I remember a time when I learned the true meaning of forgiveness. It was a period in my life that tested my patience and my ability to understand others.

It all started when I was in middle school. I had a close friend named Emily, and we spent a lot of time together. One day, Emily introduced me to a new girl in our class, named Olivia. Olivia was quiet and shy, but we quickly became friends as well.

One afternoon, after school, we were all working on a project in the classroom. As we were discussing our ideas, Olivia suddenly exclaimed out something that completely contradicted what I had been saying. I was shocked and felt a little embarrassed. I tried to explain my point of view, but Olivia was very stubborn and insisted on her own idea.

Emily, who was sitting next to me, tried to mediate (调节) the situation. But Olivia got angry and said some unkind words to me. I was hurt and angry, and I couldn’t believe that Olivia would treat me like that. I stormed out of the classroom, leaving Emily and Olivia behind.

The next few days were very difficult for me. I avoided Olivia as much as possible, and our friendship with Emily seemed to be stressed. I felt like I had been betrayed by Olivia, and I couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing.

One day, I asked Emily why she was still friends with Olivia after what she had done. Emily looked at me with a sad expression and said, “You know, Olivia has been through a lot lately. Her parents are going through a divorce, and she’s really struggling. Maybe she was rude to you because she was feeling overwhelmed and insecure.”

Hearing this, I felt a surge of guilt. I realized that I hadn’t taken the time to understand Olivia’s situation. I had been too quick to judge her and too focused on my own feelings of hurt. I decided to talk to Olivia and apologize for my behavior.

When I found Olivia, she was sitting alone in the hallway.

Olivia accepted my apology and we had a long conversation.

No two people are exactly alike, and even best friends disagree sometimes.

I still remembered the first time I met Karina at a summer camp, we got along so great. It was as if we’d known each other forever.

I really liked plantain chip (植蕉片), which had little appeal for other kids. So when I noticed some in Karina’s lunchbox as I sat next to her on the first day of the camp, I was surprised. Equally surprised was Karina since plantain chips were her favorite snack.

“Well, then I guess today’s your lucky day,” she said, handing me the bag. “I have a big box that’s taking up space in the cupboard. So, see, you’d actually be helping me out!”

“Well, in that case, thanks!” I laughed. “I am happy to help.”

And right then I knew that Karina and I were meant to be friends forever. Whenever we got to pick a partner at camp, we picked each other. Whenever we had a break, we hung out together. And the more time we spent together, the more we realized how amazingly alike we were. We both had two adorable cats, we both had awesome and sometimes annoying younger brothers, we both liked baking extra-creative cookies, and we both had the same favorite song.

Then something happened. The camp was next to a piece of beautiful land that had a bunch of giant old trees on it. Whenever it was nice out, we’d get to eat our lunch at picnic tables that were right by some of those trees. We’d feed squirrels and play with them. One day when looking up, we spotted large numbers of holes in a trunk, which were made by woodpeckers (啄木鸟) to store nuts. I fell in love with the amazing scene!

But somehow things got different when news came that those giant old trees would be cut down to make room for a shopping center. It was like a stone with its waves and our friendship was on the rocks.

We disagreed with each other and had a heated argument.

Several days later, again we were asked to pick a partner.

As a sixth grader, I found it hard to fit in and make friends.

Our teacher had assigned (布置) “secret friends” for the coming week. She wrote each kid’s name on a piece of paper and threw them into a glass; then we each closed our eyes and picked out one. By the middle of the week, everyone had turned this assignment into a competition to see whose secret friend could leave the best gift. It seemed that everyone was getting cool presents from their friend except me.

On the last morning of our assignment, I walked into my classroom and noticed a package with a box of powder (胭脂粉). The girls sitting near me laughed at the gift I had received. What’s worse, the powder had already been opened.

I tried to forget about the embarrassing gift, but when I was in the bathroom during the break, the girls started speaking ill of my secret friend of giving it to me. I quickly joined in. “How terrible,” I heard myself saying, “What could my friend be thinking by giving me such a stupid gift? My grandmother wouldn’t even want it.” The girls laughed at my remarks (评论) and rushed out of the bathroom. I stayed to wash my hands and let water run through my fingers as I thought about what I had just said. It wasn’t normal like me to say mean (刻薄的) things like that about someone.

Then I saw my classmate Janet come out of a bathroom booth(厕所隔间), tears streaming down her face. She shouted at me with anger, “If you don’t want my gift, you can just leave it instead of laughing at it. This is the best powder from my mum!”

Hearing Janet’s words, I made up my mind to say sorry to her.