Everyone needs friends. There is an old saying, "Friends are God's way of taking care of us." But how do you find real friendship and keepit?

    The American writer Sally Seamans tells young students some smart ways to find friends. Sally says finding friendship is just like planting a tree. You plant the seed(种子) and take care of it to make it grow.

    First, you should choose a friend. What makes a good friend? It is not because a person has money or good looks. A good friend should be kind and patient(耐心的). For example,  if you have a bad day, a good friend should listen to your complaints(抱怨) and do his orher best to help. To make a friend, you can't betoo shy. You should make each other happy.

    But things can't lways be happy. Even the best friends have fights. What should you do when you have a fright with your friend? You have to talk to him or her. When there isno one around, have an honest talk. If he or she doesn't want to talk, you could write a letter. There are three steps to being friends again:

    Tell him or her how you are feeling; say what your friend has done wrong, and explain(解释) why you did this or that;  remember that friendship is the most important thing in your life.

    One day, while I was waiting for my father, I saw a little boy, around two years old, running freely on the grass as his mother watched from a short distance. The boy had a big smile on his face as if he had just been set free from some sort of prison(监狱) . The boy would then fall to the grass, get up, without looking back at his mother, run as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, as if nothing had happened.

    At that moment, I thought to myself, "Why aren't most adults this way?" Most adults, when they fall down, make a big deal out of it and don't even make a second attempt. They would be so embarrassed that they would not try again if someone saw them fall. Or, because they fall, they would find a good excuse for themselves that they're not fit for it. They would end up being too afraid to attempt again for fear of failure(失败) .

    However, with kids, when they fall down, they don't consider their falling down as a failure, instead, they treat it as a learning experience. They try again and again until they succeed.  The answer must be that they have not connected "falling down" with the word "failure". What's more, they probably think to themselves that it's quite okay to fall down and that it's not wrong to do so.  In other words, they allow themselves to make mistakes, so they remain energetic.

    I was deeply impressed by the boy's persistence(坚持不懈) and the manner in which he did.

    A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

    Mike was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always happy and always had something interesting to say. If someone asked him how he was doing, he would reply, "Couldn't be better!" He was really a care-free young man and never felt tired.

    Mike used to say, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Mike, you have two choices (选择) today. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be upset.' I choose to be happy. Each time something happens, I am always ready to learn a good lesson. I choose to learn from life."

    I tried to understand what he said. Indeed life is all about choices. Every situation is a choice. The bottom line is: You're living your life and you make it either happy or sad.

    Several years later I had a car accident and my legs were seriously injured. When I was lying on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.

    People like to say, "Choose the one you love and love the one you choose." Why not choose the one we love and live happily?

Something unexpected happened in the summer of my eleventh year. The home I had grown up in burned to the ground in the middle of the night. Thankfully, my mom, dad, grandma, brothers and I escaped along with my dogs. Yet, we had nothing but the night clothes we were sleeping in. I spent the rest of that night with a friend of my family. I tried unsuccessfully to sleep in the bed in his house. I was too scared.

    The next day my mom brought me a few T-shirts and pairs of jeans that another friend gave to her. One pair of them was too short and the other pair was too long, but I didn't care. At least I had some clothes again. My dad returned to our broken home to see what he could find. The only thing he could save was my mom's rings.

    To spend the summery dad rented us a big house on the same road as our old house had been. As we moved in, our friends and our community continued to donate (捐赠) all they could to help us to get back on our feet. There were more clothes, furniture, food money, and even some books for me to read. Love was around us.

    Looking back now I am thankful for all we went through that summer because it taught me so much about life, love and people. It showed me that when you have nothing left but love, for the first time you see that love is enough.

Two months ago, my husband's hand was badly hurt after an accident at work. Then we had to, drive to the hospital to do the physical therapy(治疗)for his hand three times a week.

Today while we were driving to the hospital. We saw a young man standing in the strong and cold winds. We stopped and asked if he needed a ride. He gladly accepted and jumped into the back seat. His name was Dan and he wasn't going far.

As we dropped him off, we noticed he had many large piles (堆) of cut wood in his yard. We asked if he was interested in selling any. He said," Oh, you can just come by anytime, even if I'm not here and take all you want." We asked how much it would cost for a trunk load (一箱). He answered," It's free. We have more than we'll ever use. So just come by and get it anytime. Thanks for the ride and have a great day!"

We still wanted to pay for it and would only get it when someone was home, but he just kept saying what he already told us.

Dan just wanted to repay (回报) us with the wood, never knowing how much that would mean to us because my husband isn't able to chop any wood for us this winter.