Do you ever recall a person who influenced your life? If your answer is yes, I want to say to you that you have lived a valuable life. I remember a man who wrote scientific theories on a blackboard. As you may expect, he was my teacher in middle school. He taught science, but he was emotional, sentimental and friendly, unlike the characteristics of science. In some cases, however, he took a firm stand. He was a wonderful teacher.
        Before I met him, I was too shy to express myself, and I could never speak in front of other people. I was like a dumb person. I couldn't say, "I like you," to a girl, even if she was very attractive to me. I didn't like these introverted and negative characteristics of mine. I used to think how much better it would have been if I had been a girl, because I had been taught that a girl should be shy, quiet and graceful in manner. But I couldn't do anything about it. It seemed so ridiculous to think that I'd like to change into a girl, and it was folly.
        One day after school, my teacher called my name loudly from the window of the classroom when I was passing through the middle of the playground on my way home alone. After a while, we were sitting on a long bench near the stage of our school's playground under the warm spring sunshine. Putting his arm around my shoulders as if he were a father with his son, he started talking.