I am Lucky

I came from a large family and my mother couldn’t afford my college. I managed to apply for some grants (助学金), but still not enough for room and meals. So I washed dishes in the school cafeteria as part of a work-study program. However, washing dishes as well as trying to keep up with my study made me tired. As a result, I was often absent-minded, and my grades went up and down.

Just when I thought I would have to drop out, my advisor came to me. He explained that his grandmother needed house service and care on the weekends. The job paid twice the money I was making washing dishes. With more time to study, I accepted it.

Later I discovered the grandmother’s great love of music. She spent hours playing her old piano. One day, she told me that she would teach me the art. Weekends in their house became more than just books and cooking. They were filled with the wonderful sounds of piano and two out-of-tune (跑调的) singers. Amazed at my ability, Grandma encouraged me to continue. I was thankful and tried my best to practise my skills.

When Christmas break came, Grandma got a cold. I was afraid to leave her, but my parents expected me home anxiously as I hadn’t been home for long. Unwillingly, I agreed.

A man called, asking if an owl（猫头鹰）could be rescued. Ellen Kalish was happy to help, who runs the Manhattan Wildlife Center in New York. She is used to getting calls about taking in wild animals. The caller told her where this tiny owl was hiding out. It was found inside the Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Center, where it is a yearly tradition to decorate trees. But this year, the tree looked a little worse. Many people made fun of its branches. They called the tree a “symbol of 2020”, meaning its sad look reminded them how tough the past year was.

The tale of the owl’s rescue quickly became the highlight of this year’s tree. Before the tree was put up to decorate, one of the workers caught sight of the creature. It was buried in the base of the tree. The owl most likely traveled with the tree on its journey to Manhattan. But there was no proof about where it came from and how it ended up stuck in this tree. Getting the little bird out from the base of the tree, the worker noticed that the creature got badly injured and seemed not to eat or drink anything for a few days. She was too weak to fly, but luckily she was still alive.

In that case, the worker had to bring the owl home. He named her Rocky as he spotted her in the Rockefeller Center. Considering he himself had no idea how to keep an owl, he decided to find a place that rescues wildlife animals. That was why he called the Center. After Kalish got the full story about the bird, she met the man at a gas station. Then the man handed her a box with the owl inside.

Kalish took the box carefully.

Rocky didn’t look that terrible as she was in the box a week before.

David was an 8-year-old boy living in Memphis with his family. When 4 years old, David got his face burnt by hot water, leaving scars (伤疤) on his cheeks. David was home-schooled by his mother, but as he grew older, his parents decided to send him to a private school. David was afraid of being made fun of, but his parents encouraged him to face everything bravely.

When he began school, other kids didn’t want to be his friends because of his scars. Luckily, a girl named Angel offered to sit with him and helped him go through that difficult time. They became good friends, chatting happily and sharing what they were interested in.

As time went by, David’s excellent learning ability and kind behavior made him popular with the students. Since David was good at science, his classmates would turn to him for help whenever they had problems with their studies. David was always glad to help them.

On Halloween, a variety of holiday activities were held on campus. Everyone wore costumes (化装服) they liked. David wore a mask (面具), and no one could tell it was him. Unrecognized, David was walking through the classroom backdoor when he overheard his classmate Tom’s comment, “David’s face is the ugliest one I have ever seen.” Hearing this, David felt upset and depressed. He ran away secretly. Angel happened to stand behind David and saw what happened, but it was too late to stop it. As David’s best friend at school, Angel thought David was a good boy who should be treated kindly.

In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost destroyed Armenia (亚美尼亚),killing over 30, 000people in less than four minutes. In the middle of complete destruction and chaos, a father left his wife securely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake. After the initial shock and pain, he remembered the promise he had made to his son: “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!” Tears began to fill his eyes. As he looked at the ruins that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his promise to his son. He began to concentrate on where he walked his son to class at school each morning. Remembering his son’s classroom would be in the back right corner of the building, he rushed there and started digging through the broken stones and bricks.

As he was digging, other heartbroken parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: “My son!” “My daughter!” Other well-meaning parents tried to pull him off of what was left of the school, saying:

“It’s too late!”

“You can’t help!”

“Go home!”

“Come on, face reality, there’s nothing you can do!”

“You’re just going to make things worse!”

However, to each parent he responded with one line: “Are you going to help me now?” And then he continued to dig for his son, stone by stone. The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off of the school’s debris, saying “Fires are breaking out. Explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. We’ll take care of it. Go home. “ To which this loving, caring Armenian father asked, “Are you going to help me now?”

The police came and said, “You’re angry, mad and it’s over. You’re endangering others. Go home. We’ll handle it!” To which he replied, “Are you going to help me now?” No one helped.

Courageously, he continued alone because he needed to know for himself: “Is my boy alive or dead?”

“What’s going on in there? How is it, my son?” the father asked, fighting back tears.

One day, Anna was walking home from school when she suddenly came across a homeless cat. Looking at Anna from the bushes, the cat caught Anna’s eyes at once.

“Hey, kitty... Are you hungry?” Anna asked softly and reached into her schoolbag for her lunchbox. She took some pieces of beef and held them out to the cat. The cat stepped forward and ate the beef next to Anna. A short while later, Anna started to touch the cat as it at e the beef. The cat began to lick (舔) Anna’s hand when all pieces were finished. “That was the only food left with me.” Anna said in a soft voice. As she got up, the cat began walking around Anna, hoping to play with her. “Sorry, kitty. I have to go home.” Anna said.

Later that evening, Anna saw the cat sitting outside her yard through the window. She immediately ran out to it. “Kitty, what are you doing here?” Anna asked as she playfully touched it. The cat meowed (猫叫) in delight.“Let me see if my mom minds taking you in.” Anna said.

Anna ran back and told her mom about the cat. “Are you crazy, Anna? We don’t have enough money to support ourselves. I’m sorry, but it's a NO!” Mom turned her down. Anna understood what mom meant and went to say goodbye.

But when she got outside, she noticed a heavy storm was coming. She hoped the cat would look for shelter somewhere, but it just sat there. She realized it was still waiting for her, so she went out into the rain, trying to lead her friend to shelter. “Come on, kitty!” Anna said, but it wouldn’t move. It stayed right by her side. The rain began to pour down harder.

Just then, Mom opened the door and asked them in.

The following week, Anna was busy looking for the cat’s owner.

Ramon was the school tough guy because his dad was a tough guy. If anyone dared (敢) to disobey him, they received a good beating.

It hadn’t changed until Victor arrived. No one would have said that Victor or his dad looked like tough guys: they were skinny and had no muscles. However, this was what Victor said to Ramon when Ramon went up to him to make him afraid.

“Hey new kid. You should know that I’m the leader, and I’m the toughest guy here.”

“You might be the leader but I am the toughest guy here.”

That was when Victor go this first beating. The second was the day Ramon tried to take a girl’s sandwich from her.

“This girl is a friend of mine and I am the toughest guy in school. So she won’t give you her sandwich”— were Victor’s last words before the blows started raining down on him.

His third beating came when he didn’t want to hand over his own sandwich.

“Tough guys like my dad and me don’t steal from others, and you are supposed to be a tough guy too?” he replied.

Victor got hit regularly, but he never backed down. His bravery in defending those weaker than him began to impress the rest of his classmates, and he soon gained supporters. Lots of other children began to play with him, so Ramon had even fewer chances to hit Victor and his friends, and fewer and fewer children were scared of Ramon. New brave boys and girls appeared who copied Victor’s attitude, and the playground became a better place.

One day, at the school door, Ramon’s giant dad asked him who Victor was.

“That skinny boy is the tough guy who’s the new boss of the playground? You’re useless! I’m going to hit you and show you what a tough guy really is,” his dad said angrily.

That wasn’t the first time that Ramon got hit, but it was the first time that Victor’s dad was there to stop it happening.

That was when Ramon’s dad understood why Victor said that his own father was a tough guy.

In the first grade in senior high school, I was extremely shy, I had friends, but it just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing, even when I knew someone. I was afraid I would do or say something wrong, so usually I just smiled and listened to other people’s conversations.

I did well in school and I loved to write. However, I would escape into my writing, where I could be myself and never had to worry about what other people thought of me. In my stories, I was never shy, I often imagined that I was the main character in the story. My teacher, Mrs. Sather, always encouraged me to write more and be myself. She told our class to go after our dreams and dig in with great efforts. I thoughts he was one of the first people to see my inner strength.

One day, she showed us a play she had written and announccd that our class was going to perform it. “I’ll begin to choose all the performers tomorrow” she said, “I need someone who is not afraid to be onstage in front of a lot of people to play the lead part of Dorothy. Anybody wants to try?” A few excited hands shot up -mine, of course, was not one of them and Mrs. Sather smiled. “We’ll talk more about it later,” she said. Then the bell rang and my classmates slowly left the classroom.

“I will never do that,” I thought. But after rereading the play, I was deeply attracted by the story and couldn’t help imagining myself to be the main character Dorothy. There seemed to be a new person inside me, a much more daring, outgoing person who had been hidden all along, just waiting for the opportunity to appear. However, I still felt shy and could never picture myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. Having struggled for a few minutes, I still did not know how to make the decision.

When I was packing my schoolbag, Mrs Sather asked me to go to her.

One week later, it was time for me to perform on the stage.

It was Emily’s turn to tell her class where she went this summer. She stood up proudly.

“This summer I went to Bradley,” Emily announced. “It has a big market there. My mom bought a painting and I got a second-hand skateboard. What an impressive trip it was!”

“That’s not a trip,” Frank shouted loudly to his partner. “It’s only half an hour from here. My dad and I often go to Bradley to buy tools for his repair workshop.”

“Frank, no interrupting,” said Miss Clare, their teacher. “And Bradley has a fine market. I’m glad that Emily shared her experience with us. Go ahead, Emily,” Miss Clare smiled warmly at her, encouraging her to continue.

But not feeling proud of her family’s trip to Bradley any more, Emily just felt embarrassed and dropped her head, saying in a low voice that it was finished. In the hope of not being noticed, the little girl hurriedly back to her desk with a red face.

She listened as Peter talked about his cruise to Greece and Mary’s trip across the Atlantic to Ireland. She also heard about John’s horseback ride through the Great Canyon. It seemed as if everyone but her had taken a big trip over the summer. “I never get to anywhere,” Emily thought to herself. A sense of loss clouded her the whole day.

After school, things went worse. One of the wheels on Emily’s skateboard came loose. Now she couldn’t even skate. Sitting on the sidewalk, Emily tried to fix her wheel but in vain, during which Miss Clare happened to pass by.

She walked up with a smile, asking, “Why are you sitting here?” Emily lowered her head, tears welling up inside her eyes. “Want to talk about it?” Emily nodded, trying to avoid Miss Clare’ eyes. Bending down, Miss Clare said gently, “You know, Emily, we don’t always have to travel far to learn anything.”

At this moment, Frank was walking by and saw them.

“I can fix it,” Frank said with confidence.