1 . I’ll always remember the first time I tried ballet. My mother was a dancer and I wanted nothing more than to be like her, but after making mistakes during my first class, I felt like I wanted to quit right away. However, I told my mom I couldn’t wait to dance again because it was only my first day.

Weeks passed and my dancing didn’t get any better. Then my dance teacher announced that we were going to perform in a show. I was scared of falling on my face in front of hundreds of people and disappointing my mom.

Even though I practiced hard for the show, I never quite got the hang of it. Finally, I went to my mom to tell her how I felt. She simply laughed and told me she would teach me all she knew about ballet.

My mom quickly discovered how bad at ballet I was, but she still taught me with the greatest patience, love and understanding. When I jumped and fell, she was there to catch me. When I lost my balance, she held me up. By the time the show arrived, I was as prepared as I could be.

The music began and my heart started to race. Breathing calmly, I began moving to the music without missing a step. When the music stopped, I ran off the stage and laughed in excitement.

My mom found me and gave me a huge hug, telling me how proud she was. I looked my mom in the eye and told her that there was no way this could have happened without her. Through this, I realized one important fact: My mom will always be there to catch me if I fall.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Jin

6 . Decades ago, I traveled alone for the first time in my life. The trip to Colorado was not for business or family reasons, but just to travel and ________.

As I prepared for it, I felt excited and ________ at the same time. Would it be fun? Would I be bored? Would I stay in bed all day or would I jump with excitement to do the next thing? I wasn’t ________. Little did I know that it was going to be so ________ a journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me, travel is always about the ________: Always thinking of who would ________ what. Because it’s about family time. But when travel ________, who would I connect with? What would I do? Well, I found that I got to do anything I ________!

While traveling, I met locals and also other ________. Honestly, I had conversations ________—on planes, while hiking, in restaurants.

It was quite a(n) ________ experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of adopted kids, a cookie baker, and an internationally ranked marathon runner. The inspiring stories I discovered were ________ and nothing was like my wonderful and ________ life at home. I got to go rock climbing by myself, go hiking solo, and eat ________. And it was all ________, going smoothly. Actually, I felt surprisingly ________.

It was just me, my SUV and my backpack for a week. ________, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t ________ existed. It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are ________ and there is so much more out there to ________ and discover!