2 . A fourth-grade star athlete has made headlines for keeping up with high schoolers. However, it’s not for the honor. The selfless student is a guide runner for a blind autistic (患自闭症的) teen who needs a helping hand on the cross-country track.

Rebel Hays, 11, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, stepped up as a guide runner for a ninth-grader, Paul Scot, when West Fork High School put out a call for volunteers. Paul, their student, wanted to compete.

As they ran together, the pair became good friends. “Paul and Rebel’s story is so much more than running,” said Rebel’s mother, Lou Ann. “Paul doesn’t have many friends, so Rebel doesn’t just guide him a traces. They also spend time together,” she said, telling jokes. “Paul is grateful for his young guide’s direction.” “Rebel directs me whether there’s a ditch (沟)or there are hills, who encourages me to run faster.” Paul said.

In honor of their partnership, West Fork High School wrote a post on Facebook. Posting on Oct.6, 2021, after a 5K race at Chile Pepper where the boys achieved a personal record of 21 minutes, school representatives explained, “Rebel Hays has been helping Paul all season long. He is a promising runner, but more importantly, he has a huge heart! Thank you, Rebel! Thank you a lot!”

According to Mile Split Arkansas, Paul said that his goal this year was to break 21 minutes; however, they missed it at Chile Pepper but achieved it at Yan Buren Pointer Classic, finishing with a time of 20:59:44. With the help and direction from Rebel, Paul finished 59th out of 135 runners in the 3A boys race at the state Meet in Hot Springs in early November. Paul still has one more year of eligibility (资格) for cross-country and has now set a new goal of under 20 minutes.

4 . When I was in my fourth year of teaching，I was also（and am still）a high school track and field coach（田径教练）. One year，I had a student，John，who entered my class when he was a junior. John changed to our school from Greece，and seemed to be interested in sports，so I encouraged him to join our track team. I explained to him that even though he had never taken part in it before，I did believe that he could do well in any event，and that I would be willing to coach him in whichever ones interested him. He accepted the offer，and began to work hard at every practice.

About a month later，I had found out from other sources that John was a first-class tennis player，winning various junior awards in his home country. I went to him asking，“John，I really appreciate that you came out for the track team，but why didn’t you play tennis instead？It seems that would interest you a lot more，since you’re so good at it.”John answered，“Well，I like tennis，but you told me that you believed in me，and that you thought I could do well in track，so I wanted to try it for that reason.”

From then on，I often remember my student’s reply. I told it to a friend and she suggested I write it down to share somewhere with more teachers. No matter how critical（挑剔的）students can be of themselves，I’ve found that a simple“I trust that you can do it！”can go a long way！