I've learned that you have to make the choice if you want to get anywhere. If you just let other people decide what is going to happen for you, then all your goals and dreams may never be achieved.

    Everyone always says that studying abroad in college can change your life. I made the decision to experience it for myself during my junior year. I chose to study in the Dominican Republic. As it got closer to the deadline, an advisor told me I had received a scholarship from an alumni (校友) family foundation.

    During my first semester in the country I fell in love. I was becoming bilingual (双语的) but also learning so much about a new culture. I had begun working with a local grassroots organization, taking part in a project supporting an underdeveloped community just outside the city. My main role was to become aware of the issues facing populations such as these and support community education. I was in no way ready to leave this new life. I felt as if I needed more time to get what I wanted.

    As the next semester began, I realized again that I needed to take a chance. I got involved with a local boarding school for girls living in poverty. I first approached the head of the school to volunteer to teach music classes, asking for money from my college church. I could have never predicted the results of this small action. Another volunteer and I were able to put together a benefit (义演) to show off what the students had learned. We invited community members, friends and other students from local universities to support the girls. We also sold art that the students themselves had created to increase the funding (资助) of the arts program. I felt good when I left, knowing that I had laid the foundation for a good cause and bettered the lives of young girls.

    There will always be people that think they know what is best for you, but you ultimately know what you want in life. My time in the Dominican Republic changed my life by giving me the realization of how fortunate I am and the fact that there is always a chance to give back. You have to go after anything and everything you desire or there may be a missed opportunity. My trip to Santo Domingo taught me to take advantage of new possibilities.

    All people need to sleep. Sleep is a restorative(恢复健康的) process that promotes proper body functioning and can improve the quality of your life. Not only is the quantity of sleep important, but also the quality of sleep.

    Your bedroom should be shaped to your taste and allow you to sleep in a peaceful environment. One of the biggest mistakes people make in their sleep is to use the bedroom for activities other than sleep. If your bedroom also functions as a command station for your life and work, the possibility of your sleep being poor is rather high. Bedrooms should be designed, decorated and used for sleep only. TVs, computers and other things should not be in your bedroom if possible.

    Establishing regular sleeping and waking times can help improve the quality of your sleep especially for those suffering from sleeplessness. Avoid hot food, caffeine, sugar and alcohol at least 4 to 6 hours before you go to bed. Develop a regular exercise program. Proper exercise and nutrition will help improve sleep patterns. However, avoid exercising 2 hours before bed, since this may stimulate your body and make it more difficult to fall asleep.

    Establish a pre-bedtime rule that will help you focus on sleep. You can try meditation(沉思), reading or deep breathing and relaxation. Your bedtime rule should be yours. Do not worry about it fitting into a specific category. Do what is best for you.

    Things such as room temperature, noise and light levels and even your bed mattress(床垫) can have a lot of effect on the quality of sleep that you experience. Block out distracting noises and lights. You are in your bedroom to sleep and not be distracted by environmental interference(干扰).

    Reality TV show has been charged with making the nation silly, but a study suggests part of the show could be good for children.

    Massey University PhD student Jacinta Hawkins looked at the influence of TV programs on kids' health knowledge, attitudes and behavior. She said programs which showed overweight people on TV is making children say "I don't want to grow up like that'."

    The research was part of Ms Hawkins' paper on how schools improve health. She spoke to 92 children, ages from 7 to 13, from six Auckland primary schools to find out how they received information on nutrition and physical activity. Some said they learnt from TV news programs, but most of them mentioned reality shows such as Fat Chance, Honey We're Killing the Kids and Downsize Me.

    "Earlier studies had looked at the effect junk-food advertising had on children," Ms Hawkins said, "but messages within TV programs had not been explored. Children from the six schools largely recognized program content, rather than advertising, as a source of food and physical activity messages. They are learning habits of eating and exercise from TV programs. "

    The children also recognized that their parents had a role to play in shaping health behavior. Talking about Honey We're Killing the Kids, which shows how people will look if they continue with good habits, children said they developed attitudes from their family's habits. MMs Hawkins said children remembered what they had seen and thought it was the parents' duty to lead by example.

    Why elephants rarely get cancer is a mystery that has confused scientists for decades. A study was led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and Arizona State University, including researchers from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation may have found the answer. According to the results, elephants have 38 additional modified copies of a gene (基因) that encodes p53, a well-defined tumor (肿瘤) suppressor, as compared to humans, who have only two. Further, elephants may have a more powerful mechanism for killing damaged cells that are at risk for becoming cancerous. In isolated elephant cells, this activity is doubled compared to healthy human cells, and five times that of cells from patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, who have only one working copy of p53 and more than a 90 percent lifetime cancer risk in children and adults. The results suggest extra p53 could explain elephants' increased resistance to cancer.

    "Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer. It's up to us to learn how different animals overcome the problem so we can adapt those strategies to prevent cancer in people," says co-senior author Joshua Schiffman, M.D., pediatric oncologist (肿瘤学家) at Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, and Primary Children's Hospital.

    According to Schiffman, elephants have long been considered a walking problem. Because they have 100 times as many cells as people, they should be 100 times more likely to have a cell slip into a cancerous state and cause the disease over their long life span of 50 to 70 years. And yet it's believed that elephants get cancer less often, a theory confirmed in this study. Analysis of a large database of elephant deaths estimates a cancer death rate of less than 5 percent compared to 11 to 25 percent in people.

    My teacher held up a piece of broken glass and asked, "Who broke this window?"

    Thirty boys tried to think about not only what they had done, but also what our teacher may have found out. She seldom became angry, but she was this time.

    "Oh," I thought. I was the one who broke the window. It was caused by a naughty throw of a baseball. If I admitted guilt, I would be in a lot of trouble. How would I be able to pay for a big window like that? I didn't even get an allowance. "My father is going to have a fit." I thought. I didn't want to raise my hand, but some force much stronger than I was pulled it skyward. I told the truth. "I did it." It was hard enough to say what I had.

    My teacher took down a book from one of our library shelves and I had never known my teacher to strike a student, but I feared she was going to start with me.

    "I know how you like bird," she said as she stood looking down at my guilt-ridden face. "Here is that field guide about birds that you are constantly checking out. It is yours now. It's time we got a new one for the school anyway. You will not be punished as long as you remember that I am not rewarding you for your misdeed, I am rewarding you for your truthfulness."

I couldn't believe it! I wasn't being punished and I was getting my own bird field guide—the very one that I had been saving up money to buy.

    All that remains of that day is my memory and the lesson my teacher taught me. That lesson stays with me every day, and it will echo forever.

    I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let's take a look at three types of "waits".

    The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it's full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

    A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of self-control. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup required a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. "Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer(用文火炖）three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes." I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.

    Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

    Turning one's life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn't come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

    We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you're standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you'll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don't be desperate. You're probably just as busy as the next guy.