1 . When I was a teenager, I was invited to a formal dance party. I was _________, but also nervous about what to wear. Mom suggested I wear high heels (高跟鞋).

“Mom, I don’t know if I can wear these,” I said, feeling _________. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Just take small _________ and keep your weight centered,” she suggested.

As I arrived at the party, I tried to be _________ and act like everything was fine. But _________ struck when I stepped onto the dance floor. I _________ my own feet, falling to the ground in front of everyone.

I quickly got up and laughed it off, pretending like it was _________. But deep down, I felt like a tomato, wanting to _________.

My friend Lilly helped me _________ that incident and managed me another high heels as a support so that nobody would understand my hesitation. But a little bit __________ continued in my mind.

When I returned home, I told Mom I felt like a complete __________ at the party. “It’s okay. You tried something new, and it didn’t go as __________. But that’s how we learn and grow. Don’t be too __________ on yourself and wear what you feel __________ in,” Mom said, giving me a hug.

From that day forward, I stuck to flat shoes. I learned to __________ my true self and not worry about what others thought.

2 . Wheeling her red chair and scissors around, a salon owner gives out-of-luck strangers a gift — one free hairdo at a time. To date, Steller has given about 30 such haircuts to _________ people around the city. “It’s _________ a haircut,” she says. “I want it to be a _________, to show value and respect, but also to get to know people. I want to build _________.”

Steller knows that a haircut can _________ a life. As a teen, she suffered from a disease so severe that her hair _________ greatly. Her mother arranged for Steller’s first professional haircut. “To have somebody talk to me like a person, it helped me feel _________ and less alone,” she says. After that, Steller knew she wanted to have her own salon so she could help people _________ the way she’d felt that day. Not long after finishing school, she began her Red Chair Project. “I can’t _________ their problems, but maybe I can help them feel less alone for a moment,” she said.

A branch of her project is the Steller Kindness Projects in which people who __________ acts of kindness are invited for a free hairdo. __________, they tell their stories, which Steller shares on her website. Her hope is that by reading about kind acts, others will be __________ to spread their own. So far, it’s working, she says.

It all began with a belief in __________ acts of kindness, such as a free haircut. “The way you __________ in the world matters,” says Steller. “You have no idea what people are going to do with the __________ that you give them.”