Since finishing my studies at Harvard and Oxford, I've watched one friend after another land high-ranking, high-paying Wall Street jobs. As executives (高级管理人员) with banks, consulting firms, established law firms, and major corporations, many are now 1 on their way to impressive careers. By society's 2, they seem to have it made.
On the surface, these people seem to be very lucky in life. As they left student life behind, many had a 3 drink at their cheap but friendly local bar, shook hands with longtime roommates, and 4 out of small apartments into high buildings. They made reservations at restaurants where the cost of a bottle of wine 5 a college year's monthly rent. They replaced their beloved old cars with expensive new sports cars.
The thing is, a number of them have 6 that despite their success, they aren't happy. Some 7 of unfriendly coworkers and feel sad for eight-hour workweeks devoted to tasks they 8. Some do not respect the companies they work for and talk of feeling tired and 9. However, instead of devoting themselves to their work, they find themselves working to support the 10 to which they have so quickly become 11.
People often speak of trying a more satisfying path, and 12 in the end the idea of leaving their jobs to work for something they 13 or finding a position that would give them more time with their families almost always leads them to the same conclusion: it's 14. They have loans, bills, a mortgage (抵押贷款) to 15, retirement to save for. They recognize there's something 16 in their lives, but it's 17 to step off the track.
In a society that tends to 18 everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our 19 in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs 20 in pursuing money over meaning? These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to ignore — and the very ones we need to consider most.
