Hello, everyone!

That’s all. Thank you!

My parents love the saying “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" so much that they even bought a pillow with those words on it. But I was recently in a situation where I was SO ready to give up.

It started last week when my friend Ollie and I were helping his grandmother Mary to carry boxes from her garage to her car for the homeless shelter rummage sale (义卖).

At the sight of a big old trunk (行李箱)，we asked Mary what was inside. But she told us that as she had lost the key, she had to find a master locksmith to figure it out. "Let me have a try!" said Ollie. “I bet I can open that lock in two minutes flat! Maybe there's a treasure inside, like gold or diamonds or an ancient map!"

Mary smiled. "I'll tell you what. If you two treasure hunters can open this trunk, you can have it, along with whatever is inside."

Ollie got a tool kit and we set out to open the lock. But he definitely lost that bet. Those two minutes turned into two hours, with no luck at all. We had tried every tool in the kit, but the lock wouldn't move slightly.

“It's no use." Ollie sighed. "I guess we have to give up."

“But we can't give up!" I said. "What about 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"?"

Ollie shook his head. "Unless you know a magical key fairy, we're never getting this unlocked."

Just then, my little brother Tex showed up. He showed great interest in the trunk. "It looks like an upside-down boat! Can I turn it over and pretend I'm sailing in the ocean?"

"Sure," Ollie replied. "It's no good for anything else."

“Ahoy!" Tex said, climbing on top after Ollie and I turned it over. “I’m the captain!” He giggled as he jumped up and down. And right then, a screw (螺丝) from a hinge (铰链) came loose and rolled to the floor.

“That's it! I know how to open it!" said Ollie.

Oh! There were only lots of shoes in the trunk!

Wide awake, I sat up in bed before dawn. I'd had another dream about Jennifer, my middle child. She's 38 now. Usually in my dreams she's still a little shy girl.

Jennifer had been five years old and her older sister seven, when the twins were born. Everything changed. The boys demanded much of my time and energy, so I hardly had any left for their older sisters. Sweet, quiet Jennifer, sandwiched between the others, required almost nothing from me. Eventually Jennifer had her own children and lived about an hour and a half away. But it seemed as though she were worlds away.

I often dreamed about her. In this one she was a grown woman and mixed in with a crowd. I waved hard, “Jennifer! I'm over here!” But she didn't notice me.

I longed to hear my daughter's voice and called, “Hey, I had a dream about you.” Then Jennifer surprised me. “I dreamed about you too. But it was terrible. I won't even tell you.”

“But I am eager to hear.”

Her words came out without thinking, “We were walking through a vegetable garden. A farmer shouted that I'd stepped on one of his tomatoes and asked for 43 cents. I didn't have any money and turned to you. You said no. I begged. I woke up in tears.”

The pain in her voice almost cut my breath off. “There were so many things I should have done for you. I overlooked you. You seemed so competent and independent. I forgot you were just a child.”

There was silence on her end of the line. The communication seemed broken again. I called an old friend and told her about Jennifer's dream and our awkward attempt to connect. “Your relationship probably broke down over a lot of little things,” she said.

I realized what I should do to mend our relationship.

The next day, my daughter called me excitedly.

Last Saturday afternoon, when I was on my way to school, I saw a mother and her son preparing to go across the street.

9 . The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, ________. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and from in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost ________ on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just ________ to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of ________ or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor(倦怠)had ________ this passionate struggle.

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet(铅锤) and sounding-line(测深索), and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ________ before my education began, only I was without   ________ or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the ________ was. "Light! Give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I would to my mother. Someone ________ it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to ________ all things to me, and more than all things else, to love me.

The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until ________. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word "d—o—l—l." I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to ________ it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I ________ with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this ________ way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a ________.

“I never wanted to come on this stupid hiking trip anyway!” Jeff’s voice echoed across the narrow canyon (峡谷). Nothing was as pretty as it had seemed when they first hiked this way to their campsite yesterday morning. Before, the rocks had been an interesting challenge. Now, they were obstacles that were threatening their lives. Steep cliffs had earlier been natural curiosities, but now they were nature’s weapons, beating and rubbing Jeff and his father who pushed through as quickly as they could.

His father stopped for a third time, pale and out of breath, and turned to look at the 12-year-old boy. “This is hard on you, son, I know. But you’ve got to come through with courage and calmness.” “But I’m scared! I don’t even want to have courage!” he complained, turning his head the other way, and wiped his eyes across his arm. “If not courage, fine.” his father replied strictly. “Then have enough love for your sister to think this through!” He gently placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and continued, more softly this time. “I’m just holding you back. You’re young, but you’re strong and fast. Do you remember the way back from here to the road, if you had to go alone?”

Jeff flashed back to the painful scene of his sister at their campsite this morning. She’d been bitten by a snake, before long she could barely move, and the pain seemed to be getting worse. She needed medical attention right away, so leaving her at the campsite and seeking help was their only choice. “Jeff? Jeff, could you do it? Could you climb up the canyon and make it without me?”

Jeff looked past his father’s encouraging eyes to the end of the canyon, several miles away. He nodded slowly as the path and the plan began to take hold in his mind. “What was the name of that little town we stopped in, Dad?” “Flint. We parked at the side of the main road a few miles out of town.” Jeff thought about this and then nodded.

He waved goodbye to his father and moved on.

Finally, he made it to the main road.