My friend and I were at a restaurant in Berkeley for an evening meal, when all of a sudden, we decided to do a small act of kindness. We were to use the ______card to make someone’s day and hoped that would send more ______ out into the world.

Being at a ______, we decided to pay for someone else ______ and see what would happen. We both got ______ with the idea and decided to do that.

We looked around for which ______ we should pay for, and then chose one—it seemed like an immigrant (移民) family with a few children, ______ their snacks at that time. I could ______ a family bond between them and that they were having a nice time together. We called the waitress to ______   the idea to her.

We showed her the smile card and told her we wanted to pay for that ______. We made sure she knew that we wanted to be anonymous (匿名的). She was ______ and got super excited, saying how   ______ generosity has become in the day-to-day commercial lifestyle, which made us further ______.

Soon after, we left—feeling excited and grateful to get an opportunity to ______ smiles. It is hard to explain how it felt in the moment, but it ______ felt special—not because I was“______” someone, but because I felt ______ to various people whom I didn’ t even know—the waitress and the family.

I don’t know what ______ next, how the family felt and ______ or how the waitress experienced the situation— ______ I am sure it brought a few smiles to a few people, including myself.

He was already asleep. His bag stood ready by the backdoor. His pencil box was filled with ________ sharpened (削尖的) pencils. A big day _______   ahead. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about his new ________ in the morning. My baby was off to high school.

I thought back to his first day of kindergarten (幼儿园). How he ran in ________ to the bus as my heart broke, how his smiling face in the window caused my tears to flow. I thought about how ________ it was to let go of his hand and let him fly ________ for the first time. But this time, I found it was even harder.

Kindergarten is Mother’s Day gifts made with handprints. High school is a funny ________ and a “Love you, Ma.” Kindergarten is excited talks about his day. High school is just “My day was ________, Ma.”

Kindergarten is the ________. High school is the beginning of the end. You know that your time with him at home will become less and less. The moments where your family will always feel ________ at the end of the day are coming to an end. I’ve raised him to ________ us. I’ve raised him to be independent (独立的).

As I watched him ________ the bus to high school, my eyes filled with tears again and my heart ached more deeply than it did on his first day of kindergarten. The bus ________, and my eyes met his. He gave a quick wave (挥手) and ________, “Love you.” And then he made a silly face, and he wanted his mom to go back into the house now and set her mind at _______. I waved back and laughed. High school, here we come.

On a warm summer evening in western New York when I was seven, my dad and I were eating watermelon on our patio(露台).

My brother always swallowed the watermelon seeds, but I saved mine ______ a pile on the edge of the plate. “Do you think ______ I plant these in the ground a watermelon will grow?” I asked my dad. “Sure!” he replied.

The next day was Saturday. My dad popped his head through the side door of the garage as I was ______ six small holes in the soil. “Are you going to grow that watermelon?” he asked.

“Sure I’m!” I replied. It was only 8:30am, ______ the watermelon had the entire day to come up.

An hour later, I ran to ______ I planted the seeds to see if the watermelon had grown. Believe it or not, there was not ______ a sprout(幼芽). An hour later I checked again. Still nothing. While I was eating lunch, my dad was ______ outside the house and called to me, “Mary! Come here!” I ran outside very fast.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I just wanted to let you know that the watermelon hasn’t grown ______.” He did this over and over, ______ I finally started to ignore him when he called me.

After a few days, I put the watermelon plant out of my ______ and continued with the other important ______ of being seven, ______ suddenly my mother called me from my bedroom. “Mary! Come outside!” I went out and ______ her calls to the side of the house. ______ there, stood a perfect green watermelon that had obviously grown directly from the ground. My dad stood next to her, pretending to be amazed at my ______ thumb. “It’s unbelievable! We’ll have a party!”

Later that evening, several of the neighbors came over to our “patio”. We cut ______ the watermelon, and Dad made it ______ that I was a superstar for growing this ______ fruit. I was too ______ and too naïve (天真) to notice that the ______ tag was still on it.