I was ten when I arrived at the Children’s Home in Nashua, New Hampshire. I failed third grade that year, and hardly ________ it a second time, and I reached Pauline Jambard’s fourth-grade class at Charlotte Avenue Elementary School.

I thought I wasn’t as smart as the other kids. ________, Ms. Jambard didn’t think so. Of all the ________ in school, reading was my favorite. She would tell me, “Terry, you should ________ reading. If you can understand what you’re reading, you’ll be ________ than most kids.” After I read all the books in our program, I started reading many other books. And gradually I started to really ________ school life.

That ________, our school held a Christmas party for family and community members. ________ no family to invite, I still remembered looking up and seeing Ms. Jambard walk through the front door and knowing she was there to see me. Deeply ________, I couldn’t help crying with joy. That was the happiest Christmas of my life!

After I graduated from Ms. Jambard’s class, my brother and I moved, and I lost all ________ with my teacher. Years later, I was on a business trip and I took a chance to visit Charlotte Avenue Elementary School. I was walking toward her ________ when she came out into the hallway and said, “Terry!” It was as if I had ________ left!

We have stayed in touch, and I call Ms. Jambard at least once a year. Since she helped me to gain my ________ in my life again, finally I ________ in my future career. Without her encouragement, I couldn’t have achieved so much. I’ll never forget her kindness and ________ in me.

Tomas Ybarra-Frausto grew up outside of San Antonio, on a farm that belonged to his grandfather. His family comes from Mexico so they speak Spanish. And they have tradition. “The umbilical cord (脐带) that was taken away when you were born would be put in a little box. You got to pick where you wanted that to be buried (埋藏) said Ybarra-Frausto. In Mexican culture this tradition means the planting of a child's roots to the land.

At the age of 4, Ybarra-Frausto decided that he wanted to bury it under a tree in the middle of his family’s farm.“The farm was pretty empty, but in the middle stood a beautiful tree. So I pointed to the tree,” said Ybarra-Frausto. His family told him, “This is the place where you’re born, so no matter where you end, this is where you began.”

It wasn’t until primary school that he started to understand what it meant to be Mexican American. On the first day of the first grade, his teacher told the class that because they were all American, they were going to learn English. “But my father says I'm an American, and that’s why I speak Spanish,” he remembered telling his teacher. But she punished him by putting him in a corner of the classroom. His father was proud that his son was learning English, but that didn’t take away from the other language he spoke. His father told him a person who speaks two languages is worth twice the person who speaks only one.

Ybarra-Frausto has lived in New York for nearly twenty years. And even though he was far away from his family in San Antonio, he continued to find solace in his family's tradition and his first language. “Whenever I miss my family members in San Antonio, I will think about the first language I speak and the umbilical cord under the tree because I know that’s where I’m from. I will feel much better.”