I was hired for my first airline job in August 2009. I had $45, 000 of credit card debt. Most of it was from my flight training.

Ten years ago, I was watching TV in my bedroom one day before my flight training began and I saw the second airplane hit the World Trade Center. Then I got the call saying I no longer had a job. My career was destroyed. I had no place to go and ended up moving into my car. I read newspapers to look for a job and I was offered one, which offered me $75, 000 a year, but I decided to make a change. I wanted to receive fight training and become a pilot. It was my dream. So I refused the job and chose to work part time. It sounded unbelievable to do such a thing. It was even more so because I was over the age of thirty, but I was determined to make my dream come true. I left the state of Virginia and ended up in Las Vegas.

Though I made about $25, 000 a year at that time, I was severely in debt because the fees for training were high. I was living in my tuck and sleeping in parking garages. I didn’t plan for my life to take this direction, but I insisted on my training. Then at last my world changed and my dream came true. I finally became a pilot.

The passengers that I flew had more money in their pocket than I had in the bank. I hated myself and was worried about my situation, but I never gave up. I kept paying back the debt and I kept saving in the bank. And finally, I paid off my credit card debt.

Today, I am a skilled airline pilot based in Milwaukee. I wrote in my spare time. My autobiography (自传) has been published, which sells well. That is my first book, but it won’t be my last one.

Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She let her eyes lazily scan the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them. “Dad, there’s a deer there!” Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp antlers (角) on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer’s head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer’s head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer. “I knew I was in trouble,” Sue says. She went to pick up a stick for self-defense, and the deer charged. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg.

Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road. When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman’s terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer.

“I was kicking it to get its attention,” she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the women.

Alexis helped Sue into the car, and then applied a piece of cloth to Sue’s injured leg. “We’re going to get you to a hospital,” Alexis said. Then she heard her father shout loudly. He had been knocked to the ground. Alexis took hold of a hammer from the car and ran to where her father lay on his back. She beat the deer’s head and neck, but the blows didn’t scare it away. “I was losing faith,” she says. “A couple more strikes, Alexis,” said her father. “You can do it.” Turning the hammer around, Alexis closed her eyes and beat the deer’s neck with all her strength. When she opened her eyes, the deer was running away. Alexis got in the driver’s seat and sped toward the nearest hospital.

After Sue was treated, she tearfully thanked her rescuers. “You expect a teenage girl to get on the phone and call for help,” she says, “not to beat up a deer.”

I always have difficulty in buying birthday presents. My idea never seems to go farther than ties, pens or cards. But, strangely enough, it did not take me long to decide on Tom’s birthday present. For the first time in life, I had a good idea ... I would buy him a bottle of champagne (香槟酒). Before the party began, Tom suggested that I should open the bottle. I put it between my knees and began to pull, but it remained unmoved. Soon a lot of people gathered round to watch the fight between me and the bottle. I could hear all kinds of “helpful” suggestions from them like “Break the top off”, “Use your teeth”, etc. But I was losing the fight. We were fighting on the-floor together, when all of a sudden there was aloud: “Pop” and the cork (塞子) shot up into the air, while the angry bottle showered (淋) everybody with champagne.