Having been a teacher for 25 years, I think I’ve taught my students the importance of good citizenship, to play by the ______. But most of the time, I embrace my role as a pupil.

One morning when I reached the intersection before my school, traffic was at a standstill (停). What was really ______ was that I could see the school.

Up ahead, the turn lane into the school’s parking lot was ______. If I could just turn to the right, the only thing between me and the turn lane was a long stretch of field. As I sat in my motionless vehicle, I heard that field call to me. I ______ the car out of the line of traffic and headed for the freedom of that open land ______ I heard a wail of siren (警笛) from behind.

An officer came up to me, and I handed him my ______ without even looking up. He glanced at it, and asked, “What’s going on, Madam?”

I started murmuring. “Well, I overslept, and…” Here my voice ______ a sad, pleading tone, the very quality I advise my students to ______--“I just wanted to get to school. I have to…”

“So you’re a teacher?” he ______.

“Yes, and I need…”

A car drove by, and I recognized one of my eighth-graders waving at me, ______ my name, pointing me out to his mother. As she drove by, I heard the police officer say it: “You wanted to be ______ because you’re a good teacher. “ At that point he paused before adding, “You were when I had you.”

And then I did look at him. I read the name badge on his chest. A ______ 7th-- grade student of mine. All grown up. Keeping people safe. Trying to keep me safe ______ myself.

He gave me a ______--not too different from ones I’d given him years ago--and sent me on my way. And at last I arrived at my classroom, wondering what I would ______ next.

Memory likes to play tricks on us. Sometimes it ________   us to places we once loved but haven‟t seen in years.

It was an early morning. I was sleeping when something _______ me up. It was my grandson Henry bouncing （蹦跳） his way down to the kitchen to “cook breakfast”.

I suddenly thought about cookies, the perfections my grandmother made. They were as _____   as a baby‟s smile. We‟d _______   them in butter and jam made with blackberries I picked myself.

That‟s _____   life was like on my grandmother‟s farm — ______   berries, milking cows...

What more could a child ever want? I loved it. I _______ loved those cookies.

I learned a lot from my grandmother. How to read. How to sit in a swing at the end of a day and just be _______ with everything.

But I never learned how to make cookies her way. I‟ve made them _______ various cookbooks. They‟re not bad, but not half as good as ______ were. My kids would wolf them down. They weren‟t _______ about the cookies, but they loved butter and jam.

I rolled out of bed and went downstairs to ______ my grandchild and made some cookies. They weren‟t great cookies, but they were good enough. We covered them in butter and jam. Henry ate two and kept _______ my cookies with greedy smile ______   I gave him half. Maybe someday he‟ll say they were the best cookies ever.

The ______ we leave with our children and grandchildren—like the cookies we make—are never made with ___. They‟re just made with _____ Love makes everything better, even