After four silent years, British singer Adele Adkins finally introduced herself to the world again with Hello, the opening song from her third album 25, which came out on Nov. 20, 2015.

    Although Adele is a very successful singer now, music wasn't always what she saw herself doing. At age 10, when she saw her grandmother's pain over the death of Adele's grandfather, she pictured herself as a heart surgeon.

     “I wanted to fix people's hearts,” she told the UK music website i-D, remembering the childhood interest she'd had in biology classes until she found out that her real talent was for singing.

    “Adele didn't go to medical school, but many would agree that she still has healing (治愈)powers. Her songs find the kind of memory every listener holds somewhere in their heart. This kind of feeling is what people have always liked in Adele,” said The Telegraph. “She writes a pop diary, sharing the simple secrets of her heart.”

    Most successful pop stars make albums at a fast pace, but not Adele. After her second album 21 won the 2012 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, she made it clear with her label that she would spend “four or five years” making her next album. She told magazine. “I won't come out with new music until it's better than 21.”

    Instead of seeking fame, Adele remained silent and moved to the countryside. In her free time, she loved to watch TV series Teen Mom, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead.

    Living life as normally as possible is important to the singer's art. “Nobody wants to listen to a record from someone who's not living in the real world,” Adele told i-D.“So I live a low-key life for my fans.”

    The most important lessons in life that we need to learn are the results of our poor decisions. Although time and experience are the best teachers, we also suffer from experiences such as our sacrifices, suffering and the hardships. Good judgment develops only when we truly learn from our mistakes. However, many people keep repeating the same mistakes before learning their lessons because as they say, they are just humans who are subject to making mistakes.

Our weaknesses in life can be turned into our strengths if we immediately acknowledge and recognize the fact that we mess up and learn from them. Our good or bad experiences help us learn better judgment in life. Yet, too many people are in denial and place the blame on others without realizing that the minute they take responsibility for their action is when the learning process begins. Apart from learning from our own experience, we can also learn valuable lessons from the experience of others. It allows us to observe our behavior from another angle. When we recognize our mistakes and prevent them from happening again, we are, therefore, learning.

    Quickly identifying our mistakes and changing behavior accordingly requires less time and energy than denying mistakes. However, acknowledgement of mistakes requires belief in the idea that the perfection is not possible.

    It is easier to analyze our mistakes especially when we talk to others, which can help people to sort out comments or criticisms after a mistake is made. Despite our tendency to avoid mistakes, timely acknowledgement is one of the best ways to prevent them from repeating.

    Michael and I did not know when the waiter put the plates on our table. At the time we were sitting in a small restaurant, hidden from the busy Third Street, in New York City. Even the smell of fresh serving blintze did not interfered our conversation. In fact, we let the blintze soaked in the sour cream. We just enjoy the conversation too much that we forgot to eat. Our conversation was so delightful though we did not speak about important things. We laughed and spoke about the film which we have just watched.

    While our fun conversation continued, my eyes went across the room and stop on the corner. A couple of old folks sat in there. The woman wearing the flower dress with faded color, the same with the pillow where she laid her pallid handbag. The man's top head shined just like the boiled egg which he ate very slowly. The woman chewed her oatmeal(燕麦片) very slowly too, seemed with very much effort.

    But what made my mind thought about them was the silence around them. Michael and I paid our food and went on. When we passed the corner where the couple sat, my wallet fell. When I stopped to get it, I saw under the table, they were tenderly holding each other's hand. They were eating in silence while holding each other's hand! I was very touched to see the simple yet the very meaningful action reflecting the close relationship of the couple.

    Their silence was the pleasant and relaxing one, it was the expression of the tender love and it did not always need the words to express it. They might spend the hours holding each other's hand like this in the morning.

    When I and Michael went out of the restaurant, I thought, maybe it was nothing bad at all if some day we have something like that. Maybe, it will become the expression of the tender and complete love.

    Born and raised in a digital age, today's young people are generally tech savvy (技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they're less capable than the older generation.

    According to a recent study, 69 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator(暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don't know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don't understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

    It appears young people are losing the skills older generations took for granted. In fact, the problem is shared by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don't know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been dropped, as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

    Technology may be to blame for this generational gap. Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the practical skills are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包). Indeed, improvements in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read physical maps.

    However, this change has raised concerns among many people. “If you have your master's degree and you can't live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious (有营养的) meal, you're not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told Huff Post.

    That's why there's an increasing call for the return of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very popular in the early 20th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget(预算) cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.

    “The educational system would work better if every academic class had a practical course that applied the theory to do something regular people do in real life,” Robert Frost, instructor and flight controller at NASA, wrote on Quora, according to Huff post.

    If there is one person who has left a deep impression on me, it's my teacher Mrs. Pathak who was my class teacher for three years. In my childhood, how I wished I had a mother or a sister like her. One moment she could be tough (严厉的) and strict, another moment caring and compassionate (富有同情心的).

    She always encouraged us to tell the truth. For instance, if one had not done the homework, he need not lie. She allowed us to make mistakes, saying we couldn't be perfect all the time, but we should try.

    Another thing she taught me early on was punctuality. She set a good example with her own behaviour. She was always on time, so we students tried our best to be on time.

    She surprised us with her sense of humour. Her classroom teaching was always humorous. After class, she talked to us and told us jokes.

    We really felt free to ask questions and Mrs. Pathak would give the answers. If she did not know — there had been some occasions (场合) — she would say so. We all then tried to find out the answers. Whoever came up with the answer was appreciated and given the due credit (应有的称赞). Now I sometimes wonder whether Mrs. Pathak was pretending just to encourage us to explore and find answers by ourselves.