My name is You Xuan, and I'm in third grade. Ever since I was a child, I've been introverted and shy. I didn't speak to anyone in school for a whole year in kindergarten because I didn't know my classmates. I still hadn't changed when I got to elementary school. Although the environment was familiar because I went to kindergarten at the same school, I wasn't used to the new way of teaching. In the first few weeks of the school year, I missed my mother so badly that I cried during class. I lacked self-esteem. Whenever I had to do something new, I was always afraid because I believed I would fail. My mother always said it was because I wasn't confident. But, I learned how to be brave when my parents brought me to Tai Ji Men. Since the beginning, I always thought Tai Ji Men brothers and sisters were amiable. When they greeted me and I didn't respond, they still smiled at me. Here, I only ever had to be willing to do something. Whenever I went onstage to share, they gave me enthusiastic applause. Over here, it didn't matter if a child was good or bad. If they went onstage, they were applauded. Slowly, I started to gain confidence.
　　
　　This summer, to celebrate Shifu's birthday, the Tai Ji Men brothers and sisters organized a drum performance. My parents encouraged me to participate. My older cousin was doing it. I was determined to make a breakthrough, so I agreed. In the process of doing so, I learned about the Five Treasures.
　　
　　The first treasure is a smile. Brothers and sisters often tell me, no matter if we're practicing or actually performing, smiling is important. On the day of the performance, my heart thumped. I was nervous. However, I remembered a sister telling me to smile and own the challenge, so I smiled. I felt that once I had a wide smile, I didn't feel so nervous. I gained confidence and threw myself into it.
　　
　　The second treasure is to work hard and have stamina. Even when the sun is shining down on us, we have to be tough and maintain a deep squat while performing on drums. When we're drumming, we tie the drums to our bodies. They make us look great, but after five minutes, my shoulders already start to hurt. I want to take off the drum so badly, but then I remember the sister telling us to bear with it, so I keep on practicing. When the sister was training us with the drums for the first time, I was afraid to hit it too loudly, but she told us to bravely pound out a beat. Afterwards, when we all grouped together and beat our drums in harmony, the sound moved me. The strong rhythm represented the courage and confidence of all the brothers and sisters.
　　
　　The third treasure is bravery. Whenever I left my mother's side, I used to get scared and nervous. However, my mother wasn't there the past few times I had to practice for a performance. I learned how to interact with others. Under the guidance of my brothers and sisters, I slowly learned to be brave.
　　
　　The fourth treasure is gratitude. I'm grateful for the care and support from my brothers and sisters during our performance preparation. I think they're like mothers and fathers to me, patiently guiding us. I'm also grateful for Shifu and Shimu for giving us a chance to practice qigong and improve ourselves.
　　
　　The fifth treasure is happiness and health. All the children at our Tai Ji Men academy participated in this performance. I felt extremely happy, and I also conquered my body's susceptibility to heat. The practice from this past month helped strengthen me. Now I know that when I'm nervous, I can overcome it by smiling. I also know that in the future, when I'm facing a scary event such as a math test, I shouldn't scare myself or talk myself out of it, because I'm brave now. I know I can do anything, because I have so much support from Tai Ji Men.