I cannot forget the moment when the girl in my heart was encouraging me. That was the most important day I have ever had.

In Grade 9, my grades were plummeting because I had abandoned myself to PC games. Their attempts to get me back on track in vain, my teachers and my parents practically gave up on me. In time I felt ashamed of my degeneration. I decided to change.

In my class Mary was good at English and Chinese. I often turned to her for help when I had problems with the two subjects. My strengths were Maths and Physics. Mary wondered how I managed to do well in them. Thus, she often asked me for help with her Maths and Physics work. This reciprocation of a helping hand spawned our friendship.

From time to time, I found myself relapsing into the old ways. My addiction to gaming was such that it was next to impossible to disentangle myself from it once and for all. When my grades did not impress my teachers or my parents, they condemned me almost every day. Their nagging drove me nuts.

Everyone around despised me except Mary. When I found myself teetering on the very edge of an abyss, it was Mary who pulled me back onto the right track by offering encouraging words. Humiliated by the attitudes of those around me, I even made a decision to end my life once I finished middle school. The only meaning of my existence then, it seemed, was to help Mary do better in Maths and Physics, because I thought our relationship had gone beyond just being friends. I had fallen in love with her.

Weeks before graduation, when the classes were having graduation photos taken, I asked my classmates to write their farewell words in an album. I could not wait to read what Mary would have to say to me.

When she returned the leaf I had given to her, I unfolded it. It read, “Jack, it will not be long before we part, but our hearts will be together forever. Thank you for all your help. I wish you would be happy every day. Don’t give up no matter what. Always believe that you are the best. …”

In the note she also offered some tips on how to keep learning English well. Reading her message, I stood there, speechless, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Mary may not have had the best looks of all the girls in my middle school class, but her heart is definitely the most beautiful. Her beautiful heart made me adore her all the more.

This farewell note of Mary’s made a profound difference to me. Thereafter I tore myself away from gaming and toiled away at the lessons. In the remaining weeks before the final exams, I was working like crazy.

When the results were released, I made it. I passed the exam with flying colours and got admitted to YYHS.

Now at YYHS, guys around study mostly on their own. I miss the days when Mary and I were helping each other in middle school. Though Mary is not here by my side, my gratitude to her is none the less. The day will come when Mary and I are reunited at the same university somewhere in China. I am fighting for it.