While working at the Raytheon Company, Percy Spencer noticed that standing in front of a magnetron (used to generate microwave radio signals) caused a chocolate bar in his pocket to melt. He then placed a bowl of corn in front of the device, and soon it was popping all over the room. A couple of years later, Raytheon was selling the first commercial microwave oven. Write about a time you found something you weren’t looking for. (U of Chicago)

-         It was a few years ago, when I came home for my summer break. I was at home as usual playing video games, watching movies or just reading a book. We lived in a rural area where there wasn’t as much as a mall. We lived right next to our apple orchard, although we don’t take care of it much. My grandmother is usually busy taking care of the plants, gardening, watching TV or just meditating outside in the sun, so she doesn’t have much time to walk all the way and fertilize and pesticide the apple trees. Mother was always working during the week days just like any other parent. The only time she’s free is during the weekends and during that time, she tends to go shopping or just watch movies and sometimes even meditate.

-         One day I was doing the usual. I was playing video games and wanted to have a snack. I walked down to the kitchen looking for some junk food. We didn’t have any, so I told my mom and we went out. We met my aunt and my cousins in the market and we were just shopping.

-         As we hogged up all my favorite Lays packets from the isle, we saw a little ball of fur by the ice-cream refrigerator machine. We went near it and it was the littlest thing I’ve seen in my life. It was a kitten. It was small and scared. It was so cute that I wanted to pet it. As I reached out for it, it scratched my hand. It wasn’t a serious injury, but it hurt. My uncle was the general manager of the market and he wanted to get rid of the pest. So he was coming with a large broom to sweep the cat away from underneath, but my mother and aunt were telling him not to do that as it is only a kitten.

-         I tried caught its neck and got it out. My cousins and I were petting it vigorously and since I was the one holding it, I didn’t mind. Then I guess my mother saw how much we loved the cat and out of nowhere she said, keep it. It was so spontaneous. I hadn’t expected keeping this kitten. I didn’t even think about having a pet yet. I held it tight in my arms and ran into the car. While on the way back home I was thinking of a name for it but failed. My grandmother was at home and she loved cats and dogs and decided to call it ‘Zigthra’. I have no idea what it means. It used to pee all over the house and eat all the chicken from the plate. I was hell for a while, and my mom or my grandmother didn’t even have the courage to beat it or punish it as it gave us that huge googly, watery eyes.