I was invited to a cookout on an old friend’s farm in western Washington. I parked my car outside the farm and walked past a milking house which had apparently not been used in many years. A noise at a window caught my attention, so I entered it. It was a hummingbird (蜂鸟), desperately trying to escape. She was covered in spider-webs (蛛网) and was barely able to move her wings. She ceased her struggle the instant I picked her up.

With the bird in my cupped hand, I looked around to see how she had gotten in. The broken window glass was the likely answer. I stuffed a piece of cloth into the hole and took her outside, closing the door securely behind me.

When I opened my hand, the bird did not fly away; she sat looking at me with her bright eyes. I removed the sticky spider-webs that covered her head and wings. Still, she made no attempt to fly. Perhaps she had been struggling against the window too long and was too tired? Or too thirsty?

As I carried her up the blackberry-lined path toward my car where I kept a water bottle, she began to move. I stopped, and she soon took wing but did not immediately fly away.

Hovering (悬停), she approached within six inches of my face. For a very long moment, this tiny creature looked into my eyes, turning her head from side to side. Then she flew quickly out of sight.

During the cookout, I told my hosts about the hummingbird incident. They promised to fix the window. As I was departing, my friends walked me to my car. I was standing by the car when a hummingbird flew to the center of our group and began hovering. She turned from person to person until she came to me. She again looked directly into my eyes, then let out a squeaking call and was gone. For a moment, all were speechless. Then someone said, “She must have come to say goodbye.”

A few weeks later, I went to the farm again.

I was just about to leave when the hummingbird appeared.

A wolf quickly caught up with him.

Early in my teaching career, I heard countless excuses — most of them made up, many of them amusing — for why students didn’t have their homework. And, yes, “the dog ate it” was one of them. As time passed, I grew tired of hearing “I don’t have my homework because...”. So I quit accepting any excuse.

When I was transferred to an inner-city middle school, I took my no-nonsense attitude with me. “No excuses, no extensions!” I warned my eighth graders on the first day of school. I collected homework at the beginning of each class. When a student didn’t have it, I never asked why. Instead, I sighed loudly, shook my head in dramatic disgust and with the student looking on — recorded a zero in the grade book. I soon gained the reputation I thought I wanted.

Then, one afternoon, shortly after the dismissal bell rang, Anthony approached me. “Could I talk to you a minute?” he asked shyly, not taking his eyes off the floor. “I know you don’t accept any explanation, but I don't want you to think I’m a slacker because I come to school without mine so often.”

Anthony looked up at me for the first time, and I could see that his lower lip was quivering. “It’s just that...well, my dad moved out, and my mom waits tables at night, so I have to take care of my little brothers. Sometimes they cry a lot, and it makes it hard to concentrate.”

I put my hand on Anthony’s thin shoulder. “Why are you just now telling me..?” I stopped in mid-sentence. I knew why. So I changed the question. “Would it help if you stay here after school and work on it before you go home?”

He swallowed hard and nodded.

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The next day, I made an announcement to all my students.

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Having read their stories, I learned more about these kids.

I never knew how important life was until I almost lost my little brother. It all started when my brother got sick. I was nine, and he was just nine months. At that time, he kept touching his ear. The first doctor my mother took him to told her that it was an ear disease.

After a week, he was still touching his ear continually. My mother took him to a different doctor. The doctor ran blood tests on him and thought he should be in the hospital as soon as possible. At first, the doctors did not know what was wrong with him. A couple of days later, they found out he had a type of bone marrow (骨髓) cancer.

The doctors tried one round of treatment. It helped, but my brother lost his hair. Then he needed a bone marrow transplant (移植). They needed to find a bone marrow donor (捐赠者), so the doctors tested my family first.

I was so afraid to get a shot. My sisters and I were all crying. We got it over with quickly, and it did not hurt as much as I thought it would. A couple of weeks later, we found out that one of my sisters and I were both matches. My parents had to choose which one of us should be the donor. After thinking about it for a long time, they made their decision one Sunday.

That day, after having our lunch, my parents put me on the sofa. With tears filling their eyes, they told me that they wanted me to be the bone marrow donor because I was older. They asked me whether I’d like to be the donor. Hearing it, I was excited and nervous.

I wondered whether to agree it or not.

About 45 days later, my brother’s health improved a lot.

When my parents first told me I was going to a youth camp, I was not happy. And, to be honest, I was a little scared. My parents said they knew what was best for me. Most of my summer vacations were spent with family at home. I’d miss swimming at swimming pool, riding bikes to park nearby and picnicking there. Why would I want my perfect summer in the suburbs to be interrupted by some stupid youth camp where I wouldn’t’ know anyone? Would they be funny? What camp activities would there be?

I pouted(撅嘴) angrily in the backseat while my dad drove me to the youth camp for the first day. We went past the familiar city amusement parks and finally reached the destination— Lake Erie. I was also upset because the camp organization sent a list of things we should pack and a sari(纱丽) was one of them. As a tomboy(假小子) who lived in jean shorts and T-shirts, a girly fit wasn’t on my list of favorite things, not to mention the performance on the last day.

Wearing my best frown, I walked past screaming reunited campers and dragged my way to the girls’ cabin. Its tragic emptiness was a perfect match for my pathetic state of mind. I wanted to run after my parents and beg them to take me home, but instead I pulled my bag on an unoccupied bunk bed(上下铺) and unwillingly unpacked. Suddenly, the cabin door sprang open and Mishti bounced in. She threw a lot of questions at me. Where was I from? What school did I go to? Was I good at softball?

Mishti was an experienced camper there. She introduced me to all her friends. We all came from Indian backgrounds and grew up in the same region. We all used the same brand of mosquito repellent(驱蚊剂) recommended strongly by our Indian immigrant parents.

My initial worry disappeared and I had great fun there.

I even helped styling the girls’ hair on performance day.

I needed to do something in my community (社区) in order to complete the community service hours required to graduate from high school. Some of my friends had signed up to spend time at a soup kitchen, so I did, too. It seemed like a good thing to do.

I thought that we would just be passing out dinners to those in need, but I found out we would be doing everything from preparing to serving the dinner. We began preparing the food, from mixing salad dressing to separating frozen meat. Much still needed to be done before dinner was served, but already outside the building many homeless people were gathering. It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that we opened the doors and began serving dinner.

As the line of people came toward me, I got a little scared. I’d come face to face with the homeless: How should I act? How would they treat me? Would they hate me for having more than they did? While some of the people looked very friendly, some of them looked so dangerous. I didn’t have too much time to worry about it. I was assigned (分配) to serve the salad with the lady next to me. She smiled at me and said if I needed help, she’d be right there, which I found quite comforting.

I had never seen so many people wanting food. They were of all ages and nationalities. Most of them wore clothes that were torn and dirty. Some looked like they had tally given up on life, while others seemed to be making the best of the situation, smiling and joking. Some were better off than others, but they all needed a good meal and a warm place to eat. It saddened me to think of how many people there were who didn’t have a place to call home and the only food they got came from a soup kitchen.

As they came in my direction, I put on my brightest and happiest smile.

I was so happy that I had earned my service hours in this way.