4 . Karla Torres, a recent graduate of Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights, designed and created an 18th-century-inspired dress with the support of her mom to enter the yearly “Stuck at Prom” scholarship contest, sponsored by a trademarked brand of duct tape (强力胶带). The Los Angeles teen was named a finalist last week with the grand prize: a $ 10,000 scholarship.

In the beginning, Karla often spent hours online looking for clothing ideas or different styles. But it wasn't until a recent visit to the J. Paul Getty Museum — the only field trip she took in high school — that she found her inspiration from the 18th-century French paintings, featuring impressive, grand dresses.

“We’ve never made a dress, much less out of duct tape,” Karla said. “We didn’t know how much duct tape we needed. We were just doing it by trial and error.” In the end, the college-bound teen and her mom spent at least 120 hours, over many days, working on the dress, and used l4 rolls of tape.

“Tape is so tough and you can’t move it easily,” Karla said. “It was really challenging to make it all come together.” But the fashion-forward teenager overcame that challenge. Of more than 200 entries to the contest, Karla’s work was selected among the top five, judged for color, quality, originality, and the use of the brand tape.

While it’s Karla’s name officially in the contest, this whole process was more of a collective effort by her family. “It means a lot to me. The $ 10,000 prize would go a long way as I plan to attend a California State University school in August. I wouldn’t want my parents to struggle trying to find a way to pay for it,” Karla said. “It would really help my parents.”

Having been down on myself and unhappy in my marriage I spent the week not being very nice to anyone in my family. I felt myself distancing myself from those people that were not the root of my anger. Those little people with sweet innocent eyes were wondering why there was no love in her actions. I pushed my daughter away as she tried to hug me. Though I saw the pain in her eyes, I didn’t know how to change what I was feeling. I saw more pain in their little eyes when I served them dinner and turned and walked out of the room and didn’t join them for their last meal of the day.

For years I had made such a big deal out of having dinner as a family but during this time of heartache that I was experiencing I just couldn’t bring myself to be with them. I began to feel angry with them. It would be so easy to change my life without having them to think about. And how many times had I heard that I needed to do what was best for the kids? Did nobody care what was best for me?

Then I watched a show on TV that made me realize what I was doing to these poor kids. During this time of self pity, I was leaving them a memory, a bad memory that they could look back on. I didn’t want that to happen. I needed to pull myself up by the bootstrings and get out of the pity pot. I needed to take control of my own life. Not only for my own sake but for my kids too.

That night I went to sleep with calm thoughts in my head. The issues in my marriage had not been resolved but the issues I had with myself had. I knew what I had to do to better my life and my children’s too.

The next morning I prepared and ate breakfast with my three wonderful kids.

My story told me a lot.

Every Sunday, the competition started. The three of us would set our alarm clocks to wake up earlier than anyone else. I had set my alarm clock to six in the morning, hoping that my brothers wouldn't start before me.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Groaning, I reached over to my nightstand and slapped the top of my alarm clock. “Too early on this cold winter day,” I murmured. I curled back into my warm blanket and fell asleep again.

My eyes blinked open to the whirring sound of the vacuum cleaner. “They chose their chores first!” I thought with despair. I jumped up from my bed and rushed to the bathroom, where I started the only chore that was left for me. I would definitely be shoveling (铲) the driveway while they built an igloo (冰屋) , I thought cheerlessly, rubbing and wiping madly at the toilet bowl.

When I finished cleaning the toilet and sink, my brothers came into the bathroom to watch me clean the bathtub as they mocked me about how I'd overslept and got stuck with the longest chore. “Whoever finishes last has to shovel the driveway, remember?” my older brother reminded me with a triumphant smile when we put on our big coats and snow pants to go outside.

The three of us stepped outside into the knee-deep snow and shielded our eyes from the brightness. My brothers wasted no time and dashed off to play in the yard, leaving me behind to tackle the frustrating task of shoveling the driveway. With a heavy sigh, I inched through the thick snow to the driveway, my boots sinking with each step. I grunted (嘟哝) with effort as my brothers yelled with joy. Sunday would never be my day, I sighed.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a shovel rubbing against the driveway concrete.

After we finished, we sat inside the igloo, laughing about our morning adventures.

9 . David, my cyber friend, now 25, is still searching for something to do with his life. His father, who has ________ their lives, wants to take him into his successful business. After a lifetime of ________ and want, David’s father holds out to him a small sign of hope for a ________ future. “He seems to be sincere in his ________ to make things right with us,” David says. “To have a job, to have a father — it is ________.”

But perhaps not to David’s ________. He hasn’t said much about how she feels about the ________ re-appearance of her ex-husband. But it’s pretty clear that she’s at least ________, if not made extremely angry. David feels that he has to make a ________ between loyalty to his mother, who has been there for him all his life, and forgiveness for his father, who may ________ his hope for the future.

“I ask you for advice,” he writes to me. “I do not wish to ________ my mother, especially not after all she has done for me. But my religion teaches me to ________ all men — including my father.”

Loyalty or forgiveness — which is the greater value?

It seems to me that life’s most ________ choices are not between right and wrong. ________, those choices are pretty easy to make. But choosing between cherished virtues puts our souls on ________.

10 . If you could save someone’s life, would you? That question was ______ in the hearts of Julia Harlin’s children. Their mother was at risk of dying without a liver transplant. Julia did not want her children to become living ______ , but the kids had other ideas. Eileen Harlin and two of her siblings (兄弟姐妹) made the ______ to have testing as possible ______ without telling their mom.

After securing a good test result, Eileen phoned her mother, “Hey, don’t get ______ , but I’ve been tested to see if I’m a match. And I am, and I want to do it. How can you be mad when your daughter is going to save her mom’s life?” The news went around and was ______ tears all around.

The transplant surgery went ______ on August 16, 2022, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Unfortunately, Julia received bad news shortly after getting her new ______ of life. She was experiencing kidney ______ due to her liver disease, so even though the liver was mending, the kidneys had too much damage to ______ .

Without a second thought, Eileen ______ and another transplant was ______ on December 19, 2023, at the same facility.

Daniel G. Maluf, M. D. , the surgeon for both of Julia’s procedures, said, “The mom’s kidney function recovered ______. And both of them were home two or three days after the transplant. Julia is a wonderful patient, very ______ of her kids’ efforts. And obviously, the hero of the story is Eileen, who ______ twice to save her mother.”