I can still remember clearly the day after I had my first exam. I didn’t pass them. I was so scaring that I even don’t want to go to school any more. My parents looked at my test paper and said. “My children, we’re very glad you has finished half of it. You can do better next time. We never expect you to do the best at a very beginning. We hope you can make progress gradual.” What they said made me to feel I could do things well. From then, I concentrated more on my studies. Now I’m always filled with confident in my studies because I know my parents are always behind me.

2 . About five years ago my family moved to Iowa and I started going to a new school. I was a little _______, but I worried I would never be _______ than the other eleventh graders. Lucy, a girl in my class was not_______for the change. I thought she didn’t_______me from the start. In fact, I was sure that she hated me. When I asked her a _______, she answered me impatiently as if I was a total fool. My teacher made us_______next to each other in the last semester. Lucy didn’t like that _______. I didn’t wear make-up (化妆), and I didn’t wear those awesome (可怕的) jeans everyone else was wearing. I didn’t exactly_______ the coolest girl. However, I kept smiling at her, _______ she rolled her eyes at me (翻白眼). I kept telling her she looked ________, even if she was angry. ________, Lucy let me talk to her, even in front of her "cool" friends. She started ________ me how beautiful I looked. I still remember the first time when she________ at me saying that, and I smiled right back, telling her a joke. Lucy ________ me to her house for parties, and talked to me all the time. Lucy, the girl who had ________ me, called me her best friend. I will never forget a sentence written by Abraham Lincoln: "Am I not destroying (消灭) my enemies when I make friends of them?"

5 . At an airport I overheard a father and a daughter in their last moments together. It had announced her plane's________ and standing near the door, he said to his daughter, “I love you. I wish you enough. She said. “Daddy, our life together has been ________ enough. Your love is all I ________ needed. I wish you enough, too? Daddy. They kissed good-bye and she left.

He walked over toward the window where I ________. I could see he wanted to cry. I tried not to ________ his privacy（隐私），but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone you love, knowing it would be forever?, “Yes, I have,” I ________. Saying that brought________ memories I had of expressing my love and ________ for all my Dad had done for me. After thirty seconds of silence. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a/an   forever good-bye?" I asked. “I am old and she lives much too far away. The _______ is that her next trip back will be for my funeral(葬礼), ” he said. “When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, "I wish you enough” May I ask what that means?" He began to ________.

“That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My ________used to say it to everyone. ” He paused for a moment and _______ as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more. “When we said I wish you enough, we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with enough good things to support them," he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from ________.

“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude________. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger . I wish you enough gain to ________your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you have. I wish enough Hellos to get you through the final “ Good-bye.” He then began to sob and walked away.

8 . We moved to Elmont in 1956. I was 4 years old. Elmont was a wonderful place to grow up. There were lots of kids，great schools and we had a big yard. Having grown up a city kid, my father, Nicholas Denaro, believed that grass was not just to look at, but that children were meant to play on it. We played games and badminton there. A white fence separated our backyard from a small wood. My friends and I jumped the fence and climbed trees.

My father had the most amazing hands. He could fix anything. He gave those amazing hands to his son, my younger brother, Frank, who also became handy around the house. But my father saved his green fingers for me. He grew flowers, tomatoes, strawberries and figs and he shared his love of gardening with me.

Fourteen years ago, I went to a local nursery and purchased a fig tree for Dad for Father’s Day. My mother, Bridget Denaro, called it the best gift I could have given him. He planted it exactly in the middle of the front yard.

He loved that tree and enjoyed delicious figs every year, except just after Sandy hit in 2012. He was so disappointed when cold weather just after the superstorm froze all the remaining figs.

In 2015，my father died of aspirating pneumonia (呼吸性肺炎) at 97. We sold our family home of 61years last year. We left behind Dad's tree, full of figs waiting to ripen. We briefly-considered taking it with us, but decided that his Father's Day fig tree belonged in Elmont. The new owners generously allowed me to take some branches so that I could have a precious reminder of my much-loved father and the Elmont home.

Parenting is challenging, especially when you’re new to it. One winter when our now grow-up daughter, Esther, was a baby, we took the advantage of the holiday to see her grandparents. In the ladies’room of a restaurant, I gave her instructions on how wash and dry her hands. An old lady stood in the corner but stared at us the entire time curious. After I helped Esther to wear a pair of glove, the woman gave me a warm smile and said, “You were a great mom.” Her words made me encourage for days. Now I’m the one who observes young mothers with her little kids. If a mom is patient for her kid, I say, “I have seen how kind you are to your child.”