When I spent the summer with my grandmother, she always sent me to a store with a long shopping list. How could I hope to find all these things? In the store, there was a tall lady with black glasses on her nose. There wasn't a smile on her face.

    “Excuse me,” I said. She looked down and said, “I'm Miss Bee.”

    “I need to get these.” I said, holding up my list. “So? Go to get them. ” Miss Bee pointed to some shelves. “There's no one here, only you and me, so get yourself a basket and get all these things yourself.”

    That summer I visited Miss Bee twice a week. Sometimes she gave me wrong change. One afternoon I corrected her, “That bag of beans is only twenty-nine cents!”She just looked at me over her glasses and changed the price. Going to the store was more like going into battle. I got into the store just like General Patton getting into North Africa.

    Soon I learned how to find the product on the shelf… At the end of the summer, the shopping trip only took me 15 minutes. Before I left, I stopped in the store to get some candy.

    “All right, little girl,” she said. “What did you learn this summer?” Before I could answer. Miss Bee laughed and said, “I know what you think of me. Well, I don't care! My job is to teach every child some life lessons. When you get older you'll be glad you ever met Miss Bee. Haha!...”

    I didn't think of her words. Years passed, one day my daughter came to me with her homework. “It's too hard,” she said. “Could you finish my math problems for me?”

    “If I do it for you, how will you ever learn to do it yourself?” I said. Suddenly, I was back at that store and I knew what I learned from the old lady that summer.