It was a Saturday morning as I prepared to take my eight-year-old son, David, to the aquarium. His eyes were widened with excitement, and he chattered non-stop about the sea creatures we would see, the sharks, the dolphins... We boarded the bus, and after a few stops, we made ourselves comfortably seated. David gazed out the window, watching the world go by with wonder.

The bus continued its route, and with each stop, it became increasingly crowded. Passengers of varying ages and backgrounds filled the seats. David and I were engaged in a light-hearted conversation about marine life, our anticipation and joy building with each passing minute.

As we approached a mid-route bus stop, an elderly lady boarded, her movements labored and her legs visibly unsteady. The bus was full, and for a moment, there was an obvious hesitation among the passengers, each perhaps weighing the social morals against their own comfort. The elderly lady seized her walking aid, swaying slightly with each lurch of the vehicle.

Noticing the elderly lady’s struggle, David made a decision. Without a moment’s hesitation, he rose from his seat. His small hand gestured towards the elderly lady. “You can sit here, ma'am,” he said, his voice clear and sincere. The elderly lady’s face transformed with a mixture of surprise and gratitude. “Oh, thank you, boy,” she said, her voice filling up with emotion. David then took her hand gently, helping her navigate through the crowd to the seat he had left for her. With the help of David, the lady eased herself into the seat, her relief evident. I felt pride welling up within me as I watched what David had done. Looking at David, who was standing now, I saw not just the playful child he was known to be, but the empathetic and considerate young man he was growing into.

As the bus rolled on, it was filled with renewed warmth among the passengers.

That evening, as we returned home, I couldn’t help but reflect on the true treasure of the day.

No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own efforts. I learned this lesson from an experience many years ago. I took the head coaching job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program. The school took part in the league matches every year. However, it never ended well. We were more of the audience, watching and cheering instead of sweating out in the fields.

Fortunately, the school held the tradition that the school’s old team was to play against the new team at the end of spring practice. For lack of resources, the old team bad no coach, and they didn’t even practice to prepare for the game.

I was assigned (指派) as the coach of the new team, which was why I was excited. I believed that we were going to win, but to my disappointment, we were defeated. I couldn’t believe I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I tried to figure out the reason and what I should do next.

It didn’t take long before I came to realize that my team was depending on me. Without proper guidance or previous experience, my team was at a loss what to do. I had to change my attitude so that I could bring out the best in them about their ability and potential.

I would let my action do the talking. First, I started doing anything I could to help them build a little pride. I could see their spirits lifted, with their head held high in great confidence. Most importantly, I began to treat them like winners. Only when they regarded themselves as winners could they willingly invest time and energy.

This summer, the other teams enjoyed their vacations.

Six months later, football season started.

One sunny Saturday morning, I got ready for a hike with my classmates. I was so excited about it since it was my first time to go hiking. I ate a light breakfast just a few slices of bread and an egg. After that I grabbed my backpack and hurriedly ran out of my house and then met my classmates at the school gate. At that time I didn’t think that there would be a terrible disaster ahead.

The jungle (丛林) that we are going to was far from our area. Its name was Salymbia Jungle. The drive was 3 hours long but it was not a dull ride as we were all eager about the hike and we bad each other’s company. We appointed a guide and his name was Thomas. He said that he had hiked in the Salymbia Jungle lots of times, and he was familiar with the pathways. When we arrived, Thomas allowed us to begin. There were a wide variety of plants which I had never seen before. The smell of the jungle was so earthy. All of us were amazed by the beauty of the scenery and the sound of the creatures.

After a while we were walking and then I looked at my wrist (手腕) to check the time but then I realized my watch had fallen off. Then I walked back without telling anyone. I did not worry about getting lost since there were other persons behind and I thought I would have been able to catch up with my classmates. I went back searching the pathway and I lost track of time and lost sight of my classmates. I immediately realized that I was alone.

After I realized I was lost, the first thing I did was to check my phone to see how far away I was from my companions. However, I was having no luck because there was no network in my phone, which made my phone practically useless.

Alexis Langlois, who manages a large farm, heard her neighbor crazily knocking on her front door on a Monday afternoon.

“There’s an emergency”, Amber Countryman yelled. “The horses are stuck in the water.” Langlois was struck with “absolute panic”. She threw on her winter boots — without socks — and rushed toward the small pond on the 80-acre property. She was surprised by what she saw: four horses were in the water up to their necks in 10 feet of ice water.

She immediately called 911.While waiting for help to arrive, “people just started showing up,” she said. “Neighbors were pouring in. People came with ropes, chainsaws, shovels and pick axes.”

“I grabbed a bunch of supplies,” said Countryman, whose two teenagers and their friend also as sited with the effort.

“It was-8℃that day,” she said, adding that she brought out handwarmers and water for the helpers.

Everyone was determined to get the horses out of the pond — which is about 15feetwide.

Beneath a six-inch layer of ice, the water was “just barely above freezing”, said Chris Yerkes, the South Kalispell Fire Department chief who rushed to the pond with about a dozen volunteer personnel.

When the firefighters arrived, neighbors had already attempted to pave a path through the ice toward the edge of the pond using pick axes, sledgehammers and shovels, and “we continued with that effort.” Yerkes said. Unfortunately, “as we got closer to the edge, we realized there was about three to four inches of mud.”

The thick layer of mud — which the rescuers couldn’t cut through — blocked the horses from climbing out. Firefighters enlisted additional support from Flathead County Animal Control, as well as staff from local equestrian organization Rebecca Farm.

“There had to have been at least 60 people here,” Langlois said. “It was very swift action on everybody’s part.”

It took nearly two hours to find a workable solution that could bring all four horses to safety.

To get the horses out, they used a powerful tractor (拖拉机) to get the animals out of the mud and ropes to pull them over the edge.

My parents came to the US from India in the 1960s, along with other immigrants from India. Back then, there were few Indians anywhere around the US. My father came to Kansas,where he would get his Ph.D. Six months later, my mother came with the three of us kids — my sister, my brother, and me. We were just six,five and three years old then.

It was the very first winter when we were in Kansas. It was so cold,but we didn’t have heavy coats or warm clothes. We didn’t have a concept of how cold it really could be in the Midwest, and there was a new surprise every day. We didn’t have a car or anything like that, and my dad didn’t have a US driver’s license. But anyway, my father was studying for his Ph.D., and he would walk up and down a big hill to and from the campus on a regular basis.

Since I was three years old, I didn’t go to school, but my sister and brother were in school. My father had to walk down the big hill to take them to school every day and then walk back up the hill to go to university.After about three weeks of living like this, a woman called Valerie,whose son John was in the same class as my brother, started noticing them. On a very cold snowy morning,when they went to school as usual,Valerie passed by. She pulled up and said, “I see you on the way every day. Don’t you feel cold without coats?”My father responded,“We didn’t expect the weather would be so cold in Kansas.”Valerie said,“Maybe I can take your daughter and son to school. Would you like a ride?”

Paragraph 1:

Hearing that, my dad nodded with great joy.

Paragraph 2:

Later, Valerie and her family became so dear to my family.

As is known to us, there are lots of great people in China.