Think back to a time in your life when you tried something new.

When I was a teenager I volunteered to pass out water at a local race. I was so excited to see all the different runners who passed by and quickly took a cup of water. Some ran past, some walked past and a few wheeled past.

I saw so many types of people doing it. I thought maybe I could do it, too! The next year I decided to run for the race, but I had little practice. I just wanted to finish. On the day of the race, it was terribly hot. After running for about 5 miles, I was thinking, "I must be crazy. Why did I do this? What was I thinking?" And at one moment, I said to myself, "I am never doing this again!"

That first 10 km race was quite an experience. I jogged, I walked, I jogged and walked. At times, I didn't know if I could finish.

Near the end, a 70-year-old man ran past me, very fast, and I felt a little embarrassed （尴尬的） that I was more than 50 years younger than he and I couldn't even keep up with him. But then I realized something. He was running his race and I was running mine. How often in life do we compare（比较）ourselves to others when we really shouldn't? I decided that I would not give up on running races and that one day I would be one of those 70-year-olds who were still running.

As I crossed the finishing line, I was proud of myself. I didn't regret（后悔） having such an experience.

There is an old Chinese saying, “If someone gives you a little drop of water, you should return a spring of water.” That means if someone helps you a bit, you should remember it and thank them gratefully（感激的）in return.

We should live in a world of gratitude（感恩）. We should prove it with actions, not just words. We thank people who hurt us, because they teach us important things. We thank people who give us up, because we learn how to be independent. We thank people who are selfish（自私的）, because we learn the importance of being kind. Of course, we should thank people who help us.

We should thank people who teach us. We should thank people who care about us.

We thank our parents. They work hard all the time in order to give their sons and daughters a better life. They cook meals for us, they do the chores for us, they always give us food and clothes, and they teach us what is right and what is wrong.

We thank our teachers who give us dreams. They teach us a lot of things but they ask for nothing from us. We are well-educated because of them.

There are many people that we should be grateful to in our life. We should find a way to thank them.