Meet Hagen, a 6-year-old boy who recently celebrated his sixth birthday. Hagen is traveling with his family to Dallas with his amazing Buzz Lightyear(巴斯光年) toy. Traveling with kids is always busy, and the family had other things on their minds, so the tiny toy was unfortunately left behind.

Hagen’s mother said that when they landed, they thought they had gathered all their things and they headed to the taxi. It wasn’t until they were in the taxi that Hagen started crazily asking for his Buzz and his mother quickly realized that they did not have Buzz and he was still on the plane. Hagen was upset because he saw the toy as his best friend.

When the family understood this, it was too late to turn around their car heading for the family gathering as the plane had already departed(启程) for Little Rock, Arkansas. Hagen’s mother knows that losing a toy is never a pleasant feeling, especially for a 6-year-old and the toy is a big talking Buzz Lightyear action figure. So she had to lie that Buzz was on an awesome space task, and Hagen would get reunited with Buzz some day.

Well, LIT Ramp Agent Jason noticed Buzz all alone on the plane and his first idea was that he was probably here on a mission—and a mission did actually happen. Together with another colleague, Beth, Jason found out whose Buzz this was—there was a name on the foot and the airline’s contact information, so it wasn’t too hard—and they took Buzz on an adventure before sending him back.

Jason located Hagen according to name printed on the bottom of Buzz’s boot, ‘Hagen’. Only one passenger had flown on the plane with that name. That allowed them to locate the email of Hagen’s mother from their reservations. Then they posted the amazing pictures that Jason had taken with Buzz on his personal Facebook. The address of Hagen’s mother was given to Jason and he let Hagen’s mother know he’d be mailing him back to them.

When I was a kid, I was always eager to know what was inside the colorful boxes under the Christmas tree. But when that curiosity was satisfied beforehand, fun would be absent.

One Christmas Eve, my sister Tina and I decided to peek at our presents before our mom got home. Since Tina was older, and that put her in charge, she opened the first present while I was ordered to stand guard at the big picture window in our front room. I was to report any suspicious activity or person, namely our mother.

I was so excited that I could barely stand still. I couldn’t keep my eyes on the window very long, either. My head moved from the window to Tina and back to the window again. I felt like I was watching a Ping-Pong match.

“All right!” Tina shouted. She pulled out an empty jewelry box. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

I jumped up and down. “Yeah, it’s my turn!”

“No.” she said. “It means that there must be some jewelry under here.” I watched my sister search through the presents under the tree trying to find one she thought was small enough to be a necklace or earrings

“Hey, that’s not fair!” I protested, stomping my foot

“Are you watching for mom?” was all that she said. I couldn’t do anything except stand guard as she opened present after present. Finally, when she had finished wrapping her last present back up, we traded places.

My heart hammered so hard that it felt like my chest was moving in and out. Tina reminded me to be careful so I wouldn’t tear the wrapping paper.

After unwrapping a few presents, I found it faster to open one end of a present and peek inside. “Cool! Mom and Dad got me headphones (耳机) for my stereo!” I exclaimed as I pulled them out of the box.

I was about to put them on when Tina shouted that Mom was coming.

The next morning, Tina and I pretended to open our presents as if nothing had happened.

Every culture has a specific way of eating. North Americans and Europeans use forks, knives and spoons. In Asia, chopsticks are the top choice.

You might think it’s easy to use chopsticks, but actually it’s not as simple as it first appears. I learned this lesson a couple of years ago.

I had applied for a job with a Chinese-Canadian company in Vancouver. My new boss invited me out to lunch to celebrate my new job. He said we were going to eat in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. I was nervous. I knew we would be using chopsticks, and while I had tried many times to master the technique (技巧). I had failed in every attempt. How would I be able to make a good impression? Would they laugh at me? Would I make a complete fool of myself?

I went home that evening and cooked some rice and chicken. I put the food on my plate, and I spent the next hour attempting to learn how to use chopsticks. Try as I might, I could not hold the food with my chopsticks. I didn’t get much sleep that evening. I tossed and turned (辗转反侧) in bed, worrying about the coming lunch.

The next day, I could hardly contain my anxiety and headed to the restaurant. We were seated at an excellent table. My boss wrote out the food order, speaking to the waiter in Mandarin. My heart was beating wildly, but then I noticed a strange thing. Instead of the customary chopsticks, each of us had knives, forks and spoons.

I was confused at first, but then, it hit me. My boss knew that I would have trouble with the chopsticks. He wanted to save me from embarrassment, so he had called ahead and arranged for us to be served with knives and forks. I couldn’t believe how thoughtful he was.

Immediately, I made up my mind to take this opportunity to learn how to use chopsticks.