A few days ago my family and I were out for an evening walk. As we headed home, dark 1 started rolling in and we knew we probably wouldn't make it back without getting wet. 2 enough, the rain started falling just as we3our neighborhood. We all 4 down the street and into the house but when we got there I noticed that one of my sons was5I went back out in the rain and found him  6 in an irregular pattern in front of the house. His face was one of 7as he seemed to be going in circles. This is my child that usually hates getting 8.

    I shouted to him, “What are you doing?!!”

    “I hate getting wet!” he 9 back.

    “Then why are you running around in the 10 ? Hurry inside!”

    “I'm trying to but I have to 11 the rain drops!”

    He was getting more wet than any of the rest of us12 he was trying to avoid the raindrops. As I went and put him 13 my arm and walked him inside, I realized that there is a good14in this story.

    How often do you15life “avoiding the raindrops”? How often do you get so worried about the little 16that might happen, the failures that you miss out on the great 17 that you could be having? We can spend all of our time running around in circles trying not to fail or we can accept that failure is going to come and 18forward anyway. Any happy and successful person will tell you that the road to success is 19with failures.

    But every time you fail, you learn. Every time you learn, you improve. The more you improve, the more20 you will be.

A Leap(跳跃) to Honor

    Leaping on a narrow balance beam(平衡木) is not easy. But Lola Walter, a 13­year­old gymnast, is an expert at it.

    To perfect her skills, Lola 1 for four hours a day, five days a week. At the state championships in March, she finished seventh out of 16 girls.

    That's especially impressive,2 she is legally blind, born with a rare condition that causes her eyes to shift(移动) constantly. She often sees double and can't 3 how far away things are.

    When she was little, her mom 4 that even though she couldn't see 5 ， she was fearless. So her mom signed her up for gymnastics when she was three. She loved the 6 right away and gymnastics became her favorite.

    Though learning gymnastics has been more 7 for her than for some of her teammates, she has never quit. She doesn't let her 8 stop her from doing anything that she wants to.

    She likes the determination it takes to do the sport. Her biggest 9 is the balance beam. Because she has double vision, she often sees two beams. She must use her sense of touch to help her during her routine. Sometimes she even closes her eyes. “You have to 10 your mind that it'll take you where you want to go，” says Lola.

    To be a top­level gymnast, one must be brave. The beam is probably the most 11 for anyone because it's four inches wide. At the state competition, Lola didn't fall 12the beam. In fact, she got an 8.1 out of 10—her highest score yet.

    Lola doesn't want to be 13 differently from the other girls on her team. At competitions, the judges don't know about her vision 14. She doesn't tell them, because she doesn't think they need to know. Her mom is amazed by her 15 attitude.

    Lola never thinks about 16. She is presently at level 7 while the highest is level 10 in gymnastics. Her 17 is to reach level 9. She says she wants to be a gymnastics coach to pass down what she's learned to other kids 18 she grows up.

    Lola is 19 of all her hard work and success. She says it's helped her overcome problems in her life outside gymnastics too. Her 20 for other is “just believe in yourself”.

    Mike was cycling along a road in Canada's Yukon, halfway through a 2,750-mile bike tour to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. He was carrying a 30-pound camping bag,1 he wasn't moving very fast. Suddenly he heard loud breathing behind him. “Man, that's a big dog!” he thought. He looked to the side, but to his great 2 , he saw, that it wasn't a dog, but a wolf, running hard to 3  him.

    Mike's heart jumped. He reached for the 4 from his bag. With one hand on the handlebar, he 5  the spray. A bright red cloud 6 the wolf in time, and it fell back, shaking its head. But a minute later it was by his side again. He sprayed a second time, and the wolf fell back again, but only to quickly restart its 7 .

    The wolf was getting closer and closer, 8 a dozen yards away. Mike waved and yelled at passing motorists, but meanwhile 9  hard. He knew clearly that he must be 10not to slow down. Otherwise, he would become a 11 of the wolf.

    Paul and Becky were driving along the same road. From a distance, they spotted what they 12  was a dog running after a man on a bike. As they get  13, they realized it was a wolf.

Mike heard a car coming up behind him, and he slowed down. The car veered around the  14 , and then suddenly stopped in front of him. Mike15  off his bike and dashed for the back   16  of the car. It was locked. Paul quickly 17 the door so as to let Mike in, and the  18  man dived in, shutting the door behind him.

    It was quite a while 19 Mike became calm and cried out: “I thought I was going to die!” And Paul and Becky were 20  that they had given a helping hand to people in need.

    I used to live selfishly, I should admit. But one moment changed me. I was on my lunch break and had 1 the office to get something to eat. On the way, I 2 a Busker (街头艺人), with a hat in front of him. I had some 3 in my pocket, but I would not give them to him, thinking to myself he would 4 use the money to feed his addiction (上瘾)to drugs or alcohol. He 5 like that type …young and ragged. 6 what was I going to spend the money on? Only to feed my addiction to Coca-Cola or chocolate! I then 7 I had no right to place myself above 8 just because he was busking.

I 9 and dropped all the coins into his 10, and he smiled at me, I watched for a while. As 11 as it sounds, I expected something more to come from that moment—a feeling of12 or satisfaction, for example. But nothing happened. 13, I walked off. "It proved to be a waste of 14," I thought.

    On my way home at the end of the 15, I saw the busker again and he was 16. I watched him pick up the hat and walk 17 a cafe counter. There he  poured the 18 money into a tin collecting 19 an earthquake fund-raising (募捐) event. He was busking for charity (慈善)!

    Now I donate any 20 I have to charity tins and enjoy the feeling of giving.

    On March 25, 2010, Kate and David heard the words every parent dreads: Their newborn wasn't going to make it. Their twins- a girl and a boy- were born two minutes apart and 14 weeks premature, weighing just over two pounds each. Doctors had 1 to save the boy for 20 minutes but saw no 2. His heartbeat was nearly gone, and he'd stopped breathing. The baby had just moments to live.

    "I saw him gasp(喘息), but the doctor said it was no 3 ," Kate told the Daily Mail. "I know it sounds 4 , but if he was still gasping, that was a sign of 5 . I wasn't going to give up easily."  6 , the couple knew this was likely goodbye. In an effort to 7 her last minute with the 8 boy, Kate asked to hold him.

    Kate 9 the boy from his hospital blanket and ordered David to 10 his shirt and join them in bed. The first-time parents wanted their son to be as 11 as possible and hoped the skin-to-skin contact would   12 his condition. "We were trying to make him 13 ." Kate said. "We explained his name and that he had a 14 that he had to look out for and how hard we had tried to help him."

    A 15 showed itself eventually, Jamie gasped again-and then he started 16 . "We were the 17 people in the world," David told today.

    Now, the twins are happy and healthy. The Oggs only recently told the kids the story of their 18 . "Emily burst into 19." Kate said. "She was really upset, and she kept 20 Jamie. This whole experience makes you cherish them more."

This wasn't the way I wanted to see Rome. Sure, it felt  1 to spend Christmas there and stand in awe of the city's attractions. But life wasn't meant to turn out like this. 

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 

2012. However, life had different  2 . A week before our trip, I got a stomach infection, a condition that required a week of  3 . What's worse, my mom  4 a cough, which later proved a stage-four cancer. 

My mom spent the final months of her life5 the terrible disease though it was a losing 6 . After she passed away, I 7 a trip to Rome. And 8 , you never get used to a world that mom isn't a part of. You just deal with it because you don't really have a  9 . 

I spent two weeks doing all the things we had wanted to do. Maybe she wasn't physically there, but I  10 her presence every minute. Her presence also11 me that life isn't about the things we buy or the money that we have. It's about making 12 with the people we love. They never really 13 us since they are constantly influencing our lives in  14 ways. 

After my trip to Rome, 15 knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way.