Lost In Life Written by Peggy Chang
Words Checked: 2092 Words in Oxford 3000: 96%
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Contents
Introduction
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About the author
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Chapter 1 The Victory Meeting
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Chapter 2 Where is my shadow? 11 Chapter 3 A whole new life!
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“Everything is as usual, the wind blows, a dog barks, stars shine in the sky. Suddenly, I find out there is something wrong. The stars and moon still shine in the sky, but…… where is my shadow?” Have you ever imagined that your shadow will disappear? This is a story a b o u t a h a r d w o r k i ng m a n w h o suddenly lost his shadow one day. He started to think about his life after he lost his shadow. Finally, he found the
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answer. What are the most important things in our life? Money? A good job? Or the dreams in our heart? This story can help people to think about life’s value. When we live a busy life, we can easily forget what our dreams are, but dreams are so precious. Are you sure that you haven’t lost your “shadow” or e v e n
l o s t
y o u r s e l f ?
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A b o u t
t h e
a u t h o r
Peggy Chang is an 18 years old girl now studying at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. She likes to read and write, especially detective novels. Her first short story is named “My Dream”. Her favorite types of music are jazz and rock. These two kinds of music are very different from each other. Sometimes she can be very quiet but without warmer she can become very conversational and active. “Lost in Life”
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is her first novel. She wrote this novel because she thought too many people are too busy in their daily lives but too easily to forget what their dreams are. I
hope
you
all
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enjoy
it!
Chapter 1
The Victory Meeting
“Congratulations, Elliot” “Yeah, you really did it! Congratulations and cheers!” “Thanks. Cheers!” I replied. Yes, it’s me, Elliot. I’m now at my victory party. It is a big party which is held by my coworkers to celebrate my advancement. There are champagne, delicious food, fabulous music, and many famous people around me. I feel very pleased with myself. For me, there
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is nothing more important than money and a regular job. I used to be a writer till the day I found out it wasn’t the life I wanted. Yes, being a writer used to be my dream but not anymore. So I changed my job and applied for this job. I worked very hard, even on Christmas worked till 11:30 p.m. It was very tired but I think it was worth it. Now, I just became the manager of our department. This is what I call “Life”. “Elliot, I have got to go. Thank you for
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your hospitality,” said the chairman of the board. ”Oh, by the way, congratulations. You really did a good job.” “You’re welcome. I’m very glad to do that.” The victory meeting was about to end. After guests left, I turn off the lights. Then I drove back home. It was so dark and quiet everywhere. There was nobody waiting for me….
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Chapter 2
Where is my shadow?
It’s the fifth day after I became the manager. As usual, I worked very hard in the office. When the time reached 11:00 p.m, I started packing my things. I felt a little bit hungry so I went to 7-11 to buy a sandwich. After coming out of 7-11, I started to eat my sandwich. While eating it, I stared at the ground and started to space out. Everything was as usual, the wind blows, the dog barks, stars shined in the sky. Suddenly, I
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discovered there is something wrong. The stars and moon were still shining in the sky, but…… where was my shadow? I tried to calm down so I closed my eyes and talked to myself, ”Elliot, there is nothing wrong. You must be too tired. Now, after opening your eyes, you’ll find that your shadow is back.” So I counted to three and opened my eyes. There was no shadow. I closed my eyes and counted to three again. No, there was still no shadow. My shadow was
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GONE!!! I felt disturbed and almost lost my mind seeking my shadow. I didn’t know what to do so I got in my car quickly and drive back home. After arriving home, I ran into my room and locked the door although there was nobody else in my house. I tried to stand under the fluorescent lamps. Unfortunately, it was useless. I also tried to stand near my table lamp. But they were all useless. I still couldn’t find my shadow. I tried to figure out the
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problem. Is there anything wrong with my eyes? No, this was not because other things in my room still had their shadows. The desk had its shadow. The chairs had their shadows. Everything had their shadows except me. Ok, I started to accept the truth. The truth was that I lost my shadow, but I didn’t know the reason. I felt a little bit dizzy and still didn’t know what to do. If I lost my shadow, would I die? Alright, it is very clear that I won’t die. So I decided
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to go to bed, although I felt this was really weird. Maybe this was just a dream. When I get up tomorrow morning, my shadow will be back and everything will be the same. The next morning, the clock woke me up. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Then I looked down at my feet. Guess what, M-Y
S-H-A-D-O-W I-S
B-A-C-K!
As what I thought last night, I was just too tired and was hallucinated. I brushed my teeth, changed my clothes
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and went to work happily. I had a great mood today until I went out to buy my d i n n e r .
I t
w a s
a b o u t
7 : 0 0 p.m. I was still working on my project and then my co- workers asked me to go out for dinner. So I turned off my computer and went out with them. After having dinner, we sat on a bench in the park to take a rest. I sat under a street lamp. At first, we chatted happily, but after a while, I looked down and found my shadow had disappeared
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again. I didn’t know why. My shadow came back this morning but it was gone now. I felt very nervous and afraid that my co- workers would find out my shadow is gone. So I made up an excuse and went back home as soon as possible. When I got home, I rushed into my room and turned on my computer. I wanted to know the reason why I lost my shadow, so I surfed the internet. But I couldn’t find the answer. No matter I keyed in shadow, lost, no
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shadow, it was all useless. I almost felt like gave up. Finally, I searched for”lost life” and I found a website. It was an old man’s blog. His name is Isaac. The page which I found was one of his journals. “11 / 6 / 2002 Sunny ☼ Today, the same situation still happened to me. I still can’t find my shadow. Where is it? Did it get lost?
After I lost it, I also feel like I
got lost in my life.” He wrote this journal seven years ago. I felt shocked after I read the whole paragraph because
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the situation he had was exactly the same as mine. I left a message and explained my problem to him in his online guestbook. After three days, he replied. ”I live on No. 271 Greenland Avenue #9. Come here and you’ll find the answer.” I thought for a while and finally decided to visit him at that moment
with
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no
doubt.
Chapter 3
A whole new life!
I took a month off from work the next day and began my journey. Greenland Avenue is very far away from my home. First, I bought a train ticket and then got on the express. While sitting on the train, I looked out the window and watched the scenery. Is this really the city in which I live? How long has it been since I really looked at the scenery? Everything seemed so unfamiliar to me. I really should take a break. After six
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hours, I arrived at my destination. I found a Café and ordered a cup of l
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a seat outside the Café. There was a young boy sat next to me. He was working on a paper. I felt a little bored while waiting for my coffee, so I tried to talk to him. “Hey, boy. How are you today?” “Fine. Today’s weather is very nice” “What are you writing?” “Oh, nothing special. It’s just my novel.” “Novel? Wow, sounds cool.” “ Thanks. I
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hope someday I can publish my own novel. My goal is to be a writer.” “Keep going. It’s really a good idea.” After talking with him, I started to think about something. I used to have a dream of being a writer and writing my own book. It was just the same as the boy’s. But finally I gave up because of money. I couldn’t earn enough money if I were a writer. That was the reason why I entered in my company and became a businessman. I used to think this is the
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life I want, but after I talked to that boy, I
was not sure if I still had the same
opinion. Then I got on the bus. About 15 minutes late, I arrived at Greenland Avenue and then walked to the ninth floor. I took a deep breath before knocking upon the door. After a while, somebody opened the door. An old man opened the door and said, “You must be Elliot. Hello, I’m Isaac. Come in, please,” he said. “How long has it been since you lost your shadow?”
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“Umm…about three to four days,” I answered. “ Well, that’s not a long time. Listen, young man, I won’t tell you why your shadow is gone. I think that you can find the answer yourself. You just have to remember one thing: The most valuable things are not the things that can be seen by eyes, you must experience with your heart. Now, you can go and enjoy your life. Good luck, young man.” So I left his house and took a trip in the city. Everything seemed so
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interesting to me. The flowers, the butterflies, the buildings were so wonderful. And even the wind blew through my face. I felt free. I hadn’t enjoyed my life for a long time. I just kept working. But now, I think that life is so beautiful and it can be meaningful. After 25 days, I returned to work, but I changed a lot. I am still a hard working man, but I enjoy my life at the same time. I go hiking or camping on the weekend. I go shopping or watch
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movies with my friends after work. One night, I had a dream. In my dream, my shadow returned. I asked it some questions. “Why did you leave me?” “Your life used to be so boring . I felt so bored. One day, I found that I could leave you. So I left.” ” Then why did you come back?”” It’s because that you’ve changed. Now you know how to enjoy your life and know what you really care about.””Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding” my alarm clock went off and I got up. I
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rubbed my eyes, looked down at my feet and realized my shadow was back! It really came back to me! So I have a normal life again. I don’t know how many days had passed then. One day when I was on the way to my office, I saw a girl walking on the street reading her science textbook. I noticed that she didn’t have a shadow. I stopped my car and talked to her. “Little girl, I just want to tell you one thing: The most valuable things are not the things that
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can be seen by eyes, you must experience with your heart. Money or grades are not the most important things in your life.” Then I got back in my car and drove away with a big smile on my face. This is what I call “Life”.
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Lost In Life Written by Peggy Chang LOST IN LIFE “Everything is as usual, the wind blows, a dog barks, stars shines in sky. Suddenly, I find out there is something wrong. The stars and moon still shine in the sky, but…… where is my shadow?” Are you sure that you haven’t lost your “shadow” or even lost yourself?
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