and he
called other attendants and loaded me on an ambulance in an instant. The
ambulance started to run with sounding the siren right away. I got confused
again on the ambulance. It took almost no time to get to the hospital. The
ambulance ran fast and it never stopped until it got to the hospital.
When the back door opened, there was a view of
skyscrapers close to me. The hospital was very near from the central part of Chicago.
I looked at my watch and confirmed that there were a few minutes left for the
job interview. I seemed to be barely on time. I jumped out from the ambulance, said,
“Thank you very much!” for the shocked attendances, and started to run again on
the sidewalk. “What a lucky day!” I shouted. I felt very happy then. In
addition, I was glad of my idea of an excuse to be at the last minute on the
job interview. I thought that the interviewer would excuse me if I said that I helped
the ambulance attendants and police officers at the accident. I thought that I would
give a good impression to say that. I felt light on my feet, and my steps became
gradually longer. Suddenly, my sight turned up into the blue sky. I slid and
fell down on the ground again.
I saw the view of the skyscrapers getting far
from the back window of an ambulance. I was too numb to say or to gesture
something when I was loaded into the ambulance again. I didn’t want to think
about anything, but my consciousness became gradually clear. My leg was aching.
It must have been broken. I had neither money nor credit card, so I had no way
to pay the cost of treatment and the cost to go back to my home. But most of
all, the fact that I fell down from the greatest chance to get a job made me get
fed up. The way to get a job is a very hard and slippery one.
I think we should play sports to have a good life. I also recommend any parents to make their children to play sports strongly. I believe that playing sports gives us a lot of benefits from my experiences.
First, playing sports, especially team sports, is a good opportunity for us to learn how to behave in any organizations. For example, I learned the importance of roles in an organization when I belonged to a sports team in my university. Though it is not believable as I don't have a muscular body, and it is not believable for me, I was an ice hockey player. My team was not strong, and I was not a good player, but it was a great experience for me. I was selfish, and I was not able to get along with other people well until I became an university student. But I learned how the individual roles are important by having a role in the team. When we are organized and individual members are responsible, we can achieve what we cannot do ourselves.
Second, we can make good friends though playing sports. I experienced a lot of hard training, a lot of defeats, and a few victories. All the experiences engraved me and my teammates, and shared experiences deepen our friendship. I am still keeping a good relationship among the teammates though nearly ten years passed since I retired from the team.
Third, we can make our body strong with appropriate exercise. Physical strength is very important for us to work even if the job is not a physical work. For instance, my job is a kind of desk work, but it is sometimes very hard. I am occasionally needed to work until midnight, and it remains several days generally. To endure such hard work, we should keep good health. If I were still weak such as before I joined the team, I could not keep working in my company.
It is not too much to say that my present life as an office worker is based on my experiences of playing ice hockey. In short, I strongly recommend that you and your children should play sports, though I don't play sports now... Play sports, it's fun!
We can cook delicious Japanese-like food in Carbondale.
First, we have to get some Japanese seasonings. It is inevitable. What we have to get are soy-sauce, "Hondashi"(a kind of stock made of fish), "Mirin" (a kind of rice wine and it seasons food sweet), and "Miso" (a kind of soybean paste, and it is salty.) They are all Japanese traditional seasonings, but we can get them at the international grocery in Carbondale. The shop is not near from Southern Illinois University, so we have to walk about 40 minutes to get there. Second, we must search for similar materials to make dishes that we want to eat. We can find some materials similar to that of Japan, at some stores near from SIU. Some materials are very similar to that of Japan, for example, "Enoki" mushrooms and green onions which I found at "Schnucks" are quite similar. Some materials are not available, but if we use our imagination, we may choose a similar one. For example, American eggplant is bigger than that of Japan, but the taste is similar. Third, we should try to put together the materials above. We can make variable Japanese-like dishes in this way. Of course, we need some more seasonings if we want to make varied dishes, but the combination of soy-sauce, Hondashi, Mirin, Miso and other basic seasonings like salt are almost enough, I think. I succeeded to make "Udon", "Soba", and miso soup. They are not the same as I wanted to make or that in a recipe, but it tasted fairly good. They were more delicious than the food of American-Japanese restaurant, I believe. We have to get some materials to make Japanese-like food, but if we got them, we can make Japanese-like food that we wanted to have. Food is not a trouble for us to live in Carbondale now. We can enjoy American life!
