Some people would have you believe that being fat is the worst thing you can be. They think that if a person is fat they have no life, no love, no reason to want to look good in their clothes. The sad thing is that many people who are fat do feel the same loathing toward themselves and others who are overweight or obese.

    I know what I'm talking about because I have been there. I have been that fat girl who wore big T-shirts to cover my “sins”. Forget style. Forget fashion sense. I absolutely had none. I didn't even bother getting haircuts for years, just wore my hair long and straight, pulled back in a ponytail, I have to wonder if the reason the fashion industry has ignored plus sized women and children for so long is because plus sized people, feeling they couldn't possibly look great, didn't bother shopping for new clothes, and therefore no profit was to be found by producing those sizes.

    For me, the change that improved my outer look actually started with my outlook on life. I started by being grateful for all I do have, like great health, a stable family, a steady income, freedom, a decent home, the ability to see the trees turn orange in the fall, to hear my grandson humming in the back seat, to remember the great times I've had in my life.

    I started to focus on all the positive aspects of the life I already had. I actually started to feel the beauty of the Universe all around me and to realize that I am part of that perfection. The self loathing stopped. I noticed all the people in my life who loved me in spite of my size. I got off the pity pot and smiled at myself. I acknowledged my shame and embarrassment and moved through that too.

    One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school?

    Listen — Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them — If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra (额外的) pencil or pen with you to classes in case (以防) they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them — Try to make something for your friend to help make them feel better in hard times. Making cards and encouraging them are among the nicest things you can do for a friend. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, “I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control. But if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve (值得) to be with me at my best.” Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    Make plans — Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

    The following are several summer programs for children.

    Duke University ADHD Program

    Academic Summer Program is used to help 6th to 8th graders with ADHD(注意力缺乏多动症). The program uses techniques to teach study strategies, academic support skills, and cooperative learning activities.

    Phone: 919-416-2096

    Location: Durham, North Carolina

    Eagle Hill School(Connecticut)

    The Summer Academic Day Program at Eagle Hill School is designed for children experiencing academic difficulty. Open to boys and girls ages 6 to 12. The summer program immerses(使沉浸)kids in a total language environment specifically tailored to meet his or her needs.

    Phone: 203-622-9240

    Location: Greenwich, Connecticut

    The Gow School

    The Gow School offers a traditional summer school program experience for boys and girls ages 8 to 15. The 5-week session offers a specially designed curriculum for students who have experienced academic difficulty or have language based learning disabilities. Summer Program learners can be day students or live on campus(校园).

    Phone :716-652-3450

    Location: South Wales, New York

    The Kentwood Summer Camp Program

    The Kentwood Summer Camp Program is a school program catering toward children, teens, and their families who are not being successful in the traditional school environments socially, and or at home. It is for children and teens in grades K(Kindergarten) to 12.

    Phone: 954-581-8222 or 954-634-0601

    Location: Davie, Florida

    One time a young man, who hoped to study law, wrote to Lincoln for advice, and Lincoln replied, "If you are determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. Always bear in mind that your own determination to succeed is more important than any other one thing."

    Lincoln knew. He had gone through it all. He had never, in his entire life, had more than a total of one year's schooling. And books？Lincoln once said he had walked to borrow every book with in fifty miles of his home. A fire was usually kept going all night in the small house and he read by the light of it.

    He walked twenty or thirty miles to hear a speaker and, returning home, he practiced his talks everywhere﹣in the fields, in the woods, before the crowds. He joined several societies and practiced speaking on the topics of the day.

    A lack of confidence always troubled him. In the presence of women he was shy and dumb. Even when he was in love with Mary Todd, he used to sit there, nervous and silent, unable to find words, listening while she did the talking. Yet that was the man who, by practice and home study, made himself into the speaker who debated with the famous speaker Douglas! That was the man who, in Gettysburg address, rose to the heights of eloquence （雄辩） that have seldom been achieved in all the human history.

    Small wonder that, speaking of his own great barriers and painful struggle, he wrote, "If you are determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already."

    A day in the life of 18-year-old David Lanster is full of teenage activities: school, baseball practice, homework. And then he starts cooking. "Some nights I'm up until 1 a.m. making pies, or even later if we're cooking beef," said the student at Ransom Everglades High School in Florida, US.

    For the past year, Lanster and Kelly Moran, his classmate, have been hosting fancy dinner parties at Lanster's parents' home. Their meals have 17 courses and are all made by them. Their guests used to give them gifts to thank them, until the pair decided to do something nice for charity. "We got some really great Miami Heat tickets, a nice watch, and many kitchen machines," Lanster said. "But we wanted to make this something positive for people rather than us."

    Lanster and Moran focused on Common Threads, a charity(慈善机构) that helps to teach kids in poor neighborhood to cook and make healthy eating choices. The young cooks ask their guests to give however much they want as payment for their meals. It all goes to Common Threads because Lanster's parents cover their food costs. After their last 12-person event, Lanster and Moran gave $1,600 to the charity. Now, they're taking their show out of the kitchen and on the road. Lanster and Moran have started to organize private dinner parties in a similar way: the host pays for the ingredients(食材), and the guests make a donation (捐赠) to a charity.

    Outside the kitchen, the two are busy preparing their college applications. Neither is sure what they will do in the future, but they've promised their parents that they'll leave cooking alone until they finish high school.

    Disease, poverty, hate, love — Charles Dickens' stories opened his readers' eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years later, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens' legacy (遗产) was far greater than just "great-literature".

    February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer's birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let's take a look at two of them.

    A White Christmas

    Dickens is described as "the man who invented Christmas"— not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today.

    In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day — unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.

    Many people believe that Dickens' popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth —“home enjoyments, affections and hopes".

    In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote:" Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas."

    "Dickensian" poverty

    Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian London.

    He helped popularize the term "red tape" to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy (官僚作风) in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.

    "Dickensian" has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about poverty in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like "terrible" or "horrific", but rather described it as "life mirroring the times of Dickens".