It was a hot, humid summer day, and I had just pulled into the local gas station to fill my tank. After pumping the gas, I started to walk inside to pay. That is when I noticed them. Two elderly women were standing back from their car. There was a mixture of shock and fear on their faces. I looked and saw what they saw: five yellowjackets (小黄蜂) building a nest around their gas cap. My eyes widened. I shared the ladies’ fear.

Yellowjackets had never been friends of mine. Several times these wasps (黄蜂) had attacked me while I was cutting the grass, giving me multiple stings (蛰) each time I ran over their ground nests. The worst time, however, happened when I was a young boy. A friend of mine and I were running and playing in my backyard. I must have stepped on one of their hidden nests again because before I knew it, both of us were being chased and stung over and over by the yellowjackets while we ran away screaming. I ran to my mom with tears in my eyes. She immediately ran a cold bath and put us both in it to ease the pain and itching (痒) before giving us medicine to fight all the poison in our little bodies from the stings.

Still, I knew I couldn’t let fear stop me now. I reached into my back pocket for a paper towel I had there, tore out the nest and stepped on it while the angry wasps buzzed around me. Both of the ladies thanked me, and I said, “You’re welcome!” with a smile and a happy heart.

In this life, you can’t let the fear of being stung either physically or emotionally keep you from doing what is right. We need to love each other and to change the world for the better. And the only way you can do this is one loving act, one kind word and one shared smile at a time.   Don’t let the yellowjackets in your life hold you back. Live! Love! Do good today!

Deaf teenagers Orlando Chavez and German Resendiz have been friends since kindergarten. Together the two boys, who go to Escondido High School in California, have had the difficult job of learning in schools where the majority of the students can speak and hear.

Orlando lost his hearing at the age of one. German was born deaf, and his parents moved from Mexico to find a school where he could learn sign language. He met Orlando on their first day of kindergarten.

“We were in a special class with about 25 other deaf kids,” German remembers. “Before then, I didn’t know I was deaf and that I was different.”

“Being young and deaf in regular classes was very hard.” said Orlando. “The other kids didn’t understand us and we didn’t understand them. But we’ve all grown up together. And today. I’m popular because I’m deaf Kids try hard to communicate with me.”

Some things are very difficult for the two boys. “We can’t talk on the phone, so if we need help, we can’t call a crisis service,” German said. “And we can’t order food in a drive-thru（汽车餐厅）.”

Despite their difficulties, the two boys have found work putting food in bags at a local supermarket. They got their jobs through a “workability” program, designed for teenagers from local schools with different types of learning disabilities.

German has worked in the supermarket since August, and Orlando started in November.

“The other people who work here been very nice to us,” Orlando signs. “They even sign sometimes. At first, we were nervous, but we’ve learned a lot and we’re getting better.”

The opportunity to earn money has been exciting, both boys said. After high school, they hope to attend the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in New York.

Lillian Hanson, a college junior, expects to graduate in about two years. Mrs. Hanson, a rather unusual student, plans to go on to take more courses after she gets her degree. What makes Mrs. Hanson different from most of her classmates?

What sets Lillian Hanson apart from the college crowd is her age-73 years. She has been going to college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years.

When Mrs. Hanson graduated from high school, she went to her local bank and asked for a loan for college tuition and fees. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn’t think that a country girl should be borrowing money to go to college. He thought she should be home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Mrs. Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college. She still lives with her husband on the farm that has been in the family for five generations.

Mrs. Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown up, she tried again.

She finds the hardest part of going back to school at her age to be sitting in class for long periods of time. Because she is not able to move as quickly and easily as she used to be, Mrs. Hanson often gets up and walks around between classes to keep from getting rigid. At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all stood up to give Mrs. Hanson big applause when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her goals were.