Strawberry scone served with hot tea ~ what a great combination

引用文章：憂鬱的疱疹青春與其他

Dear Bagel and Mayo,

Daddy is writing this article to you to help you choose friends and deal with peer pressure in your teens.

While Daddy was looking for good examples and eating scone on an airplane to the UK, Daddy found that strawberry scone with hot tea was a great combination for story telling. Therefore, Daddy decided to share some of Uncle Scone's personal stories with you. Of course, I got his permission, as being respectful to the copyright, to do so first.

When Uncle Scone was in 4th grade, one of his classmates was a quiet boy who always read classical novels beyond his age level. When they needed to dissect a frog in biology class, the quiet boy cried for the frog while the rest of the class eagerly cut through the frog. Because of his unique qualities, Uncle Scone and other classmates always made fun of him.

What those naughty boys did not know was that the quiet boy's mother was a writer and he had read numerous classic books under his mother's guidance. The quiet boy was actually more mature in both academic and emotional development than those naughty ones.

Daddy would like you to know that there are two kinds of people in the world. One is those who are brave enough to be different, the other is those who want to be the same with everybody. The path is more difficult for the first kind of people, but they are the ones who can lead and influence people.

Is it safe to be just like everyone else? Well, let me tell you another story from Uncle Scone.

When Uncle Scone was in junior high, he had rashes around his mouth. Guess what? Bad karma came back and kicked him in the butt. Some naughty classmates call him "herpes" and laughed at him. He finally understood how the quiet boy in his 4th grade class felt.

Uncle Scone was miserable and tried to be part of the popular group in class. After several failed attempts, he became a quiet boy himself.

One day, the leader of the popular group decided to steal toys from a store. Some of the boys hesitated because they knew it was wrong. But they didn't want to leave the group, so they did it anyway. As a result, 15 people were caught and sent to police station.

Suddenly, Uncle Scone felt lucky that he was not part of the popular group. He realized that it was dangerous if you followed the crowd simply because you wanted to be part of the group.

We cannot live without friends. But, having bad friends is actually worse than having no friends.

If someone gave you drugs and told you that you had to take it to be his or her friend. Would you do it? Or, will you be brave enough to decline the temptation? Daddy hopes that Mommy and I have taught you well and you will choose to be brave. Remember, a real friend will respect you and accept your differences.

Teenage is a very difficult phase to go through. You think you are old enough to make your own decisions, but, at the same time, you are torn to bend yourself just to fit the concept of popular mold. When you stop trying so hard, you might find that there are a lot of people who care about you and want to be your friends based on who you are instead of whether you are popular or not.

Last but not least, please learn Chinese so that you can read Uncle Scone's original article. Daddy's English is not good enough to express the points well, and Mommy always complains when she has to type and change grammatical errors for Daddy.

Love,

Daddy & Mommy

(以上，由 睡美猴 擬稿，小龍包 改文法兼碎碎唸， 睡美猴 加油添醋並重新編譯，小貝果與美乃滋 敲鑼打鼓希望引起爹地媽咪注意，一家子熱鬧滾滾合力完成。)

《附加照片》大西洋上空的雲海，以及微雨中的倫敦「大笨鐘」(Big Ben)