Last summer, as part of my high school graduation project, I volunteered at Saunders House nursing home .I choose this experience because it was something that I had never done before and I wanted to lend a helping hand．At first it was challenging because I was extremely shy. My goal in volunteering was to bring a smile to the residents（住客） by doing different activities from word games to playing chess. I feel as if I had accomplished that goal.

    At the nursing home, I did a lot of different activities with the residents ranging from Jeopardy to Wheel of Fortune. One of my favorites was a word game where I would write a ten -letter word on the board and the residents would try to come up with as many smaller words as possible. I could tell that it was one of their favorite games because they always seemed to be so enthusiastic when they played．I also transported residents to and from their rooms when they needed help; and whenever it was a nice day out, I would take them outside to get some fresh air and relax. On Saturday mornings, I would deliver the newspaper to the residents and on Sundays, I assisted with morning church services.

    The most unforgettable part of this experience was when I had one-on-one conversations with the residents. It was incredible how many great stories they had to tell. Their stories were so interesting and the experience was unforgettable for me .

Children and Youth Sidewalk Sale

    Young people are bursting with artistic energy. The Children and Youth Sidewalk Sale (CYSS) of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts is a fun way for boys and girls to express themselves visually. It focuses on encouraging the creative growth of young people, believing they can develop their artistic potential through personal expression in individual original objects.

    CYSS is a highlight of Children and Youth Day, Wednesday, July 12, 2018. This day features performances for and by young people, art and craft workshops and demonstrations. All artists must he between the ages of 8 and 18 and live or have relatives living in any of the centrally located Pennsylvania counties to participate.

    All artworks must be original and age-appropriate for the event's audience, most of whom are under 18. The sales of work made from small animals and the sales of food are prohibited. A complete listing of the rules can be found in the application. Please review the rules carefully as they may have changed since you last participated in the event.

    Artists must personally be present during the entire clay. Representatives, including family members, may not attend in place of the artist.

How to Enter

    Complete both sides of the entry form. A parent signature is required.

    On a separate sheet, provide a brief description of the artwork and the materials used. Do not send samples; they cannot be returned.

    Enclose at least one photograph of your work.

    Mail application and photo of your work to P. O. Box 1023, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

    Certain activities can be good or bad for our brains, so let's see which of the seven habits you should carry on doing or give up.

    As we age, our ability to think and remember starts to deteriorate. But not everyone. Some of us have brains that age more slowly. Enter the super-ager!

    Super-agers are people over the age of 80 who have the brain structures and abilities of much younger people. Eighty-seven-year-old Bill Gurolnick is a super-ager. “What do I feel like? If I was to give a number, I probably feel like I'm about my early 70s…”

    Scientists know that parts of the brain decrease in size with age. But in super-agers that process is much slower. Emily Rogalski is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois. In a recent study, she showed that super-agers have young brains. The area of the brain responsible for attention and memory—the cortex—was shown to be thicker in super-agers. “When we look at the cortex of their brain, we see that, on average, that it looks more like a 50-year-old brain that it looks like an average 80-year-old bran…”

    Not only do super-ages have thicker cortexes, they have more spindle neurons. These large brain cells appear to be involved with social-emotional communication. But their exact purpose is still a mystery. Scientists writing for Smithsonian magazine say they are “brain cells for socializing.”

    Several factors affect how our brains age. Scientists say super-agers have several things in common, including an active lifestyle. Many travel and play sports. They are often big readers. And they usually have healthy relationships and spend time with friends. Super-agers also seem to have certain common personality traits. Rogalski says they are, for the most part, known for their optimism, resilience and perseverance. Growing old, she adds, does not have to be depressing and sad. “Perhaps, if we expected a bit better from ourselves, then we would understand that not all aging is stressful!”

    Can we all be super-agers? The science behind super-aging is a relatively new, but growing field. Scientists involved in the research offer this advice as we age: Stay active. Learn new things. Challenge yourself. Surround yourself with healthy relationships.

    There have been many problems with our schools today, the biggest of which is closely related to our culture. In general, our culture, as represented in the media, gets excited by famous stars, and constantly stresses that it's what you have, not what you are, that counts. Parents are encouraged to be away from even very small children for most of the day. Too many voters go for politicians who would rather cut school funding than to get rid of tax cuts for the wealthy. All contribute greatly to the problems of educating our children.

    Today's teachers have to deal with a culture that is vastly different than in the past. They report that there is, among more children than ever, a lack of motivation, no drive to succeed or even try. The role models that boys view in the media mostly consist of men in comedies and other shows who are rude and often extremely immature; self-centered overpaid athletes; men in movies, television dramas, video games, etc. who are preoccupied with violence and power. As Leonard Sax wrote in "Boys Adrift", "Teenage boys are looking for models of mature adulthood, but we no longer make any collective effort to provide such models." Girls are attacked not only with such annoying images of males, but also with women who are preoccupied with appearance and are extremely materialistic.

    In such a cultural environment, it is more important than ever to have responsible, loving and caring parents who have enough time and motivation to devote to their children and see to it as their duty to model for them and raise them with high standards of honesty and responsibility along with tending to their physical needs. They need to care enough to see that their children are not attacked with the garbage that comes from movie, television and computer screens. In today's culture, they are basically alone in this effort since, unfortunately, so much is working against them.

    Until we, as a culture, face the truth about ourselves — that we are not providing adequately for a great many of our children — the storm will continue to rage over our education system.

For about three years now, I have been writing poetry. It was not until my junior year in high school that I developed an interest, love and skill for writing poetry. 

Back in elementary school, I loved to write stories. I would write stories on post-it notes and anywhere I could. Yet when I had to write a limerick(五行打油诗) for an assignment, I could not wrap my head around poetry. I had a very hard time figuring out how to rhyme words and have the words make sense. I eventually tossed the paper with the attempted limerick in the trash. I did not try my hand at poetry again until several years later. 

Many years later in my freshman year of high school, my English teacher gave my class a poetry project as an assignment. I still remember my limerick assignment and was afraid of doing the poetry project. For the project, we had to analyse a poem and write a response to it. I chose to respond to Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice. I also wrote my own poem first. I became really excited when writing the poem. 

Two years later, I started writing poetry as a hobby and for fun. To learn how good or bad my poems were, I handed them in to some magazines and contests. I won the second place in the North Carolina Poetry Society's Sherry Pruitt Award Contest, and had my two poems published as high quality poems. I have continued to write poetry, and have even self-published three collections of poetry in both print and e-book formats, which can be found in my store on Lulu. 

Now, I love writing poetry, but I don't hate writing short stories. I just find it more difficult and not my style of writing, even though I still write short stories occasionally.