Zhang Guimei is a teacher and principal of Huaping Girls’ High School in Lijiang City. The school is the first full-tuition-girl high school in China, helping poor girls continue their studies after completing the nine-year education. In the past 12 years, Zhang has helped over 1,600 girls.

Zhang moved to Yunnan at the age of 17. Later, she grew up to be a teacher. In 1996, she voluntarily moved to teach in the mountainous Huaping. But the next year, she got seriously sick and had no money to pay for the surgery. Thanks to the local government and people, she was able to get the necessary treatment. “I told myself I must live on. I fought the disease to see if I could survive. And I remembered deeply in my heart that I must repay this love from those who helped me,” Zhang said.

Driven by the idea of opening a free high school for girls in 2002, Zhang began a six-year journey looking for funds and donations. In 2008, Zhang was finally able to realize her dream and Huaping Girls’ High school was set up.

Over the 12 years, Zhang has given all of the donations and most of her salary, totaling more than one million yuan, to the school and the education of the young girls in the area.

“It is she that gives us girls from the mountainous areas the chance to see the world outside,” said Yang Qian, a college student who graduated from Zhang’s school.

Touched by Zhang’s story and spirit, the Yunnan Normal University has planned some projects to work with Huaping Girls’ High School and promised to send 46 future graduates as volunteer teachers each year to the school.

When Martin announced that he was going to run the New York City Marathon (马拉松), his wife and children thought he was crazy: Martin weighed over 100 kilograms , smoked twenty cigarettes a day, and never exercised. However, he said he knew it was time to change his lifestyle forever, and the marathon was the perfect way of going about it.

Shortly before he decided to run the race, his 38-year old friend Justin had a heart attack and very nearly didn't make it through bypass surgery (搭桥手术). When Martin visited him in the hospital, he thought of his own father. He lost him when he was young, and he suddenly realized that he was risking having the same thing happen to his kids.

As he heard his workmates talking about entering the marathon, he asked if he could join in.Everybody laughed. But when they finally understood that Martin was serious about it, they gave him lots of support and helped him work out a training schedule.

Everybody thought Martin needed to start running immediately. But the first thing he did was to start taking lots of walks around Central Park, and at the same time he started eating healthier food. He rediscovered that he perfectly liked fresh fruit and vegetables, and that he was actually quite a good cook. He started having proper meals together with his family instead of sitting in front of the TV with lots of take-out food. Within several months, he'd lost a lot of weight and was ready to start running.

Initially, he was only doing six miles a week, but the marathon organizers gave him suggestion, "Run three days a week and increase the number of miles each week. " He gradually noticed how it got easier every time, and his time got faster.

However, it was still very difficult on the day of the marathon, because there were a couple of times on the route when he really felt like giving up and going to bed. Nobody thought he'd manage it, but he did it in just five hours and raised five thousand dollars in sponsorship(赞助) for his children's school. Next year he wanted to do it under five hours.

About ten years ago, a very successful businessman named Josh was traveling down a neighborhood street. He was going a little too fast in his new Jaguar(捷豹汽车)。

Suddenly, a brick(砖头)hit his new car and broke the window. The angry driver jumped out of the car, caught the kid who threw the brick and shouted, “What are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

“I’ m sorry for breaking your new car, but I didn’t know what else to do,” the young boy apologized.“I threw the brick because no one else would stop!”

With tears on his face, the little boy said. “It’s my elder brother. He fell out of his wheelchair(轮椅). Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s too heavy for me to lift him up.” The driver was greatly moved. He quickly lifted the handicapped(残疾的)boy back into the wheelchair and checked to see that he was going to be all right.

“You are a nice man. Thank you.” the little child said.

The businessman watched the little boy push the wheelchair down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow back to the Jaguar.

After that, he kept the hole in his window to make him never forget this message—don’ t go through life so fast, or someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

The world sends a message and speaks to our hearts—we all have the choice to listen or wait for the brick!