1 . I had never been away from home, at least not for more than three days, much less two whole weeks. When I got the chance to go to Journalism Camp, I was ____. What if I had to go home during camp time because I wouldn’t be able to ____? What if my roommate and I didn’t____? What if I didn’t know how to use a washing machine?

Well, after the first night, nearly all of my____were answered. The students were amazing, and my roommate was____. She always listened to me patiently! The two weeks nearly flew by, and I learned to take____for myself: washing clothes, cleaning and allocating (分配) my weekly pocket money to____it for all meals.

However, in the process I didn’t realize how____I had become to the routine of waking up early, running to get to the newsroom in time, and coming back to a waiting room. On the last day, I couldn’t get myself to____in my room keys. It couldn’t be over. I become emotionally tied really easily, and it was____for me to pull away. I couldn’t ____away my tears.Returning home, I was in the state of ____for a few days. I kept to myself, sleeping through most of the day so I wouldn’t have time to look back.

This was my ____. Yet I needed to get adjusted to life at home again. I had to learn to ____that the camp was over and that not all things ____ forever. I could still keep in touch with my new friends and look forward to other experiences I will have.

2 . My busiest period comes from November each year, when I will receive a number of emails and texts from friends who want to volunteer with their families on Thanksgiving as a way to give back. I also field phone calls from organizations who want to donate to local programs that provide Thanksgiving meals.

As an official who still works in the nonprofit sector, however, I also feel deeply anxious because I know the other 51 weeks of the year, these critical programs that provide food access to residents in need are starving for both volunteers and donations. Hunger is a year round problem, and each week volunteers are the necessary part to ensure that programs are able to serve the community.

At Food For Free, we rely on about 100 volunteers per week, and each of those volunteers is extremely important to providing fresh, healthy food to people in the Greater Boston area who need it. School children who take backpacks of food home on Fridays, community college students who rely on our Family Meals program to get stronger in class, elderly and disabled residents who receive twice monthly deliveries of food to their doors through our Home Delivery program, — they all rely on us ensuring enough volunteers show up to do the work. These volunteers don’t show up in your social media feeds, they don’t win awards and no one writes about them in the local newspapers. But they are heroes. And you can be too.

If everyone made a promise to volunteer once a month, or even once a quarter, I know that we could reduce some of the anxiety these organizations feel, as a more reliable volunteer network allows them to focus on helping people, not filling volunteer slots.

You can look through our list of a few organizations who are doing critical work in Cambridge to address food insecurity. Offer your time to an organization, they will be deeply grateful—and I am going to bet that you will feel pretty good about yourself too.

6 . Bertha von Suttner received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 — she was the first woman to receive it, and also the inspiration for the creation of the Nobel Prize.

She met Alfred Nobel, a rich millionaire, by answering his newspaper ad for a secretary. Although she only worked for him for a few weeks, she remained good friends with Alfred Nobel for the next 20 years. When she became involved in the peace movement in Europe, she promised to keep Nobel informed of its progress. When Alfred Nobel died in 1896, his will included the establishment of a peace prize, thanks to Bertha von Suttner’s influence.

Bertha von Suttner was born in an aristocratic military family, but she spent the second half of her life working for peace. She wrote books, attended peace conferences, gave lectures and helped organize peace societies in Austria, Germany and Hungary, as well as the International Peace Bureau in Switzerland. Her novel, Lay Down Your Arms, was one of the most influential anti­war books of all time, and helped to make her a leader of the peace movement in Europe. Its end to war theme was both the ambition and the most important goal in the life of this great woman.

Bertha von Suttner worked so hard for peace because she believed that a terrible war would break out in Europe if nations didn’t work hard to establish lasting peace institutions. She made many major achievements for a more peaceful world, but two months after she died, World War I broke out. A hundred years after she won the Nobel Peace Prize, nations still seem to view war as a choice to work out their problems. But like Bertha von Suttner did, many today are working hard around the world to help strengthen peace institutions and spread the idea that it’s time to put an end to war.

7 . Both Vijayan and his wife Mohana grew up on the streets of Kochi, India. They married 49 years ago, making a(n) ______ selling tea on the streets. Throughout their lives, they never gave up their dream to ______ the world.

Each day, they ______ the seemingly small amount of $4. 20 for their travel. Sometimes they borrowed from the bank for their trips. After their ______ , they returned to their shop and spent the next three years paying the money back—and ______ for the next trip.

Mohana had always been ______ about the outside world, but never had the chance before marrying Vijayan. Their first journey together was to Egypt, which ______ lots of visitors every year. Once she’d gotten a taste of life outside of India, she was ______. “At first I was ______nervous,” she says, “going abroad was like going into the unknown.”

Traveling has opened up the couple’s minds so much. They’ve been to many natural and man-made ______ all over the world, ______ them in wonder. Vijayan remembered how ______he was as they sat on Eurostar train from London to Paris in 2010．

Vijayan and Mohana aren’t finished with their adventures and their ______ is to see the whole world. “Life is beautiful. We enjoy it!” is Vijayan’s simple motto, which ______ us all that no matter what ______ face us, if there’s a will, there’s always a way.

9 . Here are two interesting questions. Are you very happy with your life now? Are people happier as they get older? A study found that people generally become happier and experience less worry after age 50. In fact, it-found that by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were at 18.

The finding came from a Gallup survey of more than 340,000 adults between the age of 18 and 85 in the United States.

Arthur Stone, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of 22 and 25. Stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties.

Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties. The survey also found that men and women had similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men did.

So why would happiness increase with age? One theory is that, as people get older, they become more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.

The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.

The original goal of the study was to confirm the popular belief that aging is connected with increased sleep problems. The survey did find an increase during middle age, especially in women. But except for that, people reported that they felt their sleep quality, improved as they got older.