During my school days, I was one of those shy and distant kids who would just sit in a corner for an entire day. For me, my books were my _____ world. Even during breaks, I used to sit in a corner of the _____ and see others play games. It was not because I wasn’t interested in _____ others or making new friends, but because I always felt lacking in energy when _____ others. I always had an opinion that if I attempted to be close to new _____ I would be rejected. And I just didn’t want to _____ a rejection.

Once during my English class, my teacher shared a(n) _____ with us. It was about King Bruce and a spider. Although having lost a battle, King Bruce _____ in the end as he was _____ by a little spider. The way the spider dealt with rejections ______ me a lot. I myself started ______ the movements of spiders at home. Once, a spider took around an hour to reach the top of a wall and I ______ knocked it down. To my ______, within seconds it started making its ______ up again.

For me, this ______ was a game changer. I realized that rejections are ______ a failure. The world may treat me ______, but I can stand up and start working again. There will be a time when people would like and ______ me. At present, I ______ mixing with people, learning new things and making new friends. I think there are just no such things as rejections or failures as everything can ______ at any moment.

   As a waitress I have met and seen all types of people. I think it is _____ that brings us all together. I was about to _____ my job one afternoon and go home when a family came in.

As they sat down, they _____ that they were on their way home. And they added they just had enough money to buy their children only a _____ snack and that all they needed was _____ I showed them a few things on the menu and _____ them what they would like.

As I walked away to _____ their order, I just couldn’t _____ to see this family leaving,_____ with just a snack and some water!______ , I asked some of the other waitresses to ______ me in helping this family. They ______ because they knew I was kind when it came to ______ others. It made them feel good too. So I ______ to the table and told them that they could order what they wanted because it would be paid by some ______ strangers. At first, they didn’t know what to say, but then they looked at the ______ to see what was on offer. They then ______ accepted the meal and said “Thanks” with smiles.

When they left, all I could see was the ______ on their faces. With tears in my eyes, I wished them a ______ trip. I learnt that with every kind ______ , you can get to know a person, and the feeling it gives flows both ways.

   Years ago my three-year-old son, Jeremy, and I walked to our car. He _______ me with excitement. I found he was holding a _______ in his little hand. I hadn’t given it to him, so I asked, “Where did you get that?” He _______ to the store we’d just _______. But we hadn’t paid for it.

I had a lot of things to do that day, but taking _______ of this moment to teach character to my son just moved to the _______ of my to-do list. I sat him in the front seat next to me in the car without _______ it, so the two of us could talk. I _______ to him that we couldn’t just take things from stores without _______ them. When he realized he’d done wrong, tears ________ up in his eyes. I looked at my ________ boy and said, “Here’s what we have to do. We have to go back to the ________. I want you to tell the manager that you took it, and you’re sorry.” We walked back to the store, and I asked for the ________. “My son has something to tell you,” I told her. Jeremy ________ the toy and said, “I took this, and I’m sorry.” The manager ________ it beautifully, and a little boy learned an important ________.

My son is now 40, with children of his own, but he still clearly ________ that day. And, now, I’m so ________ that those character traits I tried to teach him took ________ in his heart and life. He’s now teaching them to my beloved ________.

We can impact our world by teaching our children character-by being examples of them.

   Mistakes are a part of life. To err is human. Failure is also a part of life, not the end of life. Be happy facing life’s challenges. When you make the effort to be happy and to improve your life, you are actually rewarded along the way.

Life is like a game and maybe you can award (奖励) points for every effort that has been a success for you. Try it. Add ten points for every achievement. And when you have reached 50 points, just yell, “ Hey, I’ve won!” and give yourself a reward. If you happen to have missed your points for whatever reason, tell yourself, “Well, I tried!” which is better than not trying at all. Don’t let it be said you didn’t try.

What is it that you want to make yourself happy? Actually happiness means different things to different people. For example, an athlete will be happy winning his first race. For a new mother happiness would be seeing her baby’s first steps. Happiness for a poor person would mean having a meal just for today. So happiness for you is really something simple that you want for yourself.

It really doesn’t have to be big. As a matter of fact you should always have realistic expectations. Make the best out of every given situation. If you expect a certain result from a situation and it does not happen, don’t get despondent. This just means trying harder next time. We all have in us the power to succeed. Don’t let “ give up ” be a part of your vocabulary.

   Society tells us that we should count our blessings, focus on all that we have and feel grateful for what we’ve been given. But there is nothing wrong with “healthy discontent”. In fact, healthy discontent is what motivates us to improve ourselves and our circumstances. Without this feeling, life’s easier to stand still.

I always have a certain level of discomfort. That discomfort drives me to work hard at my job. I don’t just want to remain where I am. Professionally, I want to keep getting better. Likewise, I always have a certain amount of discontent with my home. That drives me to always try to improve it by making it look better.

My feelings of discontent with my job and my home don’t mean that I don’t appreciate them. It’s an incredible blessing to be able to work and be paid for one’s efforts. Similarly, if you live in a safe place, with running water, heating, and air conditioning, you are incredibly fortunate. These are not the things to be taken for granted. However, we should be striving (力争) to improve.

If you happen to be good at playing the piano, you should work to continually improve your skills. The same holds true for our personal development. If you have areas in your personality that need improvement, you should work on them, too.

For instance, I can be very impatient. As a result, I work hard to try to conquer that flaw (缺点) by keeping my impatience to myself. When we feel discontent with ourselves, we have to be honest with ourselves.

It’s easy to make excuses for our bad behavior, but we need to face our discontent and say to ourselves, “I need to work on this.” This week, consider whether you have healthy discontent in your life. Have you become so settled in your life that you don’t see regular improvement?

Do you have a character flaw that you wish you didn’t have? Don’t ignore these things. Instead, take steps to address your areas of discontent and keep improving your life every day. No matter how great we think things are going, there’s always room for improvement.