英语沙龙：人生新起点（在线收听）

Entering the New Room of Your Life

It must be one of the most frequently asked questions in the English language—“What do you want to be when you grow up?” And for most of us the answer is simple—“I don't know.” And that's just fine. For teenagers all over the world it is difficult to imagine life outside the familiar school grounds and comfortable family home.

But when the university entrance exams finish and high-school graduation wraps up, it is time to move on to a whole new stage in one's life—adulthood. One day when you are 40, you may look back on your life and wonder exactly how you became an adult. When did you change? Quite often the answer will lie between your first day of university and the first day of your professional career. While you cannot pinpoint an exact time, somewhere in the “roommate days” or “dorm days” you learnt things far more valuable than anything you could learn in a classroom.

For it is in this time we learn independence-Mum and Dad can't take care of you anymore;responsibility—you have to clean your own bedroom and make your own meals; maturity— suddenly joking about “girl's germs” doesn't seem so funny when you actually have a girlfriend or boyfriend; respect—you should take care of John's computer, he spent a lot of money on it; and budgeting—should you spend your last $50 on new shoes or pizza? And a big part of the living-away-from-home process is communication. High-class celebrities and highly paid psychologists are always telling us, to fix our relationship problems, “the key is communication.”

And nothing can provide better training in developing communication than living with other people. "Whose dirty socks are these?” “Where is your share of the rent money?” “Let's have a party on Friday night!” “I think I'm going to break-up with my boyfriend.” This special period of time is guaranteed to make you feel every emotion possible, but at the same time it will provide you with the best memories you could ever dream of. When the “dorm days” come to an end, we finally know where we belong in the world. And finally, we know exactly what we want to be when we grow up.