Garden of Discovery

I was kneeling outside in my garden, pulling weeds in the bright sun, when a voice suddenly said, “What are you doing?”

I looked up. Looking over the fence was the boy who had just moved with his family into the house behind ours. “Don’t you hate getting dirty?” he said.

I laughed. “No, I don’t mind.” I stood up. “Hi, I’m Jeanie.”

“Mike,” he replied.

I saw him looking at my garden. “I’m getting ready to plant tomatoes, potatoes,” I said. “Also beans and...”

Mike interrupted. “Why go to all this trouble when you can buy vegetables at the store?”

“It’s fun,” I replied. “I bet you’d enjoy gardening if you tried it. All boys like gardening.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” he said.

I smiled. “Work with me for a week. If you still don’t like it by then, I’ll never talk about it.

To my surprise he nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

Before I knew it, the week was up. I was sure that Mike had changed his mind about gardening. He no longer complained about getting dirty! Each time he planted a seed, he would say, “I hope you grow big and make Jeanie and me proud of you.”

On the last day, Mike and I worked until the sun had set.

“That’s it,” I said, standing up. “Everything’s planted.”

Silently Mike rose, too. “The week’s up,” I said. I smiled at Mike, confident that he was going to tell me that gardening wasn’t so bad after all.

For a moment he didn’t say anything. Suddenly he said, “I’m glad that’s over. Don’t forget our deal—no more garden talk. See you.” Then he ran into his own yard. I stared after him in disbelief.

I went to bed. Around midnight a crash of thunder woke me up. Outside there was a terrible storm. I worried about my plants until the rain finally ended, and I fell back asleep.

The next morning I jumped out of bed, eager to see my garden. I pictured in my mind broken plants and flooded rows of seeds.

“It’s about time for you to get here,” said a voice as I pushed open the back door.

“I can’t believe what you’re doing after what you said last night,” I said.

Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do

Every single one of us has a different story. It is easy to judge others based on what we witness for a brief amount of time, but this is not what we should do.

Andre Owen is a policeman who works for the Sussex Police. He is a kind-hearted young officer. He is always working hard and devotes himself to his duty. And on one particular day, his shift (轮班) was proving to be one of the tough days. That day, he started to work at around 7:05 am. It was such an early start for his duty that he had no time for breakfast. He was called to a serious incident shortly after he began to be on duty. The incident was in Brighton, which meant he had to go to Oxford to take care of the matter. It was a long drive there, which took him about two hours to get there. The matter was very hard to deal with, but he managed to settle it successfully.

After his visit to Oxford, Andre Owen drove his way back, only to find another incident down the road. The accident involved a family who needed help, but the traffic was so crowded that they couldn’t get through. As a result, the officer had to stop traffic to get them to safety. At the end of it, he had 45 minutes left in his shift but he still had to drive back for two more hours.

It was such a difficult day and he almost did not get to have time to eat. At lunchtime, he finally had an opportunity to get food, so he went to the nearest fast food restaurant to buy himself lunch. Just like any other customers there, the policeman was patiently waiting for his food to arrive. A lady eating her own food, kept staring at him while he was waiting.

It was at that moment that the woman decided to come up to him to say something.

However, Owen decided to share something on the Internet.