My Active Life I was a bit of a naughty child who liked to exercise with my sister: swimming, roller skating, biking, and running. We went swimming and skating every weekend. We loved to find steep hills and ride fast and furiously. We fell down on the street and broke our bikes a couple times, even breaking the brakes. At that time we were very afraid of being blamed by our dad, so we used tape to fix the bike brakes and to our surprise we mended them. So we kept riding dangerously, of course. I even broke my roller skates. I convinced my sister to let me borrow hers—and I broke those, too. After that, she refused to lend me anything at all, and she still reminds me about it to this day! I liked reading a wide range of books: social sciences, biographies, mysteries, sci-fi, kong fu and romance. I used to read novels all the time, even during class. Once, I was so absorbed in a book on the bus that I didn't even notice my mother was sitting right there! My parents thought I read too many non-textbooks as a child instead of studying, so I hid in the restroom to read, and I hid a lot of books in there, too. When I graduated from middle school I rode my bike halfway around my hometown—Taiwan with a lot of friends for 5 days. Now that I'm an adult, I like to travel and do adventure things. When I graduated from university I walked around the entire island by myself for 30 days and I even got 2 new friends—stray dogs who kept accompanying me on different days. My friends and I have all grown up, but I am the only one who is still "crazy." During my master’s degree, I had enough flexibility to ride a bike or walk to another city without any plan. I just woke up on a sunny morning and decided that today was the day for walking or biking. Sometimes I went back home at midnight because I wandered so far. I feel very fortunate to live in a very safe country; I never worried about my safety or money while traveling alone, though I did get a bit scared when I passed by cemeteries or temples! I have grown more comfortable traveling solo as an adult. I am glad I explored the oceans and mountains of my hometown with my own 2 feet, because I never imagined that I would live my life in another country someday. Right now in the US, I have some new friends. We play pickle ball one or two times a week, hang out together, and have parties. Jill is a student in the Advanced ESL class in the morning
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