"My Favorite Word" by a Student

The following is an essay written by a student this afternoon. Quite touching!

My Favorite Word

Among the countless English words that fill our life, my favorite word is "good." You are probably thinking that this boy cannot come up with a more profound word to write about. Anyway, just read on and you will find sufficient reasons why I didn't give words like "perpetuity" or "conspiracy."

My love for the word "good" started with my grandfather. My grandfather passed away two years ago. Before then, he told me numerous stories about his life, which itself was a long, sorrowful, and tangled yarn. In brief, on the ground of hostility between Taiwan and China governments, he had to fight against his relatives and good friends, and to leave his family that was stranded in China for almost forty years--never saw them again. However, he was an optimist. Without English education, he could not speak English well. Every time he felt down upon recalling the misery that had happened long ago, he would say, "Good!" with a strong Chinese accent and self-encouraging energy in his voice. In him I saw the great generosity that had forgiven and forgotten the misdeeds the world had exerted on him. In his aged and wrinkled face I saw the wisdom glowing warmly. In the last minutes of his life, he told people around his bed, including me, "Good!" Then, in Chinese he added, "Seeing you guys all here, I am content. Remember, there are both good and bad things in life. Don't lose sight of the good things...."

"Good," in a nutshell, stands for the last and the most valuable thing that my grandfather had ever given to me.

( 269 words) (314 簡喬 Joel)