Do you care too much about what other kids at school say or think about you, what you say, the way you dress? Will my friends make fun of me because I have to wear eye-glasses? Will my friends laugh at me if they know that I like to hug a teddy bear when I go to sleep? I like reading Nancy Drew books; will my friends think that I am boring? Sure, we all want to fit in; we want our friends to accept us. But do not forget to be yourself. An 11 year old girl was given a pretty, pink watch from her mom. It had butterflies on the bands, the numbers glowed in the dark, and there was sparkly glitter on the minutes and hours hands. The girl absolutely loved it and hugged her mom. She happily wore it to school the next day, but her friends laughed at her and said it was babyish. Embarrassed, the girl took the watch off, stuffed it in her bag, and decided she would never wear it again! Does that girl remind you of a similar story that may have happened to you? Does that girl remind you of the story of the boy, his father, and their donkey? In this old folktale, a boy and his father worked on the fields and in a mill. Every day, they had bags of grains to sell. They loaded the bags on their donkey and walked into the market village to sell their grains. As they were walking along, a man passed by them, pointing and laughing, he said, “You fools! What is a donkey for but to ride on? You have a donkey and you are not riding on it!” The boy was upset; he did not like being laughed at. So, he made up his mind to do something different. The next day, on their routine trip from the mill to the market village, they loaded the bags on the donkey as usual, but the boy asked his father to ride the donkey. This time, a woman saw them and she loudly called out, “What a cruel father! He lets his poor son walk while he rides comfortably on the donkey! What a shame!” Again the boy was upset. Trying hard to please other people, the next day the boy decides that he will ride the donkey and his father will walk beside him. A group of young men near the market village saw the man walking and the boy riding the donkey. They shook their heads in disapproval and said, “What a disrespectful boy! How rude! He lets his father, an old man, walk while the young, healthy boy rides the donkey!” The boy was angry and confused. He did not know what to do. What could he do to stop others from laughing at him? The next morning, the boy was thinking about what the people will say that day. Should both he and his father ride the donkey? But that would be cruel to the animal. The father says to his son, “You do what you think is right in your heart, and do not worry about what others will say.” Son and father loaded the bags of grain on the donkey and walked into the village. The boy's heart told him that the heavy bags of grain were a big enough load for their donkey. And the village was not too far away, so he and his dad could walk because they were healthy and energetic, and it was a beautiful day! In the village, he heard laughs, jokes, and jeers, but he didn't care. He was too busy eating the freshly baked roll of bread his mom had given him that morning. He admired the clear blue sky, and listened to the sound of the flowing stream by the village. “Much better!” he said to himself. His father smiled and said, “It's impossible to please everyone, so do what is right and just.”
