I had been a happy girl until one day when I was fifteen months old. One of my eyes was badly hurt in an accident. I lost the sight of the eye, with an ugly scar around it.

Children refused to play games with me. It made me very sad. I always walked, looking at the floor, so that people would not see the ugly face. My mother encouraged me to be brave. She told me, “Alice, hold your head up high and face the world. If you do, it will be OK, and people will see your beautiful soul.” Mom’s words meant different things to me over the years.

As a little child, I thought Mom meant, “Be careful or you will fall down.” When I grew up, I still wanted to look down to hide my shame. She repeated these words whenever I wanted to hide. Mom’s words helped me realize that I should look at people in the eye and let them know me. When I tried, I found people were friendly to me.

In high school, I worked hard at my lessons and succeeded in my studies. Everybody began to like me and I had some friends. However, I still felt sorry about my scar, my ugly face. Sometimes when things got really bad, I would cry to my mom. She was always there for me. She would look at me and said, “Hold your head up high and face the world. Let them see the beauty that is inside.” I became confident.

At university, I took part in all kinds of activities. I joined a music club. Then John, a popular musician, came in to my life. He didn’t mind the scar. We soon fell in love with each other. Two years later, we got married.

My mother’s words have been encouraging me to face my problems bravely and believe in myself.

“What is the meaning of life?” This is a question that we all ask ourselves at one point or another. The best answer that I came across was written by the great psychologist (心理学家) , Victor Frankl.

He wrote “The meaning of life is to give life meaning”.

When I was a young boy, I gave my life meaning by simply playing, running, jumping, swimming, laughing, and riding my bike.

When I went to school, I gave my life meaning by learning, studying hard, getting good grades and trying to make my parents proud.

When I was a teenage boy, I found meaning in playing sports, hanging out with my friends.

In college, I found my meaning by deciding what I wanted to study and what job wanted to prepare for.

When I was working as a teacher, I found meaning in helping to open young minds to new ideas and old wisdom.

When I married and had kids, I found meaning in protecting, providing for, and watching over those I loved. When I found out both of my sons were mentally handicapped (弱 智 的 ), I found meaning in loving them, caring for them, and learning so much from them about life, love, patience, faith (信仰), and joy.

As I got older too, I began to realize that meaning isn’t something that comes and goes. We can give meaning to every moment of our lives here. We can bring meaning to the thoughts we think. We can bring meaning to the things we do. We can bring meaning to the hearts we touch. All we have to do is love. It is love that gives life meaning. It is love that makes life worth living.

Have you ever stayed deep underground in a cave? You have no food and the oxygen(氧气)is running out. You're not even sure if anyone knows you're down there

A soccer team of 12 young Thai boys, as well as their coach, bad to go through this experience this summer. They became trapped ( 困 住 )in a cave in Thailand on June 23,spending 18 days inside until they were saved by an international team of divers(潜水员).

After hearing the news that a former Thai Navy SEAL（海军海豹突击队员）died while trying to save these kids, my friends and I talked about the situation and felt as if there might be no way to get the children out.

But we held out hope anyway. We refused to give up hope for these kids, even when the situation seemed quite dark. We were rewarded for our hope when they were finally saved.

It can be hard to hold out hope in dark times. Every day, we read or hear about the terrible things that happen in the world. This makes it hard for us to say positive. Some people go through their lives thinking that the worst is always just around the corner.

However, I believe that it's especially important to stay positive during difficult times. This is the best way to deal with the challenges that we face in life. As people often say: there is always a light at the end of the tunnel(隧道).