I am a girl, but I was born to be a rebel（叛逆者）. I like games that can be 1 . Some of the sports I like, even boys won't play!

Wrestling（摔跤）is 2  seen as a sport for men, but I 3 to see if I could do it.

    Every Saturday morning, I got out of bed early to go and watch my brother  4 . From morning to night, I would sit watching the5  have all the fun. Since then, wrestling has been part of my 6.

    For three years, I 7  all the boys and became the best player in the team. My 8 memory of wrestling is when a boy walked off  9  because he'd lost to a girl.

    My last 10  was at this year's Girls' State Wrestling Championships.

    I was so  11 . I was sure I would win. My heart was beating hard when the match started. I could see 12  but my competitor. When the final whistle blew, I had  13 by four points. The cameras and 14 all turned to me: I was the new wrestling champion. I felt so15 . But after a few minutes of enjoying being a champion,16began to run through my knee.

    Because I hurt my knee, my 17 of being a national champion ended. Even so, I still18 to wrestle next year when I go to college. I have 19that you can do anything you want if you put your 20 into it.

    My husband, Tom, has always been good with animals, but I was still amazed when he befriended a female grouse (松鸡). It's 1for a grouse to have any contact (接触)with people. In fact, they're hard to spot, 2they usually fly off when they hear humans approaching

    This grouse came into our lives in 3Tom was working out in the field when he 4her walking around at the edge of the field. She was 5unafraid and seemed to be6about what he was doing,

    Tom saw the 7bird several times, and site got more comfortable around him. We quickly grew8of the bird and decided to call her Mildred.

    One day, as Tom was working, Mildred came within a few feet of him to watch. Tom 9he didn't see her and kept working to see what she would do next.

    Apparently, she didn't like to be 10 She'd run up and peck (啄) at Tom's hands, then 11off to see what he would do. This went on for about 20 minutes, until Mildred became tired of the 12and left.

    As spring went and summer came, Mildred started to 13_more and more often. 14Mildred felt comfortable enough to jump up on Tom's leg and stay long enough for me to get a 15of the two of them together. This friendly grouse soon felt16no just with our family, but with anybody who walked or drove by.

    When hunting season opened, we put a17at the end of our driveway asking18not to shoot our pet grouse. My father, who lived down the road,19warned people not to shoot her.20 hunters would stop and take pictures, because they had never seen anything like her.

    I was hungry, so I took my 8-year-old Shih Tzu, ”Jack”, on a walk to my favorite cafe, about a quarter-mile from my home. They have a nice outside patio（天井）area which* in the late afternoon, is usually1 I ordered a burger and iced tea and went outside to await my 2.

    While waiting for my meal, a homeless man on a bicycle 3 to ask if there was a grocery store in the neighborhood. After I gave him 4 he asked if I had graduated from Santa Clara University. I was wearing a SCU T-shirt at the time. I told him that I graduated from the university some time ago5 did I know that this simple response would 6a 90-minute conversation.

    The man, Michael, told me he was 50 years old. He was intelligent and very intelligent.7 drug use had derailed （使出轨）both his formal 8 and his pursuit of success in the world of work. He drifted from one topic to another,9 the fact that my lunch had been brought to me. He10 had more of a need to11than I did. I made every effort to give him my full attention, never expecting that our conversation would go on and on and on……

    Eventually, I did eat my meal, bite by bite 12 responses in our conversation. Michael was a bit “out there” in terms of his interests and 13. We had little in common, but he was14 talking with, as he 15 it, “intelligent people. “I consider myself fairly well-educated, but I don't think of myself as being overly 16. Rather, my “gift" is common sense.

    I have to admit that I wished our conversation had been17 ten or fifteen minutes, but 18 Michael finally rode off on his bike, he thanked me for listening so attentively to him and for my 19 to talk with him for so long. It was then that I realized that, just maybe, that was my20 in life for today—to be there, in that place, at that time, to engage in that conversation.

    After having a child, I found my regular exercise interrupted. I was not only busy: I also lacked the motivation. Solo gym sessions or some quick1following the DVD while the baby sleeps didn't2me at all. So I decided to sign up for a hiking3in Peru, hoping that it would get me4again.

    Looking over my travel arrangements before I left. I5phrases such as "3-hour hike6primitive forests" and "sliding with a rope down waterfalls", and I started to feel a little7.

    However, as we made our way through the forests and were8with amazing views of9waterfalls, this team of strangers10me to go on. Being physically active with a group motivated me to reach the11or the valley below-rather than simply lying down on the forest floor and giving up,12I might have done if I were alone.

    13confirm my experience: Group exercise can really start a new attitude toward fitness. "People get a better14in a group than they do on their own," said Allison Kimmel, a group15instructor. That's because other people16both support and competition. "Humans are17animals and the shared experience of facing a challenge18is compelling(不可抗拒的)," said David Ezell, the CEO of fitness provider Darien Wellness.

    With the19of a group, I'm slowly getting back into a20lifestyle.

    My mother spent her childhood with her father on their farm in the US. She learned how to mend fences, plow fields, and make cheese. And she learned farm life doesn't offer1rewards, but if you stick with it, the effort and the long days2.

    My grandpa spent his later years living on a comer of the3, named Cherry Ridge, where they4riding horses together every Saturday before he died in 2012.

    Since that time, the farm has5into Cherry Ridge Therapeutic Learning Programs, a center for learning, horseback riding and companionship.

    "I am a 'road scholar', learning in an experiential way," Mom told me. "I feel I was6with eyes to see the needs of a(n)7spirit," she added. She has partnered with a8called Working to Empower Students Together (WEST), which helps young people with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral challenges, or unstable home environments.

    Mom's latest project, the Farm Day Grief Camp, was9out of her grieving after the10 of my grandpa.

    "I'm an adult woman who lost my11only six years ago," Mom said. "There is nothing12than nature and animals to help with the13process." The camp's first visitors were five kids mourning the loss of a 7-year-old who died of cancer.14included painting and recalling the child's favorite things; and a balloon launch they called Sentiments to Heaven.

    "Each camper wrote one thing they wished they could15with their departed(去世的)loved one on their16," Mom-said. Children living with physical disabilities are also17at Cherry Ridge. Recently, a student in a wheelchair smiled ear-to-ear as he led the farm's mini horses around.

    Mom's vision18children, ensuring the lessons she learned on the farm will be19for years to come. I know my grandpa would be20.

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.