Yours,

Li Hua

6 . Summer is coming. How will you spend your summer holidays? Will you go camping, do sports or go on with your studies? Why not try some part-time jobs during the summer?

When I was in senior high school, many of my friends held part-time jobs. The most common jobs for teenagers were restaurant jobs. Working in the kitchen, waiting tables and washing dishes were a few of the most typical ones. But my first part-time job was working at a bookstore. I went to the bookstore every day after school to look for new books and hang out with my friends, so I thought, why not work there and make some money?

One of the reasons why these jobs are often worked by teenagers is that they pay low wages. But the wage is still ok. When I worked at the bookstore, I spent my entire salary in the same store buying books. It was almost like my boss paid me in books instead of money. But at the time, that was perfectly fine by me. By doing the part-time job, I made some money, met different people and became independent and responsible.

Pumpkin (南瓜) carving at Halloween is a family tradition. We visit a local farm every October. In the pumpkin field, I compete with my three brothers and sister to seek out the biggest pumpkin. My dad has a rule that we have to carry our pumpkins back home, and as the eldest child I have an advantage-I carried an 85-pounder back last year.

This year, it was hard to tell whether my prize or the one chosen by my 14-year-old brother, Jason, was the winner. Unfortunately we forgot to weigh them before taking out their insides, but I was determined to prove my point. All of us were hard at work at the kitchen table, with my mom filming the annual event. I’m unsure now why I thought forcing my head inside the pumpkin would settle the matter, but it seemed to make perfect sense at the time.

With the pumpkin resting on the table, hole uppermost, I bent over and pressed my head against the opening. At first I got jammed just above my eyes and then, as I went on with my task, unwilling to quit, my nose briefly prevented entry. Finally I managed to put my whole head into it, like a cork (软木塞) forced into a bottle. I was able to straighten up with the huge pumpkin resting on my shoulders.

My excitement was short-lived. The pumpkin was heavy. “I’m going to set it down, now,” I said, and with Jason helping to support its weight, I bent back over the table to give it somewhere to rest. It was only when I tried to remove my head that I realized getting out was going to be less straightforward than getting in. When I pulled hard, my nose got in the way. I got into a panic as I pressed firmly against the table and moved my head around trying to find the right angle, but it was no use. “I can’t get it out!” I shouted, my voice sounding unnaturally loud in the enclosed space.

It was five or six minutes though it felt much longer.

The video was posted the Monday before Halloween.