Debra Avery has been a horse lover since she was a little girl in San Diego. Her family couldn’t afford a horse of its own, so Debra borrowed rides at the local horse-riding center, gaining the confidence only found atop a horse. Years later, Debra remembered those early days, and the lessons she learned with the horses at the riding center, and wanted to help other young women get the benefits of connecting with horses. “I always wanted to run a horse program for girls like me,” says Debra. “I wanted to help them gain the courage to be around a horse and to care for a horse.”

One day at the Los Angeles Horse-riding Center, as Debra rode beside fellow rider Judith Hopkins, she mentioned an inheritance from her father-in-law and her desire to use it to serve disadvantaged girls. Judith had the same dream -and a name for the organization.

They founded Taking the Reins (TTR) in 1998. The organization serves more than 400 young women per year in after-school, weekend, and summer programs that feature horse riding and care, gardening and even competitive horse showing. Most participants live below the poverty line and often have not had reliable housing for more than six months. Few have previous horse experience.

TTR uses farm and ranch experiences to teach responsibility, leadership, teamwork, and self-confidence. Director Dr. Jane Haven says, “A large number of our girls are somewhat lonely. I can’t count how many of them have found their first social friends thanks to sharing this hobby and activity. Horses bring them out in such a wonderful way.”

Jane also sees members of TTR program excel in school-100 percent of young women involved for four years or more have graduated from high school. Ninety-nine percent of those participants have gone on to attend four-year colleges.

Debra sees a more obvious impact—after a few weeks in the TTR program, the young women sit a little higher on horseback. “There’s just something about sitting up on the back of a horse that gives them a boost of confidence.”

Although we may not have the ability to paint the Mona Lisa or write novels like Hemingway, everyone is born with a special ability — creativity. Some people can find and learn to show it early, while others might discover it later in life. Creativity has different meanings for different people, but unluckily a lot of things may stifle the development of it.And the importance of creativity is not valued as much as it should be. However, it has a powerful effect on one’s overall ability to get much success in life.

No matter how busy one is, it is very important to leave some time to develop creativity. Trying out different hobbies is a great way to discover one’s creativity because it can be very enjoyable. Some people find one hobby and fall deeply in love with it. Some people prefer to try different hobbies for short time, or change them up each season to stay interested and keep trying different things.

One great thing about a hobby is that there are no set rules. Each person gets to decide how often they want to do it and whether they want to keep it for a long time or move on to something else after trying it for a few weeks or months.

Another cool thing about hobbies is that one can enjoy them quietly when spending some free time alone, or as a way to fit in a community. Book clubs, art or cooking classes,gardening clubs — nearly every type of hobby offers a chance to meet with other people with the same interest and build relationships. Hobbies can be a great way to create a community among co-workers.

Usually, the simple act of developing hobbies can provide a chance for a person to find and show his or her creativity, which will produce great active changes. When people experience something as simple and great as creating something beautiful through hobbies,they begin to look at the world — and daily environments — in a fresh way.

Some people love eating food right after it is cooked. I prefer food just taken out from the freezer. Fruit, candies, nuts, chocolate, cake with buttercream frosting(糖霜), even peas, all of them taste delicious when frozen. In fact, I often eat them that way.

I was a kid when I picked up the habit. In my family, lots of things were thrown into the freezer — finally, two freezers — to prevent them from going bad. Among them were some of the candies my sisters and I had collected on Halloween.

If we eat when they are still warm, we’ll find ourselves taking the cookies more than we should. It’s better if we can put them into the freezer and wait. That way we’ll eat less and enjoy them more because they are hard and chewing becomes a slower, more patient effort. That’s the point about frozen buttercream frosting. Put it in your mouth at room temperature, and it’s gone very quickly. But when it’s frozen, you can enjoy the taste much longer as it melts(融化) in your mouth.

The freezer treats a lot of fruit kindly. Take frozen grapes for example, I keep a bowl of grapes in my freezer. They become a little icy, and somehow their sweetness is improved. They are perfect and healthy dessert(点心). This is the same with oranges, apples, bananas…You might think bananas would get super­hard when frozen. Wrong! They become cool, creamy and sweet. If you have wisely covered some or all of the bananas with melted chocolate before putting them into the freeze, they will have a double taste.

As long as you aren’t eating anything that truly has to be hot, go ahead and experiment.