I’ve always been creative since I was a little girl. My childhood was filled with arts, crafts (手工) and music, and every day was an exciting adventure of creation.
Somewhere along the way, however, I lost touch with my creative self. At 21, I landed a job at a big insurance company out of my business degree. I would go to the office, sit at my desk and repeat the same work five days a week 9 to 5. The days were long and tedious. Working this way for one year was painful enough, let alone a lifetime. Before long I decided to make a change.
One thing I had developed an interest in was sewing, so I took a sewing course at a community college. It was only a five-week course but it awakened my interest and got my confidence up.
As I dreamt bigger, I began looking into college courses for Fashion Design and three months later I signed up for a part-time design course. I attended classes two nights a week. Although exhausting, it gave me energy, enthusiasm and happiness.
As it became clearer that fashion was what I wanted to do full time, the reality of my day-to-day work at the insurance company became harder. I felt bored. No energy, no motivation and zero fulfilment (满足感).
I knew I needed to make a bigger change. After struggling for quite a while, I made a difficult decision—leaving my job and studying my design course full time. Two years later I got my diploma.
The last few years have been exciting because I’ve been following my heart to do what I love. Today I am living a creative life as the designer of my own fashion brand.
Sometimes it’s hard to make a change, but I’m so glad I set the wheels of change in motion with that very small first step because it has led me to where I am today.
56. What was the author interested in when she was a little girl? (no more than 10 words)
57. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean? (1 word)
58. How did the author feel when she was taking the part-time design course? (no more than 10 words)
59. What did the author do to get back to her creative life? Give two of the facts. (no more than 15 words)
60. Do you consider the author as your role model? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
