I still remember how nervous I felt doing some things for the first time. You’d think that after a lot of first times the butterflies-in-stomach feeling would disappear. But here’s what happened a month ago.

“Please come to the chess club tomorrow,” Mareya said to me. “I know you’re going to love it!” “I’ve never even played chess(国际象棋),” I said. “It seems super hard.”

“I went last week, and it was extremely fun!” said Mareya. “Really?” I said, not convinced.

“Really. Also, the club needs more people to keep it going.” Mareya smiled.

“Listen. If you try it, I’ll do my silly rabbit dance in the middle of recess (课间休息).” I laughed. “In front of everyone? It’s a deal!”

When I arrived at home. I searched our game shelves. Finally, at the very bottom of the pile, I found a tattered (破旧的) box with a chessboard and plastic chess pieces. I read the instructions carefully. Knights, rooks, bishops, pawns, a king, and a queen — each piece had a special starting place and its own way of moving. My heart sank. I couldn’t possibly memorize all the rules in time. Everyone in the chess club was going to think I was inexperienced!

That night, I dreamed I was in a chess game, and the queens, kings, and knights were laughing at me. Even the knights’ horses were snickering (窃笑)! The next day, I told Mareya I was having second thoughts.

“Please don’t back out,” she said. “Remember our deal.”

“I would like to see your silly rabbit dance,” I said, smiling.

After school, I found the chess club’s meeting room and went inside. I looked around, but Mareya was nowhere in sight! To make matters worse, I didn’t know a single person in the room. Butterflies filled my stomach as I started to head toward the door.

“Hi!” said a friendly woman. “I’m Ms.Martinez.”

“I’m Arizona,” I said. “ I was supposed to meet a friend, but I don’t see her. I’d better get going.” “Well, as long as you ‘re here, why don’t you sit with Joe and Jess and watch their game?”

I didn’t want to be rude, so I sat down.

The next day, at recess, Mareya ran up to me.

I began to lose hope. It seemed that there was little chance that my great-grandmother was able to heal (康复). My blind, 94-year-old great-grandmother was sleeping soundly in the hospital bed. As l sat quietly with my family, I listened to the sounds of the machines that kept her alive. Her face was pale and empty. She was no longer the cheerful person I had always known.

It seemed that every day she got worse. She might not make it through Christmas. I tried to think of a present to give to her. Since she was blind, I would have to get her a gift that she didn’t have to see to appreciate, but that she could feel with her hands. I remembered that when she lived with us she always wanted to touch and play with my stuffed animals (填充动物玩具). Her favorites were my unique stuffed bears.

I knew right then what to get. She always wanted one for herself! I would have a teddy bear made especially for her. “Great-grandma’s Bear” is what I named the brown, stuffed animal — “Bear” for short. The bear was quite charming with his tiny black button nose and big chocolate eyes. I looked forward to visiting my great-grandmother on Christmas morning and seeing the look on her face when I gave Bear to her. The clay came more quickly than I thought. I carried Bear in my arms as I walked to Room 208 with my family.

There was my great-grandmother, sitting in her bed. Her eyes were wide open. I think she was sensing that we were coming. A smile grew on her face as we sat on her bed, close to her weak body hidden under the covers. “Merry Christmas!” my dad said. We talked with my great-grandmother for a while until it was time to give her the gifts we had brought. My mother gave her fresh-smelling baby powder because she could never have enough of it. My father brought her favorite candies. Now it was my turn.

I placed the bear in her gentle, skinny hands.

From that day on, amazingly, my great-grandmother started to heal.

When Mia was four years old, the doctors diagnosed(诊断) her with alopecia areata, which caused all her hair to fall out. Going bald(秃头的) at such a young age wasn’t easy for her. Her mother Meredith Bailey thought gifting a bald doll (玩偶) to her daughter would help her feel confident. Bailey knew her daughter wanted a doll, so she went to an American Girl store on Mia’s birthday in 2015. Inside the store, Bailey looked for a bald doll that Mia could relate to,but she couldn’t find any.

Curious, she asked the staff about bald dolls and learned buyers could place an order for them.The store did not display(展示) the bald dolls back then.

Bailey thought her daughter would love playing with a bald American Girl doll, so she placed an order and gifted it to Mia on her birthday.

While gifting the doll to her daughter,Bailey had no idea that Mia would soon ask her questions that would leave her speechless. She wasn’t expecting Mia to come up with such interesting questions.

“I knew she wanted the doll, but I didn’t realize the happiness it would bring. She had a doll that was just like her -it was a piece of her," Bailey said.

The doll was Mia’s best gift,but looking at it made her wonder if other children also bought bald dolls so she asked her mother about it.

Bailey told Mia that other kids also liked such dolls by explaining that the doll might be similar to one of their friends or they buy it thinking it is pretty.Little did she know that Mia would come up with another thought-provoking(发人深省的) question.

Mia asked her mother why the bald dolls weren’t sold at the store if they were so popular. The question left Bailey speechless and made her wonder why buyers had to place an order to buy a bald doll.

On Mia’s 8th birthday, Bailey took her to the American Girl store and a bald doll on display caught the pairs’ attention.

Since Bailey thought sharing her fee lings with the manager wasn’t enough, she penned a heartfelt note and posted it on American Girl’s Facebook page.

Long ago, there lived two brothers who were very poor. They lived in small houses at opposite sides of their wheat field. Each year the brothers divided the grain they had grown into two equal parts. Although they worked hard from sunup to sundown, they hardly had enough to eat. In spite of this, they were happy because of their great love for each other.

But one year, Simon, the younger brother felt a great sadness. He was worried about his older brother, Ruben. Ruben was alone in the world, with neither wife nor children. “Who will care for him when he gets old and can no longer work? If only he had some money to save for his old age! It isn’t fair that we share the harvest equally. But he will not accept gifts from me. What shall I do?” he thought.

At the same time, Ruben was sitting under a tree, thinking deeply. He thought his brother, Simon, needed to support a family. “I have no family. It isn’t fair that we share the harvest equally. Surely he deserves more than I! I must think of a plan to help him.”

That midnight, Ruben went quietly to his barn (粮仓) where he filled a sack (麻袋) with wheat and put it on his shoulder. Then he crossed the field to his brother’s house and secretly placed his wheat with Simon’s.

The next morning Ruben was very surprised.

But this time unexpectedly they chose the same moment to carry their sacks.