This winter was special for Chinese people because it lasted for a long time and it was the worst storm in China in 50 years. It was a total disaster in the southern areas of China. However, what this storm brought to me was a spirit of conquering defeat that avoided the damage caused by the storm.

Before I returned home, I was staying at school to take my final examinations. On the morning of January 17 th, I got up early and was surprised to find a light snow silently falling outside. It was the first time that I had seen snow in Nanchang, but what disappointed me was that the snow disappeared that afternoon.

About two days later, my winter holiday came. When I got to the railway station, there were so many people waiting for the train that I couldn’t breath comfortably, so I felt very tired and depressed. As I got off the train, to my surprise, the snow was still on the ground, roofs and windows everywhere. How beautiful was the picture of a white world in front of me! I couldn’t help admiring it. At that time, I did not realize that the snow would become a disaster.

I was so lucky that my hometown was not influenced seriously by the storm. Still, I went happily out and made a snowman with my friends until I heard the storm news. As often as I had seen it on TV or the newspapers, nothing would prepare me for the first call of a friend of mine who suffered from the storm. She told me that there was no water, no electricity and no warmth in her house and it lasted more than ten days, she did not even watch CCTV Spring Festival Eve Shows but stayed in total darkness. How terribly she suffered! I could not imagine. At that moment, I realized what this storm brought and began to focus on the storm. I knew from TV that the storm caused so much trouble and pain for our country and our people. Some people were sick because of having no electricity, some people could not return home because of the troubled transportation system, some people were hurt because of work related to injuries and people even died. The whole of China was brought tightly together against the storm because it deprived people of warmth, safety, families, possessions and even their lives. After the storm, the government and media urged people to recover quickly from their loss by getting back to a routine. It was important to help them rebuild their familiar and their broken hearts. I felt upset and sad for them and detested the worst storm in 50 years.

Although this storm made us lose many things, still the Chinese people came through it together. When I think of the worst storm in my lifetime, I realize that although we lose many things, still our spirit of connection was not lost. If we can defeat the defeat and exploit the power, which defeat gives, we can accomplish far more than we thought we were capable of.