In seventh grade, there was a national Chinese language
competition that I had been preparing for with my mother. But the morning of
the competition, she told me she had something else to attend to and
couldn't take me. I was disheartened but went to the exam alone.
The test venue was on the first floor of the third exam room, but that
didn't matter. When the bell rang, I sat at my desk waiting for the test
papers to be distributed. As I started to work on the questions, I
encountered one that I always struggled with: the essay. I looked out the
window for inspiration and saw my mother's smile. It was filled with
expectation, confidence, support, and all the emotions in the world. In that
moment, I knew what to write about: "A Mother's Smile."
When I saw my mother after the exam, I understood all the emotions that were
in her smile. It was her love for me as her daughter. Even though she
initially said she couldn't take me to the competition, she put aside
everything else to come and pick me up. She loved me, and whether or not she
could take me to the competition didn't matter. I realized that I had been
too focused on the small things.
Although I didn't know my test results, I felt confident that I had done
well, especially in the essay section. If it had been any other day, I would
have scored only twenty or thirty points, but this time was different.
Perhaps I would score higher because I wrote about something I saw in a
moment - my mother's smile. It had such a profound effect on me that it was
impossible to put into words.
A single moment, a single smile, gave me the drive to continue and a deep
understanding of love. It touched my soul in ways I cannot express in words.
I wish there were more of these easy and warm smiles in the world! |