【推荐1】As I walked into the primary school, I looked down at my new black Mary Jane shoes—I wanted to be anywhere in the world but Fountain Inn Elementary School.

I stood at Mrs. Blackstone’s door. Before I tried the great escape, the wooden door suddenly opened to the loud voice of Mrs. Blackstone, my new fifth grade teacher.

“We’ve been waiting for you!” She said loudly. With a smile my mom walked away and I was left standing in front of a group of students.

Over the next few days, Mrs. Blackstone made it her job to find me a new best friend. During history lessons, when I didn’t want to speak in front of the class, she’d not only call on me but have me stand up to address my classmates.

One spring afternoon, Mrs. Blackstone asked me to stay after class.

“I’d like to speak with you, Amanda.”

My mind raced. Had I made a bad grade? Had I hurt someone’s feelings?

“Are you enjoying your new school?” She sat comfortably behind her desk.

“I want to tell you something, between you and me, not to be shared with anyone else.” With her eyebrows raised she continued, “I see something special in you. The way you communicate with others, the kindness you show—I think you have great potential to be something very important.”

I listened attentively to every word.

“I’ve been a teacher for over twenty-five years; I can see it. But you must believe in yourself. That’s very important. Remember that and you’ll go far.”

She then hugged me and said, “See you tomorrow.”

Her singsong voice was music to my ears that day. I walked out of her class, not staring at my Mary Jane shoes, but looking straight ahead with my head high. My teacher saw something special in me!

【推荐2】Rioghna and Hannah Pittock spent the first few minutes feeling sorry for themselves. Rioghna,a junior at Rochester Mayo High School, had spring sports to play. Hannah,a senior at University of Chicago , was going to have a spring break in Aruba. However , both were canceled because of COVID-19. But they soon recovered and now they are sitting at home , solving Rochester's problems in their way. Pointing to the computer screen, Hannah tells her sister,“She is a nurse and her child needs to be matched.”

The two sisters birthed their plan last Saturday on the drive home from picking up Hannah in Chicago. As more medical workers were sent to work, fighting against the fierce pandemic (流行病), the sisters knew many of their families would need childcare. At the same time, teens throughout Rochester were off school. So on Sunday, Hannah and Rioghna launched Step Up To Sit. Already they're paired more than 40 families with sitters.

“The young people in the community are stepping up to do their part,” Hannah says, “We are delighted that we' re having an impact on people's lives in this hard time.”For the last four days,160 teens have registered to help, most willing to work free. if paired with a family in need. With more and more teens joining in, the two sisters decide to launch Step Up To Shop,a platform for teens to deliver groceries to seniors.

Rioghna acknowledges people of her age get a bad reputation as smartphone-addicted and selfish. The Pittock sisters are proving otherwise,“Amid the pandemic，people should be allowed to be upset and allowed to be a little bit down about the upset in their lives, but it's about something bigger and recognizing we all have our part to play here,”Rioghna says.

【推荐1】In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife Vanessa had just moved to Santa Ana, California. Outside the couple’s fourth-floor apartment, a homeless man was often yelling (叫喊) on the street corner, sometimes keeping them awake at night. Peterson would pass the man on his way to his job as a car designer, but they never spoke.

One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading a book about the power of love in action, when his quiet was influenced by the homeless man. Inspired (赋予灵感) by the book’s message, Peterson made an unexpected decision: He was going to go outside and introduce himself.

In that first conversation, Peterson learned that the man’s name was Matt Faris. He’d moved to Southern California from Kentucky to look for a job in music, but he soon fell on hard times and ended up living on the street for more than twenty years. “It was the strangest thing to me,” Peterson thought of their first conversation. “I saw beauty on the face of a man who probably hadn’t had a shower in close to a year. And his story, the life inside of him, moved me.” And even though Peterson, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn’t picked up a paintbrush for about eight years, he found himself asking if he could paint Faris’s portrait (肖像). Faris said yes.

Peterson’s connection with Faris led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit (非营利的) organization focusing on befriending and painting portraits of homeless people. Peterson sells the portraits with the owners’ permission and puts the earning into the organization, which helps many poor people.

In 2004, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭车).

I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

Fifteen years later, in 2019, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man suddenly fall to the ground in the glaring heat. It was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

【推荐3】When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard.

As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change. My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car.

My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings (兄弟姐妹). But she didn’t come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn’t there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people.

A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different.

Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn’t have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people.

After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I ever learned.