For years I fought with the bird's nest that sat on top of my head―my Medusa (神话中的蛇发女妖)hair. No matter what I did and how hard I tried, in no way could I make my unruly (乱蓬蓬的) hair to my satisfaction.

Growing up in a Russian-Jewish home with parents who thought North American styling products were something illegal such as drugs, I was never allowed to put them in my hair. “Why buy hair gel? Your hair is so beautiful naturally.” my mother would say. The teens at school did not agree. From boys' not wanting to kiss me when we played spin the bottle in Grade 7 to being called the mop, I suffered from my hair.

If only I could find a way to manage the curls (鬈曲), I told myself, I would feel secure and sex. I tried everything: rollers, hair spray, gels and, at one point, an iron. Then, a miracle happened―I was asked to be a hair model for Japanese hair straightening. With my hair straight and smooth, I was no longer the “mop”. However, there was extreme damage done to my wallet. To keep up the straightening cost 700 every six months.

I couldn't hide from my inner Medusa any longer. It was time to hug her and let her fly. Seeking a choice, I turned to the Internet, Goggle. After hours of searching, I hit upon a “curly haired” salon, a place designed for girls like me. Doubted and uncertain, I finally got there. As my head was in a basin full of freezing-cold water, then covered with a jelly-like jam, I wondered what I had got myself into.

“Do you really think this will work?” I asked the stylist, Jones. “My curls are a disaster.” “No curly hair is hopeless,” she replied. “They just haven't found a way to work with it, that's all.”

After the hour was over, Jones had completed her work. She had styled my hair using only her hands, water and a mixture of organic jam. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the mirror: a naturally curly, Medusa-free me. You could argue that hair is just hair. Yet, it is just such physical featured that have such a large influence on how we view ourselves.

According to Jones, 75 percent of the population have a wave or curl in their hair and don't know what to do with it. Men cut theirs short. Women flat-iron theirs to death. When I read through a beauty magazine or take the subway to work, it makes me sad to see so many people re pressing their natural beauty.

Since then, my world has changed. These days I seem to be more confident than ever. Besides, friends and co-workers tell me I am looking better than ever, but they don't know the source of the change.

I don't need to tell them. My Medusa hair speaks for herself.

As most of you know, I don’t like running. I never go jogging, and I wouldn’t run a marathon even if I was paid for it. One thing that would make me run for my life would be if there were several hundred bulls running after me.

That’s exactly what people from all over the world are coming here to do tomorrow. I’m at the annual San Fermin Fiesta in Pamplona, Spain. This festival began in the Middle Ages, and has   grown in popularity ever since. It lasts for a week in July, when the city is changed into an ocean of red and white, the official colors of the festival.

Before the bullring (斗牛场）was built, bull fights were held in a large square in the city. The custom of running ahead of the bulls started when the bulls had to be moved from the outskirts（市郊）of the city to the bullring. Some of the customs have changed over the years, but certain things are still the same.

Anyone who wants to take part in the run has to enter the special area by 7:30 am. The gates are then closed, and they won’t be opened to let you leave after that. At just before 8:00 am, the runners ask the statue of San Fermin to protect them. At eight o'clock, two fireworks are fired. With the first firework , the gates of the bull enclosure（围场）are opened, and with the second, the bulls are set free to run. They run after the runners down the length of the bull run, which is about 800 meters. The whole thing lasts about two minutes.

It sounds easier than it is. You can’t just run straight ahead. The route goes up and down narrow streets, with few places for runners to hide except doorways of buildings. The end of the run, just before the bulls enter the ring, is one of the most dangerous places. People running with the bulls have fallen here, and have been injured.

Don’t worry if you’re reading this, Mom. No one under the age of 18 is allowed to take part. I’ll be watching from the safety of the balcony!

Logan Schneider was helping his brother tend his cherry orchard when disaster struck-literally. While he was riding a tractor down a row of trees, a helicopter fell from the sky and landed directly on him.

Logan was wearing noise-canceling headphones just before the crash, so he didn’t notice the helicopter until the plane broke the wires when it crashed. He barely had time to brace himself before a fire broke out and he was pinned against the steering wheel. As he managed to wriggle out of the wreckage, he heard pilot Cori Johnson screaming for help.

“I heard him screaming,” Logan recalled. “I looked and I saw him upside down hanging. Fire was everywhere. When I was in the moment I really wasn’t thinking. I was just doing.”

Logan reached through the flames and unhooked the pilot’s safety harness, allowing him to escape. Once he was on his feet, Logan helped him get away just seconds before flames burst 30 feet into the air. “Looking at what happened, I don’t know how we both got out,” Logan said.

Firefighters arrived and had to de-energize the power lines before putting out the blaze. Both Cori and Logan were taken to the hospital with painful injuries. While Logan suffered second-degree burns on his arms and muscle damage in his back, Cori had a broken arm and multiple burns.

“They rushed me and the guy to hospital,” Logan said. “I’m lucky to be alive.”

Logan has always planned to enroll in aviation school so he can become a commercial airline pilot. The crash has not deterred him, and he still plans to take to the skies at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Washington this fall. If anything, this fateful accident has strengthened his convictions and confirmed his beliefs.