My grandpa lived at the top of a mountain all by himself. This was my first time to stay with him. I was curious about everything around. Sometimes I went into the woods and pretended that I was Alex the Adventurer. I must stay near and I couldn’t go past the big rock alone. This way, Grandpa could always see me from the yard.

One morning, I raced up the path back to Grandpa’s yard as fast as I could. “Grandpa, I hear something strange in your woods!” I told him. He saw the excitement and fear in my eyes. “Let’s go to find out what it is.” He took my hand with his big and warm one. As we hiked toward the big rock, I held Grandpa’s hand tighter. I could feel my palms becoming sweaty.

Cack-cack-cack (呱呱呱)! There was that sound! I grabbed Grandpa’s leg. “What is that, Grandpa?” I whispered. “It’s the first sign of spring,” he said. “How about you going past the big rock a bit. See if you can find out what it is.” “By myself?” I hesitated, unsure of what to do next. “I promise it’s safe,” he gently encouraged me. “And I’ll stay here by the big rock where you can see me.”

“No.” I looked at Grandpa. His whole face seemed to be smiling, even his eyes. I wondered what an adventurer would do. I stood up straighter and made a brave face. “Grandpa,” I said, “I think I can do it.”

Crunch! Crunch! My feet stepped on the dead leaves as I got closer. Suddenly there was silence. I stopped and looked back. My face must not look so brave, because Grandpa said, “It’s all right, Alex. Just a little further.”

I stood up straighter and took a big step forward.     

When I was in middle school, I became blind. Suddenly thrown into a world of darkness. I was troubled by frustration and self-pity. Depression consumed me and I was frightened to try anything challenging.

Imagine my surprise when my teacher asked me to enter a speaking contest. I rejected it out of hand. Among so many students, why did she pick me? I was an average student. blind and plain-looking. Anyhow. she insisted that I go for it. Her reply:“Because I believe you can deliver a good speech. You are more capable than you imagine!” Encouraged by her words,1agreed to give it a shot

I decided on a fictional mole (鼹鼠) as my topic. It was a cute creature with poor eyesight mostly living underground, digging holes and helping get rid of pests. Not a brilliant idea, but unique; and undoubtedly a relatable tale.

What did the mole think, as he fought his way in the darkness? Would he get scared? Have second thoughts? Want to quit? It struck a chord immediately. I got exhausted from preparing the speech. I had doubts about my choice. I wanted to escape from reality. But, like the blind mole. I kept it up. I doubled my efforts. I checked out books from the school library. I referred to some great speeches. I turned to my father for guidance.

A week before the competition, I presented my speech to my teacher. She smiled, saying “Good. Now, polish your writing and practice your delivery.” I couldn’t remember how many times I made adjustments to my writing. Nor could I recall how I practiced it over and over again, with mixed feelings. “Could my message get across to the audience?” “How would they react?” Tons of questions crowded into my mind.

The big day finally arrived

I went up to my teacher after the award ceremony.

“Are you crazy? You finally retired! Why would you want to work in the hospital again? “My friends couldn’t understand why, after forty years of nursing and four of retirement, I would return to nursing. Actually, I didn’t understand either. Tired of the pressure of the job, I had eagerly and joyfully retired with no plans to practice nursing again.

Then one day a friend who was also a retired nurse told me how much she loved being a part of the Volunteer Registered Nurse program. “You help nurses care for patients at the bedside,” she said, “and the best part is that you do so at your own speed.”

She directed me to the program at our local hospital, and after completing lots of paperwork and a few classes, I was excited about getting back to the bedside. On my first day, after basic training, I stepped onto the surgical (外科的) floor to be welcomed with smiles and hellos from the staff. I checked with the charge nurse to see who needed my help the most or if there was a particular patient requiring some extra care.

She smiled, “I am so glad to see you. I can’t believe you are here to help me.” Taking a deep breath, she added, “Mr. Jones needs a bath and some extra attention. He is so disappointed he's not going home today.”

I proceeded (前往) to the patient’s room to see a sad man staring out of the window.

I gave him my biggest smile. “Hi, I’m Mary, a volunteer RN and I’m here to take special care of you this morning.”

I asked if he would like to take a shower and he shook his head.

“Taking a shower and putting on clean pajamas (睡衣) may make you feel better,” I encouraged.

I went to the beach nearby for some relaxing time myself. After a tiring week, all I wanted was a book, some loneliness, and a good snack. It was a lovely time watching people come and go for a warm weekend here in California. Kids were joyfully playing in the water, row boating, building sandcastles and sharing meals with their family.

After a few hours, I decided to walk along the waves to get to my car on the other side as I was leaving. As I was near the end and about to head off the beach, I noticed a girl playing by herself, maybe around 8 or 9. It looked like she built a little sandcastle with a moat (护城河) around it and was now trying to fill the moat with water.

Unfortunately, there was no container around to carry water or the usual sand toys. She was playing alone, unlike most of the other kids. She would go to the waves, cup her hands and then walk back to her little castle. Sadly not much of the water was making it to the moat. But she kept trying and was still smiling and hopeful. I so wished I could help her out, but I didn't have a container with me.

As I was standing there watching her, feeling helpless, I had an idea. I realized that I had a bottle of water in my bag that I had completely forgotten about. I quickly dug in, took it out, and walked over to hand it to her.

Confused at first, she smiled but shook her head shyly, saying no. I told her that it would make getting the water much faster. She smiled broadly and finally took it from my hands. Not wanting her to feel uncomfortable, I walked off the beach right away and watched her in the distance.

The girl began to carry water using the bottle.

Seeing this, I decided to carry more water for her with a bigger container.