今天早上在NYT 读到一篇非常精彩的文章，实在不敢独享。决定把它翻译出来。和大家一起感受。

Among all articles that I read from the NYT this morning, my favorite one is titled The time I Spent with My Grandmother Treating Patients with Chinese herbal medicine( the original source is written in Chinese). In the author’s eyes, her grandma is a legend – learning about CHM in her 50s, and becomes a specialist in her 60s in America. Back in China, the young grandmother is a modern-styled doctor with 40 years of clinic experience. Even after her retirement, she is capable of leading a SWAT team of cancer prevention and treatment before she ends it for taking care of her American-born and growing granddaughter.

Once arriving at the United States, her fierce sense of self-sufficiency and pride prohibits her from babysit and cleaning houses for too long before seeking for a better opportunity. Based on grandma’s proficiency at western medical treatment in China, she immediately thinks of becoming a doctor; however, her broken English banishes this idea for she would never pass the brutal doctor’s test. Not being defeated, however, she takes an alternative path – becoming a Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture specialist. Grandma takes free CHM classes at weekends, and passes her doctor’s test soon afterwards. When I was reading this part, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Today, many youths’ mainstream dream is to retire at certain age, like 40 or even 35. How many would ever dare to courageously seeking for a new and challenging profession after 60? Most striking of all, how many would do that in a complete foreign country without speaking a single word of the language?

I went to Australia in my early 20s, and my English was great already before studying at UNSD. Still, taking 5 subjects a term was killing me, and I was taking sleeping pills every night a month head of almost any midterm and final test! What was driving grandma to push her limits?

I believe the answer derives from a sense of being useful! Grandma has always being useful back in China saving patients from their excruciating pain. In America, even in her 60s, she wants to contribute to the new country, and find a sense of belonging from the new realm!

With her Chinese styled English ( I will “kill you” instead of cure you), and very limited experiences, grandma made so many mistakes on her path to engaging with her patients and treat them. Back in China, under the protection of “Planned Economy,” grandma concerns very little about attracting patients, and promoting herself is unheard of. Her hospital is responsible of getting patients. However, In the US, she has to learn hard to brand herself. At age of 62, she learns to drive due to the uncertain distances between her home and every individual patient. She learns to attract patients by making commercials and ads from different media, like TV and newspapers. Finally, over years of patience and failures, she wins and in the next 15 years, is capable of making enough money to buy a sliver BMW SUV to conduct her business.

At age of 78, grandma is finally retiring from her American career, sells her house and clinic, and moves in to a luxury nursing home. Still, she is being useful to all her mats there, and expanding her life’s width through various activities, like dancing and gardening!

如果一位老人可以在一个完全陌生的国家， 在一句英语都不会说的情况下，开展她的中医生涯，让500多位不孕病人中的300多位可以喜得贵子。在60多岁开始学习驾驶，78岁仍然在上英文课。那些想着35岁就退休的人，WHAT ARE YOU GUYS THINKING?!