Growing Saplings

It was late June. We had just finished the final exams, so it was time to have a rest. When the moon was up, I was ready to go out for a walk.

While walking along the cement road between the dormitory building and the school gate, I could see the moonlight permeating the leaves of the trees that stood on both sides of the road, and then scattering on the road and covering the ground like a piece of black cloth with white dots on it. In front of the teaching building, we had some sweet osmanthus trees. In a few months, the little yellow flowers would come out and then it would be time for us to enjoy the English and Art Festival. We would hold ceremonies, sing songs, dance, put on plays and so on. The whole school would soon be engulfed by laughter and excitement. But now the school was extremely quiet. Even the playground that used to be bustling and noisy was now empty and silent. It was really a pity that there was no one to talk with or to enjoy the moonlight with.

"Where am I going then?" I thought. But my feet seemed to have their own wishes and they took me to a pond in the school. This time of the year was the season fo r the lotus. The surface of the pond was covered with round green leaves of lotuses. The flowers were like elegant ballet dancers dancing in time with music in the moonlight, while the leaves formed a green stage for these refined "ladies". A gentle breeze came and carried the smell of the lotus with it. The smell seemed to be the singing from the heaven and it was so faint that I had to focus all my a ttention in order to make it out. Little ripples appeared as the breeze blew over the pond, so the "ballet dancers" became more active and lively. Walking on the grassland, I could feel the spring of the grass beneath me; I could feel the soft wind of the summer night on my face. Then I sat down near some saplings to have a rest.

Suddenly, the saplings reminded me of a discussion about dreams with my friends. Many of them dreamed of being a diplomat or an ambassador, because people in the seprofessions had chances to go abroad and represent our country before foreigners. Some thought about being a businessman as it was a free and well-paid job. So me were planning to be an actor or actress because they found performing on the stage very interesting. But one of my friends would like to be an ordinary person, just as ordinary as the trees in the woods in our school. She thought of herself as a sapling, which would grow into a big tree. I was shocked at that moment, but now when I set my eyes on the saplings in front of me, I changed my mind and started to think that it is also a good choice to be an ordinary person.

If the world were a wood, then the diplomats and the ambassadors would be the paths that would connect all parts of the wood; the businessmen would be the birds that would fly from one place to another; the artists would be the lovely creatures that would add color and life to the wood; and the ordinary people would be the trees growing here and there. Needless to say, the creatures' cute performance would attract most travelers' attention, but we should not ignore the importance of the trees: When they are alive, they offer shelter and food to birds and other creatures living in the wood. They produce oxygen besides holding water and soil in place. After they die, they will be used to make furniture or paper, or turn into fertile soil to help new saplings grow up. They contribute all they have to the wood, although they seldom catch others' attention. Just imagine, how couldt he creatures survive if there were no trees left?

Soon I felt all right and started to go outside the school. Countless skyscrapers had been built up nearby. The lights from the buildings were so blazing that they made the moon seem obscure. Cars and buses were speeding down the streets as if they were trying to catch up with the steps of time. The city was becoming noisier and noisier. It would be another sleepless night. But now I knew that there was a quiet place where some ordinary saplings were growing quietly. I was quite sure that, in a few years' time, they would grow into big trees and form a green scene in the view.

I quickened my steps.