104 指考 (Joyce)

Poet Robert Frost once said, “Education is the ability to learn to listen to almost everything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” To me, education comes not only from school but from people who appeared in my life. I believe that everyone, to some extent, has an experience of volunteering or two, and of course, I am no exception. 

I remembered it a scorching hot day, and my friends and I were on the way to a children’s hospital, we applied for one-day accompany volunteers there. At first, I thought my job was to look after the kids and read storybooks to them. To my surprise, the kids in the hospital were not so vivacious as the kids I usually meet with. Maybe it was due to their illness so that they didn’t look happy like they should at their ages. I met a five-year-old child, who was diagnosed with cancer; however, his smile was something that I couldn’t forget. 

When his mom took him into the room where we were planning to read a story to him. He started crying, for he is not willing to meet the stranger. At that moment, one of my friends took out the stickers we brought and handed it to him, amazingly, he stopped crying. His mother thanked us and put the sticker on his right hand, the little boy stared at it and a beam of a smile flickered across his face, his laughter was like a bell tinkling my heart with a mark. I thought that the poet had got it right -Education is the ability to learn to listen to almost everything without losing temper or self-confidence. With empathy, we integrate with every encounters as gleanings in life - both captivating and instructing.

I realized that happiness is simple. I had never thought that I would learn something from a little boy, but it happened. In this fancy world, I was always searching for brand-new clothes, fabulous sneakers, and so on. Smiles are such ordinary things that we can see every single day, yet we forget as we grew older. I’m obliged to the kid, who taught me this important lesson, and hopefully, he can get well soon and return to the world he deserves to enjoy.

詩人羅伯特·弗羅斯特（Robert Frost）曾經說過：“教育是一種學習聆聽幾乎所有事物的能力，而不會失去脾氣或自信心。” 對我來說，教育不僅來自學校，而且來自我生命中出現的人們。 我相信每個人在一定程度上都有過一兩次志願服務的經歷，當然，我也不例外。

我記得那是炎熱的一天，我和我的朋友們正在去兒童醫院的路上，我們在那裡申請了一日陪同志願者。 起初，我以為我的工作是照顧孩子們，並給他們讀故事書。 令我驚訝的是，醫院裡的孩子們並不像我平常遇到的孩子那樣活潑。 也許是由於他們的病，所以他們看起來不像他們的年齡那樣快樂。 我遇到了一個五歲的孩子，他被診斷出患有癌症。 但是，他的微笑卻是我無法忘懷的。

當他的媽媽把他帶到我們讀故事的房間時。 他開始哭泣，因為他不願意見陌生人。 那時，我的一個朋友拿出了我們帶來的貼紙，遞給他，令人驚訝的是，他停止了哭泣。 他的母親感謝我們並將貼紙貼在他的右手上，小男孩凝視著它，一束微笑閃爍在他的臉上，他的笑聲就像一串銀鈴在我的在我的心上閃耀著。 我認為詩人說的對極了-教育的確是一種學習聆聽幾乎所有事物而又不失脾氣或自信心的能力。 通過同理心，我們與生活中的每一次相遇融為一體，體驗一次次收藏的過程- 令人著迷又具有教育深意。

我意識到快樂很簡單。 我從沒想過我會在一個小男孩身上學習到東西，但他就這樣自然發生了。 在這個炫爛的世界中，我一直在尋找嶄新的衣服，極好的運動鞋...等。 微笑是如此平凡的事物，我們每天都能看到，但隨著年齡的增長，我們卻遺忘了。 我感謝這個孩子教導了我這重要的一課，並且我希望他能早日康復並體驗屬於他的人生。

New Words

scorching (adv) 灼熱地  *也可為adj

vivacious (adj) 活潑的

flickered across ...閃爍在...

tinkle (v) 形容叮叮噹當的聲音

integrate with 與...結合

encounters (n) 相遇  *也可為v

gleanings (n) 收集、收藏

captivating (adj) 著迷的

be obliged to 感謝