A couple of years ago I graduated from art school. After graduation I was unsure of what to do with my degree. I had majored in Illustration（插画专业）and loved it，but didn't really feel interested in doing illustrations for any companies. This left me with few options other than freelance（自由职业的）jobs and nannying.

I spent two years working as a nanny doing freelance illustrations on the side. It just wasn't quite enough to pay rent, but I loved it, so I worked well over 50 hours a week, trying to keep up with both.

Just under a year ago I went to a friend's wedding. I couldn't think of a gift for them and really didn't have a lot of money to spare so I used my talents to create a portrait for them. It wasn't much, but I hoped it would be a good gift. When I handed the portrait to them and they unwrapped it, the looks on their faces were something I did not expect. There were joyful tears in their eyes as they cried, "That's us! This is so beautiful!"

It's funny because when I was in art school portraits were always my least favourite assignment. I hated drawing people and was always so much more interested in drawing little furry creatures. Once I saw the looks on my friends' faces after giving them their portrait, it was all over. I suddenly loved portraits and wanted to do more.

I now take portraits to every wedding I go to and have given them as gifts to the families I nannied for. Every time the reaction makes all of the hard work and time I put into them so worth it.

I' ve just started offering couple, family and pet portraits as an item on my Etsy shop.

I was entering the underground parking lot when I heard a little girl shouted “Mama, Mama!” I looked around and saw the girl in a car alone. I went over to ask her how was the matter. She said she needed to go to the washroom badly. I tell the girl to get out and I would take him to the washroom. She was very gladly and ran with me to the washroom. After she washed her hand, I took her back to car. Still, her mom didn’t come. I really hoped the girl would tell her mom what had been happened to her. But next time the mom wouldn’t leave her little daughter in the car on herself.

   At home, ordering food from a menu is a normal routine, I don’t even give it a second thought. In China, it’s a whole other story! Here, ordering is a fun game of test and error, and the adventure begins before the food is even served!

Many restaurants in central Beijing advertise “English language menus”, but the translations can just add to the confusion. Although accompanying pictures can be a helpful relief, the translations often make the whole experience even more amusing. During my first few weeks in China I tried some delicious dishes with strange names. As an experiment, my friends and I would order things like “students addicted to chicken gristle（软骨）” and “red burned lion head”. Eventually we learned that “lion head” was actually pork, and “students” were “addicted” to diced（切成丁的）chicken with green pepper. Recently, I came across a busy restaurant down a narrow side street in a Beijing hutong. It was lunchtime and the small room was packed with people sitting on small stools eating noodles. I was hungry and cold, and the steaming bowls looked irresistible! I sat myself down and called out for a “caidan!” In response, the waitress pointed to a wall at the back of the restaurant. The wall was full of Chinese characters describing numerous dishes. There was only one sentence in English: “crossing over the bridge noodles”.

I had never heard of the dish and had no idea what it would taste like. I took a gamble and ordered one bowl of “crossing over the bridge noodles”. A few minutes later the waitress carried a heavy bowl full of broth（肉汤）and I quickly dug in. It was the best bowl of noodles I had ever tasted! I have been back again and again and each time I point at the one English sentence—“crossing over the bridge noodles”. I always enter a restaurant in China feeling excited and a little nervous. Who knows what the next ordering adventure will show?

   When a mom attended school to help her disabled son, her son and the school thanked her in the sweetest way. It wasn't until after his college years that Marty became disabled after __down stairs. When her son __to get his MBA, Judy O'Connor attended every class with him to help him write and __. Every day, Judy would sit by Marty in class, taking notes to make sure of __specific requests, raising her hand so he could answer questions, and silently writing down his __on test days. "After a little while, we found that working together we could __a great deal, " Marty says.

On graduation day at Chapman University, Judy was dressed in black to mix in with the other __. Little did she know she'd soon be the center of __. When Marty's name was called, his mom helped __him to the front of the stage, ___for a picture with Marty as he received his diploma. Over the loudspeaker, a（n）___was made in a voice ___with happy tears: The university was giving Judy an honorary（荣誉的）MBA. " A lump came to my throat. I was proud of my son and ___to be honored, " says Judy.

The mother and the son had joked that Judy was putting in enough work to earn her own ___. To Marty, there was no question that his mom,a retired elementary school teacher with a business degree, had ___earned her honorary MBA.

Perhaps just as important, Judy gave Marty ___. Life as Marty knew it before the ___may have changed, but he encourages anyone in a ___situation to keep up hope. " Just keep an open mind, ___you can make your diversity your advantage and take challenges as a（n）___for growth in your life," he says.