It was a warm Sunday. Stella just settled down with a book in the front yard, when her friend Bog came over with his 6-year-old sister.

“Stella, please! I need you to look after Hazel! I have a lecture to attend this morning.” Bog begged.

Stella was not happy to babysit a little girl. However, Bog didn’t give her any other choice. He dropped Hazel off and quickly ran away before she could say anything. Unwillingly, Stella turned to Hazel.

“Just stay there and don’t cause any trouble.” Stella said coldly.

To her surprise, the little girl smiled and started to draw beside her. For the next hour, Havel was absorbed in drawing without making a single noise. Gradually, Stella’s annoyance disappeared and got used to the company of the little girl. After a while, Hazel approached Stella and showed her a picture, in which two girls held hands and kept smiling at each other.

“Look, it’s you and me,” Hazel said in a sweet voice.

Stella’s heart softened as she looked at the drawing. She felt ashamed of treating Haze l so badly. Setting her book aside, Stella smiled and said, “I really love it. Thank you!”

Then Stella joined Hazel to color it together. Just as they were lost in the world of colors, a sudden phone ringing broke the silence. It was a phone call from one of Stella’s friends to remind her about the plan to go skating on the square. Stella’s heart sank because she had forgotten all about it. She was torn between the desire to go skating and her duty to look after Hazel. As Stella was wondering what she should do, Haze l looked up at her with hopeful eyes.

“Can I come with you?” she asked eagerly.

“Of course,” Stella said with a forced smile.

Stella and her friends helped Hazel put on the rented skating shoes.

2 . By now, most of us have picked up at least one pandemic (疫情期间的) hobby. And there’s a seemingly common pandemic hobby trend: People who haven’t been able to go anywhere are making imaginary travel plans. Maybe you’re among those who have spent hours researching locations―even though you’re not actually planning to travel.

It turns out that you aren’t alone. People who seem to be interested in public safety recommendations are still planning trips they don’t intend to book. And, when I suddenly found myself addicted to an imaginary girls’ trip to Joshua Tree, I wondered whether this was a healthy distraction (注意力分散).

“It’s an escapist imagination,” said Regine Galanti, a psychologist, adding that there’s nothing wrong with escapism during a global pandemic.

On the one hand, distractions are often beneficial right now. We are a full year into living with COVID-19 as a pandemic, and that means you’ve probably had to navigate a range of emotions like discomfort, sadness, or even boredom. So any hobby that doesn’t harm anyone or endanger your well-being is probably a worthy attempt.

Even if vacation planning is your happy place, Dr. Galanti suggests you “actually think about what you’re trying to achieve.” Why? “Maybe what you’re saying is, I need a vacation from work,” Dr. Galanti explains. “Then take three days off even if you are not going anywhere. “When you figure out what you’re looking for, you might be able to find a small socially distanced adventure in your backyard or a quiet place. Vacation planning is a good way to spend some time, but there might be an even better way to get what you’re desiring.

Anyway, when uncertainty is all around us, creating things to look forward to isn’t a terrible idea. And when things are safer, you’ll have all your plans in place.

4 . Mike and I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We made a_____at our favorite restaurant, but when we arrived, our_____wasn’t well prepared.

We walked toward the bar in the restaurant to wait. Mike_____a chair for me and the man next to me_____over to give me room to slide in. I smiled my thanks.

“I’m here on business. Can you_____some interesting things to do locally when I have some time off?” the man asked.

Mike and I immediately shifted our attention to the stranger. We love our adopted hometown and quickly suggested half a dozen fun_____.

The stranger’s name was Bill. He and Mike _______to be both mechanical engineers. The two men had_____to talk about. Seconds turned into minutes and strangers turned into friends.

When the hostess approached and told us our table was_____, we said goodbye to Bill. “We’re out to_____our wedding anniversary,” I said as we______to follow the waitress to our table.

“Wow! I really_____you taking the time to talk to me,” Bill said. “It is blameless to ignore me. Happy anniversary!”

The evening sped by. Soon we had to go home. Mike signaled our waiter for the bill._____, the waiter smiled and handed us a note:

Thank you again for talking to a stranger. I really appreciate your kindness._____is on me. Bill Surprised, we looked at the waiter.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s true. He paid your bill.”

We walked back to the_____to thank Bill, but his seat was empty. But we never forgot his generosity and decided to pay it forward.

5 . When my daughter Sara was in the fifth grade, she came to me with a problem. “Marcy hates me!” she cried “Because Kathy is my friend, too. She wants me to be her friend and nobody else’s. You talk to Marcy. You tell her that I want to be her friend, but I can have other friends, too!”

Oh! I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how I got into this mess (困境), when suddenly an idea came to me.

Picking up two baskets from the living room, I explained, “When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket, This little one here is yours. The big one is mine. As you grow，so does the basket. You can see your little basket is inside mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn’t do for yourself. I did everything you couldn’t do on your own.”

She nodded.

“Well, as you grew older and began to do some things on your own, I began placing a few more things in your basket. When you learned to tie your shoes, that went in your basket.”

She said softly, “I can tie my own shoes.”

“Right. As you grow older, there will be more and more things you must do on your own.” As I spoke, I gradually took her basket out of mine and handed it to her. “You will finally carry your own basket with things only you can do.”

She looked up at me and said, “I understand. There are some things that I have to do by myself because they are in my basket.”

6 . Medha Pappula, an eight-grader at Brambleton Middle School, is using her skill set to solve a problem — bullying. She recently earned an award from National Bullying Prevention Center (NBPC) for her anti-bullying efforts in software development and animation (动画).

Pappula, 13, said she discovered that a classmate had experienced cyberbullying (网络欺凌), which was painful for her to learn about. “Even though I didn’t experience it, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even my worst enemy.” Pappula said.

Then she developed a program. “It takes a message, and then recognizes signs of bullying and gives a rating (评价) to the cyberbullying.” the teen said. “If the rating is high, the program can be used to carry out things like removing that message or reporting it.”

In addition to this program, the NBPC awarded Pappula for a three-minute animated video about Unity Day, which she created and shared on YouTube last October. Unity Day was started by the NBPC in 2011 to raise bullying awareness among school-age children. Schools encourage their students to wear orange on Unity Day, as it is a color that is connected with safety.

Pappula visited different websites to develop her animation skills several years ago. She spent more than a month creating her 2-D animated video using an animation software called Krita. The effort paid off, as nearly 6000 people have already viewed the “Unity Day” video on YouTube. Pappula hopes to continue to work with the NBPC and use her skills to lift those around her.

8 . Most people who ran the marathon last month spent days before resting up and days after recovering. But not Jacky Hunt-Broersma. In total, she ran 104 marathons in 104 days. If it’s confirmed by Guinness World Records, that would be a new world record. And she did it all with one leg and a prosthesis (假肢).

“Someone able-bodied had done it previously. I wanted to see if I could do it on a prosthetic leg and see what would happen,” she said. “I thought it would be a great way to inspire others to push their limits because I truly believe that we’re stronger than what we think. And I’ve been so pleasantly surprised that my body is held up, everything is held up and I’ve made it to 104.”

She actually did not pick up the sport until after she lost the lower part of her left leg in 2001 to a type of cancer called Ewing sarcoma. Runners using a prosthetic leg can’t use a regular one. They need a running blade (刀锋式跑步义肢). Hunt-Broersma has two, but she was only able to run with one because of the swelling she experienced in her left leg that made it impossible to connect to the other blade. But even with the pain that occurred, she has been able to put up with it and continued.

All together, Hunt-Broersma ran over 4, 385 kilometers. During that time she has had a lot of time to think and has learned a few things about herself. “It has taught me how strong one can be and how important absolute determination is. If you’re mentally strong, you can do anything,” she said. “And our bodies are just amazing ... This whole journey was impressive and super hard, but it’s told me how strong I can be as a person and how far I can push myself.”