My mother told me that I needed to change everything about my life, because I didn't listen to other people's advice. So I began to1from wearing some kinds of new style clothes. But the only one thing that I just couldn't2was my cowboy boots.
I went to my mother and said, "I want to change many things, but I don't think I have to give up my cowboy boots." My mother said, "I don't know how3it is. If you do not want to give4up, you will not be able to change."
"Okay!" I said, "I5to change, and I'll give up the boots." So I bought a pair of tennis6. After 30 days of not wearing my cowboy boots, my7stopped hurting.
I never stopped to think that the boots were causing my feet to hurt, or some of my other8were causing my life to hurt. That means if every day I do something9in such a small way, maybe some big changes will10.
Sandy is a nine-year-old boy. He has a big family. He lives with his parents, a brother and a sister. Sandy thinks his family life is not happy. He and his brother and sister often fight with each other for many reasons.
Max is Sandy's classmate and neighbor. He also has a very big family with two brothers and their parents. Sandy noticed that Max never fights with his brothers. They always have big smiles on their faces.
Sandy thought that was strange. One day he asked Max why they got on well with each other. Max smiled and asked Sandy to go home with him.
As they came into the house, Max's elder brother saw them. "Hi, Sandy and Max," he said. "Why not come here and share some ice-cream with me?"
At that time, Max's younger brother came out of his room. He looked very excited and said, "Oh, Max. I have a story to tell you..."
That was when Sandy knew that Max's secret of getting on well with his brothers was to share. Sharing their snacks and stories with each other made their life happier.
Sandy decided to go back home and try this from then on.
When 12-year-old Peyton Robertson sees a problem, he is going to fix it. So when the young scientist noticed that his hometown Fort Lauderdale was always getting into the trouble of flooding, he set to work building a better sandbag.
Last year, the young boy watched Hurricane Sandy bring death to his hometown. So the sixth grader decided to invent something to help people.
"Sandbags are great in flood protection, but they are too heavy and hard to take," Peyton explained, "so I want to invent a new kind of sandbag."
Unlike traditional sandbags, Peyton's sandbag is filled with chemicals and salt. This makes the sandbag easy to carry and much better at keeping water out. This invention earned him the title of "America's 2016 Top Young Scientist". At the age of nine, he was named winner in a competition for his invention of a golf ball warmer!
