I’d been bored by everything associated with English courses and the idea of being a writer had never come to me until in my third year in high school when our English class was taken over by Mr. Fleagle. Mr. Fleagle was said to be very formal, dull, prim (古板的) and hopelessly out of date. He wore primly severe glasses; his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique (古董).

I prepared for another unfruitful year without enjoyment in that dull subject with Mr. Fleagle. I found English grammar dull and difficult. I hated the assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were painful for teachers to read and for me to write.

Late in the year, Mr. Fleagle handed out a homework sheet offering us a list of topics. None was quite so simple-minded as “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” but most seemed to be almost as boring as I had expected. I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due. Lying on the sofa, I finally faced up to the unwelcome task, took the list out of my notebook, and scanned it.

Then my eyes stopped on the topic “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.” Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville when all of us—Uncle Allen, my mother, my father and my cousin Doris were seated and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper which was still a little known foreign dish in those days. Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. However, it was a night that I would never forget.

Suddenly I wanted to write about that, about the warmth and good feeling of that night.

Two days later the graded articles were returned.

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Desiree, a 4-year-old girl, was sobbing quietly over her father, Ken, who had died nine months earlier. She was hugging a photograph of her father with her fingers running around his face. “Daddy”, she said softly, “Why won't you come back?”

Instead of gradually adjusting to her father's death, Desiree refused to accept it “Daddy will be home soon,” she'd tell her mother. “He's at work.” When she played with her toy telephone, she pretended she was chatting with her father “I miss you, Daddy,” she'd say. “When will you come back?” Desiree's situation made her mother worried.

Days later, it was Ken's birthday. “How will I send him a card?” Desiree asked her mother “How about if we tie a litter to a balloon.” her mother said, “and send it up to heaven?” Desiree's eyes immediately lit up.

Her mother took her to a store and Desiree picked out a balloon with HAPPY BIRTHDAY above a drawing of The Little Mermaid (美人鱼). Desire and her father had often watched it.

The child's eyes shone as they were on the way to Ken's grave. Then Desiree dictated (口述) a letter to her Dad. “Daddy, Happy birthday, I love you and miss you,” she rattled off (快速说). “I hope you get this and can write to me on my birthday in January.”

Her mother wrote the message and their address on a small piece of paper, which was then wrapped in plastic and tied to the end of the string on the balloon. Finally, Desiree let fly the balloon. For almost an hour, they watched the shining spot of silver grow smaller and smaller till disappear. “Now Dad's going to write back to me,” Desiree said confidently.

Every day since they'd flew the balloon, Desiree had asked her mother, “Do you think Daddy has my balloon yet?” Several weeks passed, and she stopped asking.

Desire's fifth birthday came and later on the afternoon, a package arrived.

Along with physical changes, there come many psychological changes. Boys and girls tend to be different in this regard.     1     Many boys become risk-takers — they want to find their own limits and the limits of the world around them, but may not have the wisdom to make good choices in their behavior. At the same time,     2    女孩子们往往需要某个人 — anyone — to talk to, as they try to deal with their strong feelings. In the social world, as teenagers get older,     3     they struggle to depend on themselves. They may badly want and need their parents' love, yet feeling distant;     4    他们可能想成为团队的一员,yet desire independence.     5     Since teenagers have difficulty balancing these needs, they often question who they are and how they fit in society.