i never considered myself unique, but people are constantly telling me, you are a miracle. to me, i was just an ordinary guy with realistic goals and big dreams. i was a 19-year-old student at the university of texas and well on my way toward fulfilling my big dream of one day becoming an orthopedic surgeon. 我从未觉得自己与众不同，但人们常对我说：“你的生命是个奇迹。”对我而言，我只是一个普通人，有着现实的目标和远大的理想。我曾是德克萨斯大学一名十九岁的大学生，在通向理想之路上信步前行，梦想有一天我会成为一名整形外科医生。 on the night of february 17, 1981 i was studying for an organic chemistry test at the library with sharon, my girlfriend of three years. sharon had asked me to drive her back to her dormitory as it was getting quite late. we got into my car, not realizing that just getting into a car would never quite be the same for me again. i quickly noticed that my gas gauge was registered on empty so i pulled into a nearby convenience store to buy '2.00 worth of gas. i'll be back in two minutes, i yelled at sharon as i closed the door. but instead, those two minutes changed my life forever. 1981年2月17日的晚上，我和交往三年的女友沙伦在为有机化学测试做准备。因为太晚了，沙伦叫我驾车把她送回宿舍。我们钻进汽车，谁能想到在今后的生命中我不能再如此矫健地重复这样一个简单的动作。我很快发现油表空了，于是我把车泊在附近的一家便利店旁，想买两块钱的汽油。“我两分钟就回来，”我关上车门朝沙伦喊到。但就是这短短的两分钟改变了我一生的命运，永远地改变了。 entering the convenience store was like entering the twilight zone. on the outside i was a healthy, athletic, pre-med student, but on the inside i was just another statistic of a violent crime. i thought i was entering an empty store, but suddenly i realized it was not empty at all. three robbers were in the process of committing a robbery and my entrance into the store caught them by surprise. one of the criminals immediately shoved a .38 caliber handgun to my head, ordered me to the cooler, pushed me down on the floor, and pumped a bullet into the back of my head -- execution style. he obviously thought i was dead because he did not shoot me again. the trio of thieves finished robbing the store and left calmly. 进入这家便利店就如同踏上了阴阳间的奈何桥，门外的我还是个健康的，活蹦乱跳的未婚大学生，而门内的我却成了暴力犯罪的又一个牺牲品。我还以为店里没有人，但我突然发现我错
