Liam, a fifth-grader, moved with his mum for a new apartment in a relatively cheaper area of the city after his father’s unexpected death, and began attending a neighbourhood school.

Since he was an introvert (内向的人), the thought of making friends always made him feel nervous, and moving into a new neighbourhood meant he had to face his fears. On his first day, he didn’t talk to anyone or try to make friends, and during the mealtime, he sat at the corner table in the cafeteria and ate his lunch alone. No one in the class stepped forward to welcome him. Instead, they ignored him and refused to sit next to him in class.

The next day, he was sitting alone in the classroom when a boy approached him and asked, “Can I sit next to you?”

“Sure,” Liam smiled.

“I’m Joel. And you? ”

“Liam.”

“Is it your first day today?”

“No, it’s my second day. I recently moved into this neighbourhood.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I skipped (逃避) school yesterday, so I thought it was your first day today.”

As days passed, Liam and Joel discovered that they lived on the same street. After school, they often played catch in the nearby park, a game they both loved playing. It only took Liam a few weeks to become best friends with Joel.

One day, Joel skipped school, and Liam had to sit alone in class, wondering why. Feeling worried, he went to ask his class teacher.

“Liam, I’m so sorry, but your best friend got into an accident last night,” the teacher put her hand on Liam’s shoulder. “He lost his parents in the car crash.”

“Oh no!” Liam covered his face with his hands.

Two months later, Joel was allowed to go home after a spinal (脊柱的) surgery. However, he couldn’t walk and was restricted to a wheelchair. The day he arrived home with his grandmother, Liam rushed to Joel's house with a candy bar and the ball they used to play catch with Joel’s eyes lit upon seeing Liam. The boys talked to each other for hours before Liam’s mother came to pick him up at night.

While he was happy to see his friend after months, he felt terrible knowing Joel could never walk again.

Ten days later, Liam asked Joel to play catch with him outside and he agreed.

Nish a could not forget the way she froze in front of the class today.

Today was Nisha’s turn to do a presentation. However, her hands shook so violently that she couldn’t read her notes. Her voice became softer even to silence. Mr. Roberts kindly ended Nisha’s presentation even though she did clearly not finish. He also asked Nisha to stay after class for a moment.

“Nisha. I know you’re shy, but you worked hard on this project. I’d hate to see you give up on yourself.” Then Mr. Roberts hesitated, “If I give you another chance, do you think you can find your courage?” Nisha nodded, grateful for the chance. After the talk, she always kept her head down in the school and hoped this school day would end soon.

When she arrived at home, her mom was baking in the kitchen. Her mom studied Nisha’s face as she came into the kitchen. “What’s wrong, Nisha?”

Tears shone in Nisha’s eyes. Nisha told her mom the whole story. Her mom was silent for a moment and asked, “Why is it that you can talk to me about anything, but you can’t talk to your class?” She set the timer（计时器）and then said, “Let me show you something.”

Nish a followed her mom to her bedroom. There her mom showed her a book filled with pictures. In it there was a blue ribbon（丝带）that said “First Place” and a picture of herself when she was very young, standing with her parents.

“I won it for public speaking. I started the school year as the shyest girl on the speech team, but lended the year as the blue ribbon winner. It wasn’t easy at first—I was not sure of myself at all. I worked hard, and mostly I faced my fears. You just need to find your courage.”

Hearing mom’s words, Nisha stared at the precious blue ribbon, lost in thought.

The next day Nisha again walked to the front of the classroom to give her presentation.

I was always afraid of water. This fear could not be explained, but I knew that the moment I stepped near any body of water, my legs would turn to jelly (果冻). I would imagine myself drowning in the water and thrashing around (乱扑腾) helplessly. That was why I had never gone into a swimming pool until swimming became a school requirement. My school wanted all pupils to pass a swimming test, and if they could not, then they would have to attend weekly swimming lessons in school, which made me tremble.

Thus, my parents signed me up for swimming lessons at the pool near my house. With great unwillingness, I attended those weekly lessons, and each one was great suffering for me. I was naturally clumsy, and my fear of water did not help at all. Every lesson, I would be spending my time thrashing about in the water, while my classmates would be swimming countless laps effortlessly and even turning over like dolphins in the water. How was I going to pass the test at this rate?

In my swimming class, there was an exceptionally athletic girl. Tall and muscular, her name was Kathy. She was the best swimmer in our class and always looked at me with disdain (鄙视), especially when I thrashed about hopelessly in the water.

Once, after a particularly long and hard swimming lesson, I spotted Kathy swimming gracefully in the pool. Gathering my courage, I asked gently, “Kathy, can you teach me to swim?” She stared at me coldly. It was as if I stood at the edge of an endless ocean of inadequacy, my fears appearing like dark storm clouds threatening to drown me. Yet, in that moment, a glimmer of hope flashed within me, a desperate longing for guidance and acceptance. Would Kathy’s icy exterior (外表) melt under the warmth of empathy, or would I remain forever thrashing in the sea of my own fears?

To my surprise, she nodded after a few moments of silence.

“Congratulations!” Kathy said when she learnt I had passed the swimming test.

Jenny was the only child in her family. She had a quarrel (吵架) with her mother that afternoon and she ran out of the house angrily. She couldn’t help weeping sorrowfully when she thought of the scolding from her mother. Having wandered aimlessly in the street for hours, she felt a little hungry and wished for something to eat. She stood beside a stand (货摊) for a while, watching the middle-aged seller busy doing his business. However, with no money in hand, she gave a sigh and had to leave.

The seller behind the stand noticed the young girl and asked, “Hey, girl, you want to have the noodles?”

“Oh, yes, but I don’t have money on me.” she replied.

“That’s nothing. I’ll treat you today,” said the man, “Come in.”

The seller brought her a bowl of noodles, whose smell was so attractive. As she was eating, Jenny cried silently.

“What is it?” asked the man kindly.

“Nothing. Actually, I was just touched by your kindness!” said Jenny as she wiped her tears. “Even a stranger on the street will give me a bowl of noodles, while my mother drove me out of the house. She showed no care for me. She is so merciless compared to a stranger!”

Hearing the words, the seller smiled, “Girl, do you really think so? I only gave you a bowl of noodles and you thanked me a lot. But it is your mother who has raised you since you were a baby. Can you remember the times she cooked for you? Have you expressed your gratitude to her?”

Jenny sat there, speechless and numb with shock: she remembered her mother’s familiar face and weathered hands. “Why didn’t I think of that? A bowl of noodles from a stranger made me feel grateful. Why haven’t I thanked my mum for what she has done for me?”

On the way home. Jenny made up her mind to make an apology to her mother for her rudeness as soon as she arrived home.

Nearing the doorway, Jenny took a deep breath.

At that time, her mother came back and touched her hair gently, which called her mind back.

When Dr. Henderson was assigning (指定) project partner for his psychology (心理学) class, I secretly hoped that he would pair me with my best friend or at least a classmate I could have some fun with. Above all, I hoped he wouldn’t assign me to work with the fiercely competitive and extremely serious fellow who always wore dark clothes and apparently had a personality to match. As fate (命运) would have it, Dr. Henderson very designedly matched everyone in class and announced that I would be working with the one person in class I wanted to avoid.

I went up to my new teammate and introduced myself. He looked at me as though I weren’t there. I felt he treated me as though I would hold him back and probably make him fail to get an A in the course. He wasn’t mean or rude but he just gave me the impression that he could do whatever project we dreamed up better if he did it alone.

Needless to say, I didn’t look forward to being looked down upon so I tried to make the best of it and didn’t say anything for fear that I would make things worse.

The project required each team to develop a hypothesis (假说), set up an experiment to test the hypothesis, analyze the data and present the findings. Whatever grade the team received would be shared by both students.

When my teammate and I met to discuss our project, I was uneasy. Here was this challenging student who had been known for single-mindedness and good grades — the exact opposite of me. I actually wanted to drop the class at one point, but stopped short because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my chickening out (临阵脱逃) . I decided to stick to it no matter what.

After long discussions we somehow agreed to do a study on the psychological well-being (健康) of teenagers. I wasn’t sure what it meant exactly, but at least we had a topic.

We started to meet regularly to draw up our plans.

One day I got word that he was admitted to hospital (住院) for a serious disease.

Last summer vacation, I traveled to Sanya in Hainan, China. When my dad told me one of the items on the journey would be one of the highest water slides (水上滑梯) in Asia, I asked my dad repeatedly whether I could stay at home. But my dad said that I would love it and we should go together.

Three days later, I was standing in front of that water slide in Atlantics Waterpark. The slide was located in a building. When I looked up at the tens of thousands of stairs leading to the peak of the building, I thought to myself, “If I fall from that place, I will definitely die.”

As we started climbing the stairs, I saw three words on the wall: Leap of Faith. I had never heard of these words, and at that time they reminded me of Road to Death. Five meters, ten meters ... I looked down and thought, “I am going to die today.” Fifteen meters, twenty meters ... I thought about the many things I hadn’t done and asked my dad whether I had life insurance. Twenty-five meters, thirty meters ... and we were finally at the top, ready to jump into the slide. I looked at the three people next to me and thought, “These are the last three people I will see in my life.”

Suddenly, the teenage boy ahead of me stopped in front of the slide and turned around, “Look down there. If we fall into the shark tank, we will be eaten by those hungry sharks.” We all paused and looked down at the shark tank above the slide tunnel. Just then, a younger boy next to me said, “Excuse me, if you don’t want to go now, I will go first.” Then he walked past the teenage boy and me and jumped into the slide, disappearing in an instant.

My father said to me jokingly, “Look, that boy is not even half of your height. Come on, Selina. You can do it.” The teenager turned and stared at me too, “Now, you go first.”

With a deep breath, I stepped closer to the edge of the slide.

A moment later, my father came down.