When high school started, Becky and I became best friends. We 1 many interests and quickly became inseparable. When high school ended, we both cried because we would attend different colleges in the fall.

    Our first term of university life was 2. We had a huge telephone bill and our e-mails were incredibly long. In the second term, l found some new friends wih whom I felt very3. These were friends with whom I could be myself and 4 out my feelings. I was eager to share my new friends with Becky.

    When Becky finally visited me at my school, we were excited. She brought a toy bear as a present and told me about her college life. However, something unexpected happened when I 5 her to my new friends. Her eyes grew dark and l could see the 6 within them. My new friends tried to share their friendship, but Becky seemed 7 to accept it. I didn't understand why the people l loved most couldn't love each other.

    Becky left. I knew she was not happy. I thought long about what had happened. After many unanswered questions, I understood that she was 8. She saw me with my new friends and regretted that we longer shared the same experience. She saw all the fun l was having 9 her and wished she could be a part of it. She wished she could be in their 10.

    I wrote a letter to Becky11 she's always my best friends. I told her everyone had friends from home and friends from school, and all the friends were indeed life's greatest 12. Becky wrote me back soon. She was in 13 and felt sorry about what she had done.

    I think Becky and I both learn an important lesson from it. 14 can influence our friendship and change the experience we've shared. We are now walking on two different paths of life while new friends are special and exciting, old friends are always there,15 to share their heart and soul, no matter how far apart.

    Hiking through the mountains of Colorado was never my plan. I wanted to take1at Yale University but I abruptly (意外地) decided to explore the great outdoors of the American West with an adventure program. Before I knew it, Chicago and my comfort zone were being left behind and2mountains and sand dunes (沙丘).

    On the morning of June 27, I was3by a burst of sunshine. I 4slowly but suddenly realized I was not in Chicago anymore. I was in a5in the middle of nowhere in Colorado. I was going to have to6my three tent mates. I tiredly took my clothes and hid behind a large bush to7. It was soon time to 8 ourselves to everyone at camp. Everyone seemed pretty friendly, but why didn't I feel a little9? I was starting to10not having chosen a roommate at Yale.

    After a quick 11, we made our way to the Great Sand Dunes.  12 it as the Egyptian capital of Colorado,” said my camp leader. Egypt in Colorado? Now things were really starting to become13. When we arrived, we were stroked by endless amounts of14. Brief thoughts of being15 by sand monsters came before me. My16increased when my camp leader told us, “Today, we are going to climb to the top of the Dunes.”

    Three hours later, I was out of breath17I made it to the top. Suddenly, I felt the18was worth it.

The next two weeks flew by. I met19that tested my survival skills, but I pushed through every one of them. I was glad that I had somehow developed a new sense of20.

    “And this is me kissing the Blarney Stone”, says Carrie, my seventeen-year-old daughter. She turns the pages of her new photo album, recounting her recent ten-day1 abroad, and my mind wanders back…way back to when she was only five.

    “Someday I'm going to Ireland”, she said, holding her Childcraft book in her lap. Her blue eyes 2 as she looked at the beautiful pictures. “Well, maybe you can!” I said. However, it was3 for our family to pay for the luxury of traveling. I was working as a secretary. My husband Charlie had to close his 4 last year due to his poor health…

    Ten years later, Carrie came home from school one day, hardly able to contain her5“Mama, you'll never 6where the class is going. To Ireland!” she smiled 7“You're kidding!” I said. “Ireland! Where you've always wanted to go!”

    “The trip is 8 for year after next, and the $2,100 can be paid in installments (分期付款).” Then she added, “But that's too much… isn't it?” Her voice was9 yet doubting. “Well,” I said slowly, “Daddy and I can't help much10 you have two years to earn the money.” “You think so?” Carrie's face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Well,” I11 “maybe you could use your father's bakery and sell baked goods.” Sell baked goods? We12 at each other. Carrie was an excellent 13! This would work!

    So the plan was14 Carrie began working, making a variety of baked goods. She used dried apples, cooked, seasoned and spiced to perfection. Soon, however, fried apple-pies became the customer favorite. All ingredients were 15—real shortening (起酥油), real butter—and the crust (皮) was handmade and hand-rolled. Finally the pies were fried to a beautiful, golden brown! The finished product was an extremely pleasant treat, winning16from even the little old ladies in these hills who have been making dried-apple pies for decades17 began rolling in, and the Ireland fund grew, and well 18 the given time the trip abroad was paid in full…

    Now I'm looking at her album as she proudly points out the19 she visited: castles of Ireland, historic bridges and churches, cobblestone (鹅卵石) streets of Dublin… so much like those in her Childcraft book. My daughter will forever remember this dream come true, a dream that began in the heart of a five-year-old girl and was completely made 20 by the delicious apple pie!

    Hitting heavily on the keys in frustration, I turned away from the piano, trying to fight the tears that were already welling up in my eyes. After an hour of 1 I still couldn't get the rhythm quite right on a Mozart piece that I had to 2 to my piano teacher the following day. It was frustrating to have spent such a( n)3 time on a piano song and still be unable to play the piece correctly. To me, the piece had at first seemed easy. But, no matter how4 I tried, I just couldn't seem to play it the way that it was 5 to be played.

    I decided to take a 6.For the most part, after a little bit of work, I could 7 learn the song rather quickly. However, it was always that one song, which might have appeared simple but was8 that always annoyed me. These types of songs always made me 9myself whether I could be a pianist.

    After having dinner, I decided to come back to the piano. Placing my10on the keys, I chose to play the piece slowly and carefully, paying attention to hitting the correct notes11 trying to play the piece quickly. Using this new method of practicing, I12 a great deal of patience, something that I often had13 with. Instead of thinking how hard the rhythm was, I thought about how I could 14myself, little by little. Finally, I could slowly see myself getting better.

    15 I didn't even get the rhythm right until a week later. I also16 an important lesson—sometimes, baby steps are the best way to 17a goal. I'm an impatient person who likes to think that I can get18 by leaps and bounds. But, in the case of piano, I couldn't move forward and improve19 I slowed down, believed in myself, and took it one step 20.

You Did More Than Carry My books

    Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with a baseball bat and several other things. Mark 1 down and helped the boy pick up these articles. 2 they were going the same way, he helped to carry some of them for him. As they walked Mark 3 the boy's name was Bill, that he 4 computer games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of 5 with his other subjects and that he had just broken 6 with his girlfriend.

    They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was 7 in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed 8 with a few laughs and some shared small talk, and then Mark went home. They 9 to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, and then both ended up from the same high school. Just three weeks before 10, Bill asked Mark if they 11 talk.

    Bill 12 him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Do you 13 wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I 14 out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess(脏乱) 15 anyone else. I had planned to run away and I was going home to 16 my things. But after we spent some time together 17 and laughing, I realized that 18 I had done that, I would have 19 a new friend and missed all the fun we would have together. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You20 my life."

    It's not easy for me to forget the guy, whom I call Bean. For the past year and a half, I1Bean almost every workday morning. In the beginning I2Bean. After all, he's just a beggar on the freeway off-ramp (匝道) who3people at a stoplight that seems to always be red.

    Over time a few things dawned on me. The first was that it was always the4guy at this off-ramp. The next was that he never actually5anything. He just danced and waved at everyone. Then6, and perhaps the most important, was that he was ALWAYS7. Some days he was dancing and playing a guitar. Most days he'd wave a cardboard at cars, smiling.

    Bean slowly became part of my8routine(常规). I noticed this one day, only because he wasn't there and9danced and waved at me. I10him. I worried something had happened to him. I11to look for him every morning as I came down the ramp to that red light.

    One morning, after one of these12, I was so relieved to see him that it was like the sun had come out after a week-long storm. I sat at the red light, watching his morning13. I realized that I, too, was smiling and14myself waving back. Wow, something as15as a wave brought16to my whole day. I finished the drive to work that morning, feeling lighter and happier.

    I17you now. Look around you. Look at your life, your surroundings, and18just your grocery store with eyes that truly see. What19lies in front of you. Do you have a Bean in your life you haven't noticed yet? Watch for them. They will20your life in ways you can't even dream.