As long as here is breath in your body, it’s never too late to change your story.

Kate Adams’s show “As The World Turns” was canceled in Dec 2009 by CBS. She got unemployed after 15 years working. At the beginning she thought everything would be ok. Then she pack the kids and the Brooklyn apartment and moved in with her in-laws. Three months later, nothing was ok. She felt that she was dead inside. But she knew that her story wasn’t over. She started fight back and finally got an interview in news and entertainment. 

How did she learn from soap operas to help her in this situation?

"One Life to Live" introduced a love story that lasted 25 years. In 1986, Tina Lord found herself in quite the pickle. She married sweet Cord Roberts just before he inherited millions. But when Cord found out Tina loved his money s much as she loved him, he dumped her. Cord’s mother thrilled until they hooked up again. Maria hired Max Holden to romance Tina and then made sure Cord didn’t find out Tina was pregnant with his baby. Tina, still married but thinking Cord didn’t love her, flew to Argentina with Max. 

Cordfinally figured out what was going on and rushed after them, but he was too late. Tina had already been kidnapped, strapped to a raft and sent over a waterfall.She and her baby were presumed dead. Cord was sad for a bit, but then he bounced right back with a supersmart archaeologist named Kate, and they had a gorgeous wedding until Tina, seemingly back from the dead, ran into the church holding a baby. "Stop!" she screamed. "Am I too late? Cord, I've come so far. This is your son."

pickle: 腌汁；泡菜；<英口>淘气鬼；<口>困境

inherit:继承；遗传

thrill: (使)激动；感到紧张

strapped:   (用带子)捆扎；(用带子)抽打

A soap opera, the stories and the characters can be exaggerated, larger than life.She believe the opposite to be true. Soap operas reflect life, just bigger.

Lesson 1:surrender is not an option.

soap operas are larger than life, drama on a grand scale, but our lives can be filled with as much intensity, and the stakes can feel just as dramatic. We cycle through tragedy and joy just like these characters. We cross thresholds, fight demons and find salvation unexpectedly, and we do it again and again and again, but just like soaps, we can flip the script, which means we can learn from these characters that move like bumblebees, looping and swerving through life.

And we can use those lessons to craft our own life stories. Soap operas teach us to push away doubt and believe in our capacity for bravery, vulnerability, adaptability and resilience. And most importantly, they show us it's never too late to change your story.

"All My Children"'s Erica Kane was daytime's version of Scarlett O'Hara, a hyperbolically self-important princess who deep down was scrappy and daring. Now, in her 41 years on TV, perhaps Erica's most famous scene is her alone in the woods suddenly face to face with a grizzly bear. She screamed at the bear, "You may not do this! Do you understand me? You may not come near me! I am Erica Kane and you are a filthy beast!"

The bear left, so what that teaches us is obstacles are to be expected and we can choose to surrender or we can stand and fight.

 stake: 桩；赌注；利害关系

threshold: 门槛；开端；界限；入口

salvation: 拯救；救世；救助

 bumblebees:  大黄蜂，熊蜂

 loop:形成环；环形运动

 swerve: vi.突然转向；转弯；偏离方向

•                  vt.使突然转向；使转弯
• bravery: 勇敢
• resilience: 适应力；弹性
•  hyperbolically: 夸张的；双曲线的
• scrappy: 零碎的；好斗的；斗志旺盛的；
• grizzly: 灰熊
• obstacle: 障碍；绊脚石

Lesson 2: sacrifice your ego and drop the superiority complex

Pandora's Tim Westergren knows this better than most. He could be called Erica Kane of Silicon Valley. Tim and his cofounders launched the company with two million dollars in funding. They were out of cash the next year. Now, lots of companies fold at that point, but Tim chose to fight. He maxed out 11 credit cards and racked up six figures in personal debt and it still wasn't enough. So every two weeks for two years on payday he stood in front of his employees and he asked them to sacrifice their salaries, and it worked. More than 50 people deferred two million dollars, and now, more than a decade later, Pandora is worth billions.

When you believe that there is a way around or through whatever is in front of you, that surrender is not an option, you can overcome enormous obstacles.

In 1983, "Days of Our Lives"' Stefano DiMera died of a stroke, but not really, because in 1984 he died when his car plunged into the harbor, and yet he was back in 1985 with a brain tumor.But before the tumor could kill him, Marlena shot him, and he tumbled off a catwalk to his death. And so it went for 30 years.