My cousin Douglas’ parents were going to teach in Africa, but they thought it might be better for him to stay in this country to go to school, so he would come to stay with my family for a year.

Douglas and his family lived all the way on the other side of the country, so we had never had a chance to visit. He was just someone I sent birthday cards to and saw in photos. Now he was going to stay and go to school with me.

We went to pick him up at the airport. He was standing all alone, looking around for someone to meet him. Everyone in my family has light brown hair and green eyes, but Douglas has dark hair and dark eyes. He started to smile shyly after Mother hugged him.

When we got back home and Douglas started putting his things away, I could not believe it. All of his clothes were the same, all white shirts and dark blue shorts. He even had a dark blue jacket with a tie!

“How come you wear only one kind of clothes?” I asked him.

“That’s the way my school has always been,” he said. “We have to wear uniforms.”

“Yuck,” I said. “I would hate having to wear the same thing every day. You’re going to look pretty weird if you come to school in a jacket and tie.”

Douglas looked worried. Suddenly, I felt bad. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. After all, it was not easy to come all this way to live with some strange family for a year. Then and there I decided that I was going to look after my cousin and try to make this year as good as possible for him.

A few years ago, a friend gave me a restaurant gift card, and I picked a sunny Sunday afternoon to use it. The meal was delicious, and my family and I all had a great time together.

The gift card covered almost all of the check(账单). After finishing the meal, I reached into my wallet to get enough cash to cover the rest. I saw two bills(钞票) inside my wallet. The first would just cover the rest of the check. The second would allow me to cover the check and give the waitress a nice tip(小费). I reached down and planned to pick the first one.

At that moment, my mind flashed back to 30 years ago. At that time, I was working as a busboy(餐厅勤杂工) in a restaurant. I had to work long hours for low pay. I remembered seeing the waitresses worrying about how they were going to pay the rent. I remembered the pain in their eyes and the sadness on their faces at the end of each month. I blinked(眨眼睛) to hide my sadness and smiled to the waitress, pushing the smaller bill back down. Then I picked out the larger bill. I folded it around the gift card and covered both of them with the check. As we all got up from the table, I handed them to the hard-working waitress. “You keep the change,” I said with a smile and happiness.

We are family in this world. Do your best to be kind. Do your best to be a good person and replace other’s suffering with joy.