The Power of Your Actions

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd." I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friend the following afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him, and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw a tear in his eye.

I handed him his glasses and said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives."

He looked at me and said, "Hey, thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. It turned out he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before coming to this school.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and my friends. He said yes. We hung all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Damn boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship. Kyle was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak. ( to be continued)

中文：

當我還在上高一時，有一天，我看到我們班的一個孩子正步行回家。他叫凱爾。他似乎背著所有的書。我心想：“為什么有人在周五就把所有的書都帶回家呢?他肯定是個書呆子。”我的周末計劃得非常詳細(先是派對，在第二天下午和我的朋友踢足球)。因此我聳了聳肩，走開了。

正走著，我看到一幫孩子朝他跑去。他們追上他，把他所有的書都從懷里扔到地上并把他絆倒，結果他摔在污泥里，眼鏡也被打飛了，我看到它落在離他10英尺遠的草地上。他抬起頭時，我看到他眼里極度悲傷的表情。

我的心也隨他而去。因此，我慢步向他跑過去。在他爬著尋找眼鏡時，我看到了他眼中的淚水。

我把眼鏡遞給他，說道：“那些家伙都是些蠢蛋，他們真該遭到報應。”

他看了看我，說：“嗨，謝謝了!”笑容在他臉上展現。正是這樣的笑顯示出了真正的感激。我幫他撿起書，問他住在哪里。原來他住得離我很近。于是我就問他，怎么以前我從沒有見過他呢，他說在來這所學校以前他上的是私立學校。

以前，我從不與私立學校的孩子交往。我們一路聊著回家，我幫他拿著書。他原來竟是一位非常討人喜歡的孩子，我問他是否周六想跟我及我的朋友一起踢足球。他答應了。整個周末我們都在一起，對凱爾了解得越多，我越是喜歡他。我的朋友也都這么認為。到了周一早晨，凱爾又要背上那個巨大的書包了。我制止他，說：“傻孩子，你每天背這么一大堆書，想練就一身強壯的肌肉呀!”他只是笑，并把一半書都遞給了我。接下來的四年里，凱爾和我成為最好的朋友。

到了高年級后，我們開始考慮上大學的事。凱爾決定去喬治敦，而我要去杜克。我知道我們永遠都是朋友，距離決不會成為問題。他以后想當一名醫生，而我則要用足球獎學金經商。凱爾是我們班致告別詞的學生代表。

我總是取笑他是一個書呆子。他必須為畢業準備一個演講。我很慶幸不是我要站在那兒演講。(待續)