The Day I Gained Respect from My Classmates我獲得同學尊重的那一天

Sneha Elizabeth Panackal 梁璐茜

Have you ever had a time in your lifewhen you felt really lonely？ And have youever done something amazing that madeeveryone want to be friends with you then？ Ihave been through one of those experiences.

在生活中有沒有一段時間感到真的很孤獨？然后你做過一件讓所有人都想和你做朋友的事嗎？我有過一次這種經歷。

This is dated back to when I was inGrade 1. Grade 1 was pretty tough for me.New faces were everywhere and my facedidnt help me， either. Since I came from arural area， nobody wanted to talk to me oreven come close to me. I was only six yearsold then and I didnt know why peoplewere so mean. Every recess1 time was spentalone in the classroom， and I was the lonelyone among all my classmates. Every day， onthe way home， I used to sob2 quietly so thatmy parents wouldnt notice. Luckily， I didwell in my studies or the teachers wouldnthave wanted to talk to me， either！ My parents?used to tell me， “Hey， dont worry. Soon，you will have best friends just likeeveryone else.” At that time， I didntbelieve them， but as everyone knows，parents are always correct.

這可以追溯到我上一年級的時候。一年級對我來說很艱難。到處都是新面孔，我的臉孔也對我沒有幫助。因為我來自農村地區，所以沒有人愿意和我說話，甚至接近我。那時我只有六歲，我不知道為什么人們這么不友好。每次課間休息時間我都是一個人在教室里度過的，我是所有同學中最孤獨的一個。每天，在回家的路上，我都會悄悄地抽泣，以免父母注意到。幸運的是，我學習很好，否則老師們也不想和我說話！我的父母曾經告訴我：“喂，別擔心。很快，你就會像其他人一樣擁有最好的朋友。”當時，我不相信他們，但眾所周知，父母總是正確的。

One day， my class teacher， TeacherBarbara， announced that there was going tobe a speech competition. My stomach did aflip-flop3. I really enjoyed participating4 inspeech competitions and， not to brag5， Iwas actually quite good at them. But theonly problem was that the whole schoolwould be watching me and since I was anew girl， I didnt know anyone in thecrowd that would be watching me.

有一天，我的班主任芭芭拉老師宣布將舉行演講比賽。我的心里一陣雀躍。我真的很喜歡參加演講比賽，而且不是吹噓，我其實很擅長。但唯一的問題是，整個學校的人都會看著我，因為我是一個新來的女生，我不認識注視著我的人中的任何一個。

However， I made up my mind， mustered6up all my courage and marched upto the teacher and said， “Teacher， I wantto join the speech competition.” Theteacher stared at me for such a long timethat I started to feel uncomfortable， butthen I saw a smile tugging7 up at bothends of her lips. She gave me the form andI went off for recess.

然而，我下定決心，鼓足勇氣，走到老師面前，說：“老師，我想參加演講比賽。”老師盯著我看了很長時間，讓我開始感到不安，但隨后我看到她兩邊的嘴角拉起。她給了我表格，我就去休息了。

The next day， I arrived at school earlyto submit8 my form to the teacher. TeacherBarbara looked into my eyes as she tookthe form， and said， “Sneha， for a newstudent， you have a lot of courage.” Iblushed9 and smiled at her remark on theway to class. It was very rare that TeacherBarbara complimented10 anyone， so hercompliment lifted up my spirits a little onthat day.

第二天，我很早就到了學校，把表格交給老師。芭芭拉老師在拿到表格時看著我的眼睛，說：“斯妮哈，作為一個新生，你很有勇氣。”她的評論讓我在上課的路上笑著羞紅了臉。……