A Leap（跳跃）to Honor

    Leaping on a narrow balance beam(平衡木) is not easy. But Lola Walter, a 13-year-old gymnast, is an expert at it.

    To perfect her skills, Lola 1 for four hours a day, five days a week. At the state championships in March, she finished seventh out of 16 girls.

    That's especially impressive, 2 she is legally blind, born with a rare condition that causes her eyes to shift constantly. She often sees double and can't 3 how far away things are.

    When she was little, her mom 4 that even though she couldn't see 5, she was fearless. So her mom signed her up for gymnastics when she was three. She loved the 6 right away and gymnastics became her favorite.

    Though learning gymnastics has been more 7 for her than for some of her tournaments, she has never quit. She doesn't let her 8 stop her from doing anything that she wants to.

    She likes the determination it takes to do the sport. Her biggest 9 is the balance beam. Because she has double vision, she often sees two beams. She must use her sense of touch to help her during her routine. Sometimes she even closes her eyes. “You have to 10 your mind that it'll take you where you want to go,” says Lola.

    To be a top-level gymnast, one must be brave. The beam is probably the most 11 for anyone because it's four inches wide. At the state competition, Lola didn't 12 the beam. In fact, she got an 8.1 out of 10 — her highest score yet.

    Lola doesn't want to be 13 differently from the other girls on her team. At the competitions, the judges don't know about her vision 14. She doesn't tell them, because she doesn't think they need to know. Her mom is amazed by her 15 attitude.

    Lola never thinks about 16. She is presently at level 7 while the highest is level 10 in gymnastics. Her 17 is to reach level 9. She says she wants to be a gymnastics coach to 18 what she's learned to other kids when she grew up.

    Lola is 19 of all her hard work and success. She says it has helped her overcome problems in her life outside gymnastics, too. Her 20 for others is “just believe yourself”.

Double Trouble

    When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broken. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. I went to her room1her for the cash. Laughing, she agreed to2me the money, but added, “I will charge you 10 percent compound interest every 3until you pay me back.”

    “Compound interest what's that?” I asked.

    “Well, interest is what you call the4money borrowers have to pay back on a loan,” she explained. “Compound interest means that the interest payments get bigger and bigger the5you take to pay back the loan. To repay the loan, you will need to give me $11 after one month. If you wait two months to pay me back, your6will grow from $10 to $11. So I'll be charging you interest on $11. Then I will add that interest to the $11 you already owe me, for a 7of $12.10. That's what you'll owe after two months.”

    “Sure. I get it,” I said. Though truthfully, I was getting 8

Kathleen lent me the money, and I bought the toy. My birthday came a month later, and my mom gave me $10.9that was just the amount I needed to buy another toy I wanted10I put off paying my sister for a month. After another month, I11about the loan.

    Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $02 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket 12Kathleen tapped me on the shoulder.

    “Sorry, kiddo. That's mine. I'm13on your debt.”

    “Huh?” Then I remembered the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I 14borrowed $10.”

    “True,” she said, “but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you 15me $21.43.” She paused, then added. “You can pay me the $1.43.”

    I 16to believe that a $10 loan could more than double so quickly. Much to my17my sister got her pencil and tablet and showed me exactly how it all added up.

    My head18as I tried to keep track of Kathleen's 19 but this time, I got the basic idea of compound interest. I 20the hard way that borrowing money can be “double trouble” in no time.

    When my sister Diane began playing the violin, she was seven. How did she sound? Terrible. But she didn't 1. At twelve, she asked our parents if she could 2 a full­time music school. They said no. Actually, everyone agreed that my sister 3 talent.

    I was better at my 4. My teacher had told my parents that I had great 5. So my parents found the best piano teacher in the area to 6 me. But the only time he was 7 was Saturday afternoons at 3 p.m. Back then, I was 8 about the British TV show The Avengers, which was 9 every Saturday at 3 p.m.. I let nothing take up my The Avengers hour. So I 10 this amazing opportunity. Today, I don't even have a 11 in my house.

    My sister became an engineer, but she 12 stopped making music. When she was in her 40s, she switched her 13. She went back to college, got a(n) 14 in music education, and became a music teacher. She started kids off on their first instrument and gave them all the encouragement and support she never 15.

    Recently, she and a pianist pal (朋友) put on a recital. A big crowd of friends and family 16 for her. As she played, I looked around at the 17. Everyone was 18 enjoying the music. It occurred to me that I was the only person that remembered that a 7­year­old kid making those perfectly 19sounds and knew how far she had come, despite 20.

    Talent is important. But enthusiasm is even more important.

    Without warning, my father would knock on the door in the middle of night, drunken and begging my mother to open it. Later on, they lived their 1 lives and my mother was 2my family independently.

    My father was always claiming he had been planning to do something for us, but he had no  3. The man who was 4 to love us, in fact, lacked the 5 of what it truly meant to love a child.

    Maybe it was his complicated relationship to his father that made him 6. Maybe it was the pain 7 with a life of misfortune. Who knows? Whatever it was, it stole him from us, and 8 from me. Not understanding me, he simply 9 me—not just emotionally, but 10 as well. Never once did he hug me.

    My best memories of him were from his 11 at participation. Once every month or two, he would 12 and drive us to Trucker's Paradise. To me, the games were fun but easily forgotten. It was the 13 of my father that was most treasured.

    It wasn't until I was much older that I would find evidence of my father's love.

    When my favorite personal computer came onto the market, I convinced myself that I had to have it even though its price was far 14 my mother's reach. I mowed （割草）every yard I could find that summer, 15 it still wasn't enough. Then my dad agreed to help me 16the rest of the money by selling watermelons. This was the first time that I had ever spent time alone with him. He laughed and repeatedly 17 me as “my boy”, a phrase he relayed with a sense of 18.

    It just goes to show that however distant the father and however broken the 19, there is still a need for even the smallest bit of 20 of a father's love. Although he had never told me that he loved me, I would regard that day as the greatest evidence of that fact.

    My son has been in hospital again, this time with an emergency admission. He was 1 in an ambulance from our local health centre to the children's hospital.

    In this country, all ambulances are 2 and manned by firemen and it was no 3 this time. While one fireman drove, the other was in the 4 with me and my son. He started 5 my son as soon as he was carried in, 6 him whether he'd prefer English or Portuguese.

    When my son 7 either of them, the fireman requested speaking English so that my son could 8 it with him. Of course, that gave him plenty of 9 to draw my son's attention to offering “tuition (学费)”—It was just a joke. The 10 of them chatted for the full hour. 11, he had been assigned the task of keeping my boy 12. He did so so skillfully that our son didn't 13 that I was tearing along with lights flashing.

    Actually, the back of an ambulance is a 14 place for me, and then I got sick and had to 15 the window a little. It was cold, so this absolutely wonderful guy took his own jacket off and 16 it around our son's head and neck

    These excellent guys 17 with us during check-in procedure, and finally 18 when I made sure that my husband was on his way in the car.

    I can't be 19 enough to the firemen. They're our firemen, and they are all 20, of course.

    At an airport I overheard(无意听到) a father and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her plane's1and standing near the door, he said to his daughter, "I love you; I wish you enough."

    She said, "Daddy, our2together has been more than enough. Your love is3I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy." They kissed good-bye and she left.

    He walked over4the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to5. I tried not to interfere(干涉) his6, but he welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone7it would be forever?" "Yes, I have," I replied.

    Saying that brought back8I had of expressing my love and9for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were10, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me. So I knew what this man was11. When I asked why it was a forever good-bye, he said he was12and her daughter lived much too far away. He guessed this departure might be the13before his funeral. When I asked him why they said "I wish you enough", he explained that had been14from other generations. His parents used to say it to15, by which they wanted other people to have a life filled with enough16things to support them.

    "I wish you enough sun to17your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit18. I wish you enough pain19the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gains to20your wanting. I wish you enough "Hellos" to get you through the final 'Good-bye'."