When I was about five years old, I used to watch a bird in the skies of southern Alberta from the Blackfoot Blood Reserve in northern Montana where I was born．I loved this bird; I would 1 him for hours．He would 2 effortlessly in that gigantic sky, or he would come down and light on the 3 and float there beautifully．Sometimes when I watched him, he would not make a sound and liked to move 4 into the grasses．We called him meksikatsi, which in the Blackfoot language 5 “pink-colored feet”; meksikatsi and I became very good friends．
The bird had a very particular significance to me 6 I desperately wanted to be able to fly too．I felt very much as if I was the kind of person who had been born into a world where 7 was impossible．And most of the things that I 8 about would not be possible for me but would be possible only for other people．
When I was ten years old, something unexpected 9 my life suddenly．I found myself become an 10 child in a family I was not born into; I found myself in a 11 position that many native Americans find themselves in, living in a city that they do not understand at all, not in another culture but 12 two cultures．
A teacher of the English language told me that meksikatsi was not called meksikatsi, even though that is what 13 people have called that bird for thousands of years．Meksikatsi, he said, was really “duck”．I was very 14 with English．I could not understand it．First of all, the bird did not look like “duck”, and when it made a 15 , it did not sound like “duck”, I was even more 16 when I found out that the meaning of the verb “to duck” came from the bird．
As I 17 to understand English better, I understand that it made a great deal of 18 , but I never forgot that meksikatsi made a different kind of meaning．I 19 that languages are not just different words for the same things but totally different 20 , totally different ways of experiencing and looking at the world．
In my third year as a high school athletics coach, I gave a speech telling students and parents about the benefits of football．I gave the same 1 each year, aimin g at recruiting(招收)new team members．I talked about 2 football wasn't just for 3 athletes and how everyone could 4 from it．This year, a 5 looking couple approached me after my speech．They said their son really wanted to play football．They had tried to 6 him out of it, but he had his heart 7 on joining the team．
When they told me his name, my heart sank．Michael was five feet and ten inches tall and weighed about 108 pounds．He was a 8 boy, the constant target of other kids' jokes, and as far as I knew he had never 9 sports．I knew he would never 10 it through football practice, let 11 as a player．But we told them we could give it a try．
On the opening day of practice, Michael was the first player on the field, we did 30 minutes of warming-up 12 starting a one-mile jog around the track．I 13 my eye on Michael．At 50 yards he fell, and I helped him to his feet．“Michael,”I said,“Why don't you just 14 the mile?”He said in tears that he wanted to run with the others, so I let him go on． 15 he fell, but each time 16 himself up．
The same thing happened every day for weeks, and Michael gained strength both 17 and physically．By the last week of practice, Michael could run the mile without falling, we had 18 only one game that season, 19 the team cheered louder for Michael's run than the victory they had, Afterward, Michael approached me, and I told him how 20 I was of him．
