1 . My father had returned from his business visit to London when I came in, rather late, to supper. I could tell at once that he and my mother had been discussing something. In that half-playful, half-serious way I knew so well, he said, “How would you like to go to Eton?”

“You bet,” I cried quickly catching the joke. Everyone knew it was the most expensive, the most famous of schools. You had to be entered at birth, if not before. Besides, even at 12 or 13, I understood my father. He disliked any form of showing off. He always knew his proper station in life, which was in the middle of the middle class, our house was medium-sized; he had avoided joining Royal Liverpool Golf Club and went to a smaller one instead; though once he had got a second-hand Rolls-Royce at a remarkably low price, he felt embarrassed driving it, and quickly changed it for an Austin 1100.

This could only be his delightful way of telling me that the whole boarding school idea was to be dropped. Alas! I should also have remembered that he had a liking for being different from everyone else, if it did not conflict (冲突) with his fear of drawing attention to himself.

It seemed that he had happened to be talking to Graham Brown of the London office, a very nice fellow, and Graham had a friend who had just entered his boy at the school, and while he was in that part of the world he thought he might just as well phone them. I remember my eyes stinging (刺痛) and my hands shaking with the puzzlement of my feelings. There was excitement, at the heart of great sadness.

“Oh, he doesn’t want to go away,” said my mother, “You shouldn’t go on like this.” “It’s up to him,” said my father. “He can make up his own mind.”

2 . My 7-year-old daughter Leeny always has her nose in a book. She even took to reading in the car on the long drive to summer camp, which was where she lost the book. This is the first lost library book in my life. My family has always been over-educated, but we were poor. I didn’t own books. I borrowed books. However, my daughters have more books now than I owned my whole childhood, and I knowingly contribute to it by adding to the stacks (堆). So it’s probably my fault that when Leeny realized she had lost the book, she shrugged. “Sorry. I can’t find it,” she said. “It’s only $20, right? What’s the big deal?”

I felt the need to make her feel responsible for the book. She agreed to help me clean the chicken coop (笼子) in trade for my paying the library fine. I thought this idea was very clever because cleaning the coop is some work I had been avoiding for months. It was summertime and dust floated in the air. But my girl, my animal-loving mini-me, thought shoveling chicken poop (铲鸡粪) was the most fun she’d had on a Saturday morning in a long time. She didn’t feel any of the emotions that punishment is supposed to introduce. In fact, she looked as if she might lose another on purpose in order to clean the coop again. I stood, somewhat dumbfounded (目瞪口呆的), watching her.

It took me a while to realize what had happened, why my punishment had failed so completely and why I didn’t care. The fact is that I had Leeny help me clean the chicken coop. I was there, too, shoveling chicken poop, fetching the clean straw and feed. Leen’s little sister, Vicki, was inside watching a cartoon while my husband paid bills. Only Leeny and I were outside. She had me all to herself for the first time since Vicki was born, and she was enjoying all the attention for once. I don’t know what she learned about responsibility, but I found that I didn’t care about the book any more. We bonded over that unpleasant job and spent quality time together: mother, daughter, and chicken poop.

3 . We’ve all heard the stories of an actor’s struggles before a career breakthrough: living a hard life, working part-time, being a couch potato before getting that major role. Shelby, the star of “A Dog’s Way Home”, has an unfortunate tale that could top them all. Before her big break, she was living in a landfill, rooting through garbage for her next meal.

Shelby’s big break came in April 2017, when animal-control officer Megan Buhler was driving in Cheatham County, Tennessee. Out on an unrelated call, Buhler spotted and approached what she recalled was a noticeably scared puppy emerging from the dump. “I knelt down and just said, ‘Oh, come here, baby,’” said Buhler. “She was so scared, but she came right up to me, and I was able to put her in my truck.” They headed to the county animal shelter, where the staff began calling the new resident Baby Girl.

Buhler and others didn’t know that 3,200 kilometers away, Hollywood was looking for a dog to play Bella in a film written by Cathryn Michon. The find-a-Bella job went to freelance trainer Teresa Ann Miller. Her mission was to search shelters nationwide for a dog that could play Bella. One day, Miller spotted Baby Girl’s adoption photo. “Honestly, it was a really good picture, and she was flat-out smiling,” Miller said. Then she met Baby Girl, and assessed her on personality and the ability to respond to simple commands. After assessment, she adopted Baby Girl from the shelter, renamed her Shelby and took her to California for training. Miller and Shelby had trained for just over three months before filming began. Then they were together each day on the set.

Most of the film’s reviews have praised Shelby’s performance. Variety made the comments “an amazing dog, perfect performance!”

Shelby has come a long way from the garbage dump. But Buhler said when she saw Shelby recently she just needed only a second to compare the movie star with the dog she found from piles of trash. “She’s exactly the same,” Buhler said.

4 . Gone are the days when you and your best friend shared everything about your life. Whether you’re at fault or she is, mending a broken friendship is far from easy. If the relationship means a lot and you aren’t willing to simply throw it away, fixing it is possible. That’s what I have learned in the past months.

When I first moved to Florida, I felt so out of place. I had come from a small town and was so unsure of myself. Luckily, my husband and I moved into a friendly neighbourhood, and things became better.  

For many years, my neighbour across the street and I shared happy times. But then a misunderstanding occurred, and she quit speaking to me. I tried many times to speak to her about the issue and tell her how sorry I was that I had let her down. But she refused to take my phone calls and avoided me when I was outside.

During our conflict, my husband and I put our house up for sale. We weren’t leaving the neighbourhood because of a feeling of hurt; we were having twins and needed more room for our growing family.

Months later, I moved away without talking to her and putting an end to our misunderstanding. It always made me sad when I thought of how poorly it had ended. For many times I wished we had renewed our friendship. I just hated the feelings left from our unsolved conflict. It was like a scab(痂) that kept reopening and worsening with pain and upset.

About eight months after we moved, I decided to take a drive back into the old neighbourhood. As I drove down my street, I saw my former neighbour washing her car in her front yard. I knew that I needed to stop and greet her. I opened the car door and got out. To my surprise, she came up and gave me a big hug. We both apologized for our actions, and I felt that I finally achieved closure. I was able to say I was sorry and have it accepted.

5 . Most 15-year-olds are worrying about their math homework and trying to fit in with other kids their age. But Henry Patterson is busy running a successful online business instead.

Patterson, a teenager from Bedfordshire, a county in the East of England, started a business called Not Before Tea when he was just nine. He began by selling sweets, but soon turned to household products like wash bags and soft toys. The items he sells came from the characters of a book he wrote called The Adventures of Sherb and Pip.

Patterson’s early school years were difficult, as he didn’t do as his peers did. He saw the world differently and was rarely invited to parties or play dates. He also spoke with difficulty, which made him feel even more lonely.

But these things didn’t hold him back. To cheer himself up, Patterson gradually buried   himself in designing different animals and writing interesting stories about them. His characters started to become popular. He tried very hard to express himself and talk to bigger audiences. His business has earned him 65,000 pounds (566,221 yuan) and he has spoken at the National Retail Business Awards for Teenagers.

Besides this, he does his best to keep his schoolwork as a priority (优先项). He takes his homework with him to events and does it on the train or after a presentation. Two years ago, he wrote a book called Young and Mighty. It describes his search for success and happiness. “The real point of the book is to help people my age think about how to make their way in the world,” he wrote.

6 . Like any new ninth-grader on the first day of school, Joemar Class had ninth-grader- emotion (情绪). He’s not used to school in Hartford. He’s used to going to school in his home town of Florida, used to seeing his friends, used to having class in Spanish.

“Nervioso,” he said in Spanish.

We first met Joemar in mid-October in the San Juan Airport. His father, Guillermo Class, had sold his car to buy plane tickets to get his kids and fly them up from Puerto Rico. The island was almost destroyed (毁坏) by the deadly storm—Hurricane Maria.

Now, they are settling into their new home in Hartford’s South End. A week later, using his wife’s car, Class drove 16-year-old Joemar to his first day at Bulkeley High School. After a short ride, he got out in front of his new school. Inside, he met Gretchen Levitz—the school’s program director.

“I see you have new uniform,” Levitz said. “You look great. Are you ready for a good first day? ”

Then he met couple of teachers.

“Hello” they each said in Spanish. They asked where he was from, and told him they were happy to see him. Then Levitz took him on a quick tour of the school before classes began — to her office, the school store, the library, and the dining hall.

A total of 19 languages are spoken in Bulkeley High School. “We have so many new students coming here from other countries every single day,” Levitz said. “So it’s not like he’s the only one who has that feeling.”

“You could tell he’s little worried,” Guillermo said as we left. “But, at the same time, he’s expecting it.”

7 . Gabriela worked for a multinational company as a successful project manager in Brazil. Later she was transferred to manage a team in Sweden. She was excited about her new role but soon realized that managing her new team would be a challenge.

Despite their friendliness, Gabriela didn’t feel respected as a leader. Her new staff would question her proposals openly in meetings. When she gave them instructions on how to carry out task, they would often go about it in their own way without checking with her. When she announced her decisions on the project, they would continue giving their opinions as if it were still up for discussion.

What Gabriela was experiencing was a cultural shock in expectations. Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede uses the concept of “power distance” to describe how power is distributed in different cultures. In her previous work environment, Gabriela was used to a high power distance culture where power is respected. In such a culture, leaders make the big decisions and are not often challenged. Her Swedish team, however, were used to working in a low power distance culture where employees often work together with their bosses to find solutions and make decisions. Here, leaders act as coaches who encourage independent thought and expect to be challenged.

When Gabriela became aware of the cultural differences between her and her team, she took the initiative(主动权)to have an open conversation with them about their feelings about her leadership.

Pleased to be asked for their thoughts, Gabriela’s team openly expressed that they were not used to being told what to do. They enjoyed having more room for initiative and creative freedom. When she told her team exactly what she needed them to do, they felt that she didn’t trust them to do their job well.

With a better understanding of the reasons behind each other’s behaviour, Gabriela was able to make adjustments to her management style. Finally she effectively motivated her team to achieve their goals.

8 . I work at a grocery store in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood, which gets a lot of regulars. On March 12, the Quebec government announced to close all public places to stop the spread of the pandemic (流行病) of coronavirus.

The next day the store was the busiest I’ve ever seen. The six cash registers had to be kept open from 10 a. m. until close. It was nuts. I didn't have time to eat lunch, and whenever one of us on cash had to use the bathroom, we’d have to bring in a coworker off the floor to cover for us.

Since then, the atmosphere in the store has been different. Customers are mostly considerate, but whenever someone coughs or sneezes, everyone turns around to make sure that person sneezed into their elbow. I’ve even seen customers come in wearing some strange get-ups. One guy even came in with a plastic Walmart bag wrapped around his entire head, with a slit cut out for his eyes.

A lot of my coworkers have left to avoid a public-facing job during the pandemic. Grocery store workers across Canada are putting their health at risk every time they come in to work, but a lot of us are still making close to minimum wage. I realized that I feel more exhausted than normal even though I’m working the same hours.

There still have been some moments of kindness in the midst of the chaos. I’ve overheard people talking on the phone who sounded as though they were organizing grocery deliveries for those stuck at home. And this past weekend a very nice lady thanked us for continuing to work. I know everyone is worried, but it’s useless having the same scary conversations day after day. Instead, tell us a funny anecdote, or about something nice. We’ll appreciate the distraction, and you’ll make our day just a bit brighter.