==CHINA==

Spring finally comes after a night of rain. What a creative artist the spring is! All turns into fresh green. The branches are decorated with little awakened buds which gives the breeze and clouds a faint smile as shy girls. After the long winter of silence, some brave birds can't help singing on the top of trees under the sunshine in the blue sky. It's a day that you want to go outside, leaving boiling routine behind to breathe fresh air in the open and what's more, to fly a kite.
Last weekend, my longing was finally satisfied and I flied a kite high with one of my best friends! The kite was shaped like a dragon covered with some special paper full of colorful paintings. And the string is also specially made tough enough to hold the kite in the sky. Flying the kite is a piece of cooperative work. I chose to hold the string while my partner took the kite. He threw the kite into the air along with the wind and I let go the string inch by inch as the kite slowly rose, soon catching all the other kites, finally only a little black dot was seen in the blue sky.
Watching my kite dancing freely far above, I suddenly felt like a little girl again. I recalled the childhood experi- ence that I flew a kite for the first time and lost it. How many years had passed? I forgot, but I did remember what I felt when I lost it. It was a stunning butterfly kite made in traditional Chinese style, so elegant and beautiful. I was fascinated the first time I saw it in a shop window. I wanted to have it at cost of anything. Of course, as a handicraft, its price was very high. But my parents promised to let me have it if I could come out first in the coming exam. It was difficult then since I was just an ordinary student in the class. However, the beautiful kite inspired me and I began to work hard at my school learning. Finally came the day when I got the first place in the test and so I owned that kite. How excited I was! I wanted my friends to share my happiness. We went to the playground and flew the kite. The butterfly kite looked real as the winds gave life to it. It flied as I ran, stay still as I stopped. It's like a part of me and my heart flew with it. I was so excited that I didn't realize the string suddenly escaped my hands. It was too late when I tried to catch it. The kite was out of my control and flew away. I ran after it until I was exhausted and fell to the ground. I regret- ted, I cried, I prayed but it never came back to me again.
Now, I've grown up from that naive girl to a college student, and I thought I forgot that kite incident already. But that day I realized that the kite is always with me in my deep memories which will never blur with years.
Flying higher and higher, the kite was still with us at the other end of the string. I knew my dream in life is like this kite. No matter how high it is, it has connection with the reality . Otherwise it will fly away and never return. Dream is so fantastic that sometimes we are excited by it, looking up and imagining a glorious future. But in excitement we sometimes forget to grasp what we should take care of in reality. Without a dream, a duke would never turn into a swan; but without our concrete effort, any dream will never come true. As youth we are in a season full of all kinds of beautiful dreams. It is our advantage over the elder. But the pity is as we sometimes have too many unrealistic expectations, we are disappointed now and then. As that happens, some lose their heart and never dare to have anoth- er dream. To keep balance between our dreams and the reality, I think we need something like the kite string and we a mature attitude toward the reality. No matter up or down, we should hold fast to it and never let it go.
"Be careful", my partner called, which got me out of the thinking. I caught hold of the string tightly and the kite fly higher and higher.