In university I had a part-time job at a shop that sold doughnuts and coffee. Situated on a block where several buses stopped, it served the people who had a few minutes to wait for their bus.

Every afternoon around four o'clock, a group of schoolchildren would burst into the shop, and business would come to a stop. Adults would glance in, see the crowd and pass on. But I didn’t mind if the children waited for their bus inside. Sometimes I would hand out a bus fare when a ticket went missing — always repaid the next day. On snowy days I would give away some doughnuts. I would lock the door at closing time, and we waited in the warm shop until their bus finally arrived.

I enjoyed my young friends, but it never occurred to me that I played an important role in their lives — until one afternoon when a man came and asked if I was the girl working on weekdays around four o'clock. He identified himself as the father of two of my favorites.

“I want you to know I appreciate what you do for my children. I worry about them taking two buses to get home. It means a lot that they can wait here and you keep an eye on them. When they are with the doughnut lady, I know they are safe.” I told him it wasn’t a big deal, and that I enjoyed the kids.

So I was the Doughnut Lady. I not only received a title, but became a landmark.

Now I think about all the people who keep an eye on my own children. They become, well, Doughnut Ladies. Like the men at the skating rink (滑冰场) who let my boys ring home; Or the bus driver who drove my daughter to her stop at the end of the route at night but wouldn’t leave until I arrived to pick her up; Or that nice police officer who took pity on my boys walking home in the rain when I was at work — even though the phone rang all the next day with calls from curious neighbors. “Was that a police car I saw at your house last night?”

That wasn’t a police car. That was a Doughnut Lady.

Once there was a very poor villager. He found it difficult even to support his family.   【小题1】   He walked about in the streets, but he did not get a job. One day, he met a rich businessman, who gave him the job of cleaning the office. The villager began his work and he even started reading and writing in his spare time.

One day, the businessman saw that the villager was writing something. He said, “You can also read and write! Your handwriting is very good.” 【小题2】   The villager began to do this job as best as he could.

Later, the businessman learnt that the villager was good at accounting, and he made him his shop accountant. The other accountants were very jealous of the villager’s abilities. They told the businessman that the villager had a small room where he hid the money stolen from him.     【小题3】

One day, they had their chance. They saw the villager going into ‘that’ room.   【小题4】     When they came back and opened the door, there was nothing in that room except an ordinary box.

The villager was ordered to open the box with his own hands. And there was only a pair of dirty shoes and some old clothes. 【小题5】 At the same time, he was so angry with the jealous accountants that he fired them at once. The villager was made the only accountant for his office.

If someone said they’d pay you 1,800 dollars to stay off social media for six years, would you do it? Could you?

Sivert Klefsaas did just that. “I thought it was awesome,” Sivert told CNN Tuesday. “I thought, what’s 6 more years?”

In 2016, Lorna Goldstrand Klefsaas challenged her 12-year-old son Sivert to stay off social media until he was 18. If he completed the challenge, she’d award him the cash on his eighteenth birthday. On February 19, 2022, Sivert claimed his prize.

Lorna was inspired by a challenge she heard on the radio called the “16 for 16”, where a mother gave her daughter 1,600 dollars when she turned 16 if she stayed off social media, she told CNN. She decided to add to two extra years and 200 dollars more.

Sivert said it wasn’t too difficult to live without social media, and he didn’t think about it much during the six years. “I wouldn’t say there was ever a time when I was about to break,” Sivert told CNN. “As it went on, it was more of a pride thing.” He also had his friends to keep him up to date on the latest information or trends. “I got to avoid all the unnecessary drama that was on there,” Sivert added. It also meant he had more time to focus on his grades and sports instead.

Now with 1,800 dollars, Sivert told CNN he hasn’t thought about what to buy (when he was 12, he joked he’d get a house), but it’ll likely be something for his dorm room at the University of Northwestern St. Paul, which he’ll attend in the fall. But he has already decided on his first attempt into social media: getting Instagram. “There’s definitely a learning process,” Sivert said. “I see my friends fly through their social media apps and I can’t do that quite yet.”

After Sivert’s success, Lorna shared the challenge on Facebook. She said it was some of the best money she ever spent. Other parents have seemed interested in trying it out too, she told CNN. “We are certainly not against social media, but it’s the healthy using of it. It’s about not letting yourself get weighed down by it, or addicted to it, or affected by things that people post.”