When I first got to the dojo( 柔道馆) at around 6, the first thing that I remember seeing was these groups of people,lined up to fight each other, which shook me. I really didn't want to come back. But I did. I stayed until my Blue Belt. After that, progressing was a little frightening. But my friends and instructors got me to keep coming.

I was progressing well, but that took a turn as soon as I reached the Red Belt. My parents were switching jobs, and it was very difficult to match our schedules so that I could come to the dojo. During that year, I didn't come to the dojo as much. It was hard for my parents, as well as myself, to be able to fit it into our schedule as often.

When I finally started coming regularly, it was bitter for me to see that all of my friends and peers were ahead. And that taught me a lesson: You should never be upset about yourself if other people are achieving something that you aren't.If anything, you should do the opposite for them. After that year, everything was back up to speed, and I entered Level 3. I couldn't believe how fast my training was going, and I was finally into the Brown Belt.

Getting through the Brown Belt tests as a young student, and a girl, was very tough. And here, in one of the last stages before my First Degree Black Belt, I learned the biggest lesson - - I could do anything that I wanted to and I was capable of anything that I set my mind to. I just didn't think I could. But I proved myself wrong, and I was able to do it.

Finally, getting my First Degree Black Belt is a dream that comes true, literally. I have been dreaming about these days for months on end, and it never loses the excitement that it gives me. And even after my ceremony, I think I will I look back on this day，and remember every second，every moment.

One fine afternoon I was walking along Fifth Street, when I remembered that it was necessary to buy a pair of socks．Why I wished to buy only one pair was unimportant．I turned into the first sock shop that caught my eye, and a boy clerk who could not have been more than seventeen years old came forward, "What can 1 do for you, sir?" "I wish to buy a pair of socks．" His eyes shone．There was a note of excitement in his voice, "Did you know that you had come into the finest place in the world to buy socks?" I had no idea of that, as my entrance had been accidental．"Come with me," said the boy, eagerly．1 followed him to the back of the shop, and he began to pull down from the shelves box after box showing their contents for my choice．

"Hold on, lad, I am going to buy only one pair!" "1 know that," said he, "but I want you to see how beautiful these are．Aren't they wonderful!" There was on his face an expression of seriousness and pride and delight as if he were showing to me the secrets of his religion．I became far more interested in him than in the socks．I looked at him in amazement．"My friend," said I, "if you can keep this up, if this is not merely from having a new job, if you can keep up this high spirit and excitement day after day, in ten years you will own every sock in the United States．"

Where the Wild Things Are in the Suburbs

I grew up spending summers at my grandparents’ farm, on the eastern shore of Maryland. I used to pick wild blackberries, catch a dinner of blue crabs, and run between the rows of the tall corn plants. I knew what wild garlic looked like; when the figs (无花果) on the fig trees were ready to eat, I ate them. 【小题1】“They’re so sweet, Mom,” they tell me.

But instead of teaching my kids about that landscape, I decided to instill in them a love of the land where they live. Suburbia is not as obviously lovable as tidewater country, but I was determined to practice PBL—place-based learning. That’s a thing in education. I looked it up.

So we went to the abandoned parking lot near the dead mall and looked for dandelion (蒲公英) greens, which make a delicious bitter spring salad.

We dug with sticks on the road being paved for Wegmans grocery store. My ten-year-old found some colourful rocks. That inspired him to start a rock collection, “This is cool, Mom,” he said.

【小题2】 They inherited both from early man. So I’ve been teaching them to search, the way my mother taught me and her mother taught her, all the way back to my ancestral people, the old- country mushroom hunters of Alsace.

In the fall, I took my kids to stands of chestnut (栗子) trees and showed them how to get out the edible nuts. We came home with full bags, and I made sweet chestnut puree (糊)，which we ate with a big spoon, like a homemade chocolate jam. 【小题3】 The beauty of it. That it, rather than supermarkets, sustains them. That they should have appreciation for all the parts of the living soil.

【小题4】 We simply walk, observe, feel the dirt under our feet, and occasionally bring home something we harvested with our own hands. The kids smiled with pride of place.