I first “met” Wang Jian through the documentary From Mao to Mozart, an award-winning account of the musical journey taken by violinist Isaac Stern through China in 1979. In it, eleven-year-old Wang Jian performed in front of one of the most famous artists in the world with confidence and focus. It was a memorable experience.

Many years later, as I was looking through the Haydn section in a record shop one day, an unforgettable face on a CD cover caught my eye. I immediately recognised it as Wang Jian’s and it was quite unexpected. His eyes had remained very much the same as those of the little boy on the stage some twenty years ago. As I was a lover of Cello (大提琴) Concertos, needless to say, his recordings became my favourite.

I was very lucky to find myself a passenger on the same Music Cruise Wang Jian was performing on a few years ago. I still remember experiencing his performance of Schubert’s Arpeggione during a stormy crossing of the Mediterranean. My stomach was trying to deal with the ups and downs of the sea, while he fought his own discomfort by sinking (使沉入) himself in his performance. Of course, it is the best Arpeggione I have ever heard.

I was once told that an artist can be an extremely different person from the music he or she plays. I used to doubt that, but after several experiences, I’ve reconsidered this opinion. I still remember a Russian pianist, extremely talented, with whom I had a drink following his concert. The memory of his superficial (肤浅的) conversation paired with rude laughter still frightens me.

But Wang Jian is different. I found him to be just the person his beautiful music would suggest. He plays in a simple, clean and sincere way. Despite his success and fame (名声), he remains simple, friendly, and generous — a real gentleman and a well-respected artist.

No one can promise that life will be fair. But no matter what happens, follow the example set by Rehan Staton, and never lose sight of your goal.

Staton, a 24-year-old former sanitation （环卫）worker in Maryland, US, recently celebrated his acceptance into Harvard Law School. Staton's life was relatively normal until a series of setbacks impacted his family life and studies. "Things were pretty good until I was 8 years old. My mom abandoned my dad, my brother and me when she moved back to Sri Lanka," he said. When he was in seventh grade, a teacher even recommended that he be placed in special education classes. His brother Reggie then brainstormed ways to help boost his grades. An aerospace engineer also offered to tutor him free of charge. Staton's grades did improve and he became an honor student.

However, he was rejected by every college he had applied for. So to help support himself and his family, Staton began working at a sanitation company. He spent his days transporting trash and cleaning dustbins, waking up every morning to get dressed around 4 a.m.. “The sanitation workers were the only people in my life who told me I could be somebody," Staton said, "They would say, 'You're too young to be here. Go to college, and come back if it doesn't work out'". The son of the company's owner helped Staton contact a professor at Bowie State University, and the university eventually accepted Staton. Things began to look up. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Maryland to continue pursuing his undergraduate degree. But Staton still struggled to pay for his father's medical bills. He'd work in the morning and take classes in the afternoon.

After graduation, Staton worked at a national consulting firm while applying for law school. He plans to start at Harvard this fall, where he will major in sports law to pursue his dream of becoming a sports agent. "For Rehan, the sky is truly the limit. Whatever he chooses to do in the future, he will definitely achieve," said a chief operating officer of Staton's firm.

For anyone looking for inspiration during difficult times, Staton recommends to “love yourself enough to get what you want out of life," he told news outlet ABC. "You can always see the light in any dark situation, and you need to hold on to that light.”

The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove (煤炉) . A little boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.

One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames (被火焰吞没) . They dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital. His mother was told that he was sure to die. Even if he were to survive, he would be a cripple (瘸子) throughout his life.

But the brave boy did not want to die nor did he want to be a cripple. Much to be the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. But unfortunately from his waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled (悬荡) there, lifeless. Ultimately he was released from the hospital. But his determination to walk was as strong as ever. At home, when he was not in bed, he was limited to a wheelchair. One day, he threw himself from the chair and pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He reached the fence, raised himself up and then stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, and decided that he would walk. He did this every day, with faith in himself that he would be able to walk unaided. With his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk slowly, then to walk by himself and then to run. He began to walk to school, then run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team.

In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run-this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile.