B

I grew up in a place stricken by extreme poverty. People struggled daily just to put food on the table. By the time I turned sixteen, my father's hard work had paid off. He had over eight hundred students across three campuses, and finally, we could afford a TV.

That's when I became fixated on the idea of owning a magic pencil, inspired by a TV series. The main character, Sanju could draw anything he desired, and it would come to life. Despite being sixteen and knowing deep down that the magic pencil was nothing more than a fantasy for kids, a part of me still longed for it. At night, I dreamed of using it to transform the lives of those around me. But as the days passed, the pencil was never there.

One afternoon my mother asked me to throw away some potato peels and eggshells. I walked to the rubbish dump, wrinkling my nose as I got close. As I tossed our rubbish onto the heap, I saw a girl my age. She was sorting rubbish into piles, one for cans, one for bottles. Nearby, boys were fishing in the pile for metal using magnets on strings.

Later that day, I dragged my father to see the children at the dump. I posed a question about their absence from school. He shared that their earnings from gathering discarded(废弃的) things sustained their families - schooling would leave their loved ones hungry. As we walked back home, I saw tears on his cheek.

Until then, I'd pinned all my hopes on some unseen, miraculous force to come along and wipe out the suffering in our world. Now I knew I would have to do something. As much as I wanted to help the children from the dump, my mother wanted to help everyone. She left the extra pot of rice and chicken for a poor family in our neighborhood. We shared our home with a family of seven who had fallen on hard times. And although my father's school wasn't really making a profit, he gave away more than a hundred free places in different grades to poor children. He wished he could have given away more.

Inspired by what my parents had done, I started volunteering at local community centers, helping children with their studies and organising food drives for families in need. Gradually, I realised that while a magic pencil might not exist, the power to make a difference lay within us. Together, we could create a kind of magic that was real and lasting.