Lisa請Shirley吃飯，說自己想回學校去讀個碩士或是博士學位，征求Shirley的意見。Shirley說，

Shirley:I got my Master's in Business Management. It's helped my career, but it took several years of hard studying. If I didn't have a supportive family and a husband with a good job, I don't think I could have done it.

L:So you're counseling me against this idea?

S:Not necessarily, but I do recommend taking a slow approach.
Can you take some night classes or find some way to keep working while you go back to school?

L:Might be difficult.

Shirley念的商業管理碩士學位，她覺得，自己之所以能讀下來，靠的是家人的支持，和老公的高收入。Lisa問Shirley是不是勸她放棄這種想法，so you're counseling me against it? to counsel someone against something意思是勸說某人不要做某事。Shirley說，not necessarily那也不一定。她建議Lisa慢慢來，take a slow approach, 看能不能邊工作邊選課。Lisa覺得不太實際。

S:Maybe you could get an MBA or something more marketable.

L:That's worth considering.

S:I got my BA from Brown University. My major was Environmental Studies but that hasn't been as useful as the business courses I took.
L:Or maybe I should just take some courses that I'm interested in, but skip the Master's.

S:That's another idea, but if you really have a dream, don't let anything stop you from going for it! Going back to school is hard, but it's not impossible.

Shirley勸Lisa考慮其他更容易找高薪工作的專業。不過，她同時也鼓勵Lisa說，if you really have a dream, don't let anything stop you from going for it! 如果這真是你的夢想的話，那就不要讓任何事情阻擋你。

L:You're right! I need to decide if this is truly what I want.

S:And take your time. You're still young. Maybe there's even a correspondence course you can take during your free time.

L:Yeah! Then I could slowly build up credits and maybe later transfer into a university program.

S:There you go! That's some clear thinking.

L:I guess I just love learning! I remember the day my SAT test scores came back....I was so excited!

S:(chuckle) I don't remember loving school quite so much....most of the time I was either bored or totally stressed out. But like I said earlier, if you have a dream, don't let anything hold you back!

Shirley說，Lisa甚至可以抽空先選幾門correspondence course函授課程，這樣可以慢慢積攢一些學分credits, 以后如果真想讀學位，也可以用得上。她再次強調說，If you have a dream, don't let anything hold you back. 意思是有夢想，就不要讓任何事情拉你的后腿。