2 . For a teenager whose chances of survival were slim when he was born, just making it to the starting line at the Olympics is a miraculous achievement in itself.

William Flaherty was born in Cincinnati. When he was 3, he was diagnosed with HLH. It is an often-fatal disease where the immune system attacks the body’s organs. There were days when they didn’t know if he would live through. The 17-year-old Flaherty has had more than 30 operations in his life, including a bone-marrow transplant from his older brother Charles in 2008.

At five, William skied for the first time. It helped a lot with low bone density and got him back in good shape. One year later, William moved to Puerto Rico and fell in love with the island. Puerto Rico doesn’t have snow and balancing the island and skiing life was tough. During the first few years a lot of it was pushed by his father and older brother Charles—himself a former Olympic skier. Motivated by his older brother, William wanted to give it a try himself. When he brought up to represent Puerto Rico in Alpine skiing, his friends laughed. However, he didn’t let it hold him back.

As a teenager, Flaherty had to balance his training with medical appointments and going to school. Even a cold could lay him up for two weeks, so William took extra pre-cautions over the last two years. While training, he wore an N95 mask the whole time and couldn’t ride the lift with anyone. After training, he came home directly, hid in his bedroom and stayed away from people. He managed to maintain straight A’s despite having to study on chairlifts and do final exams sometimes only days before racing. He had his English final three days before he left for Beijing.

“All my medical problems have definitely helped with my motivation. Skiing is really helpful because it forces me to focus on one thing. I really want to prove to all the other transplant survivors that you can do whatever you want in life. Move on with your life and achieve whatever you want,” he said.

4 . Many years ago, my dad was facing a serious heart condition. He was unable to do a steady job. He fell suddenly ill and had to be admitted to the hospital.

He wanted to do something to keep himself busy, so he decided to volunteer at the local children’s hospital. My dad loved kids. It was the perfect job for him. He ended up working with the seriously ill children. He would talk, play, and do arts with them.

One of his kids was a girl with a rare disease that paralyzed (瘫痪) her from the neck down. She couldn’t do anything, and she was very depressed. My dad decided to try to help her. He started visiting her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his hands at all. All the while he would tell her, “See, you can do anything you set your mind to.”At the end of the day, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was sent home because the doctors felt there was nothing else they could do for her. My dad also left the children’s hospital for a little while because he became ill. Some time later after my dad had recovered and returned to work, in came the little girl who had been paralyzed and only this time she was walking. She ran straight over to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave him a picture she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read: “Thank you for helping me walk.”

My dad would cry every time he told us this story and so would we. He would say sometimes love is more powerful than doctor, and my dad—who died just a few months after the little girl gave the picture—loved every single child in that hospital.

5 . When you buy something with money, you feel as if it’s owed by you. __, when you receive something from someone else, the gift is a __ of something bigger than yourself.

In our living room, we have three shelves of books. We __ them as the “open source” bookshelf because our guests can take any book and __ any book to it. No one __ it; it’s all based on trust, __ our home hosts many events with hundreds of people passing through it.

These books cover various types and you can’t really be __ what you’ll find. So, my brother happened to __ a red book the other day. It __ because it had no title. Since it looked so __, he checked it out.

Page one __ some hand-written words:

To: DJ Burrowes

From: Grandma and Grandpa Burrowes

…

We were __. Every page had a quote written in the __ shaky handwriting of DJ’s grandparents. They had given it to DJ and DJ, __, had given it to us.

A couple of weeks back, DJ __ to go to China to learn its language and culture. Before leaving, he came for a(n) __ at our place, primarily to offer his __ gratitude. But this gift was over the top. Not only did he __ such a precious part of himself, but he did so without telling anyone in our house! What a(n) __ ! For a few seconds, all of us just stared at it in disbelief.

In shocking silence, we all stood in __ of the Burrowes for showing us, by their example, what life is all about. Thank you, DJ, wherever you are!