Many children
start their lives in ‘rough situations’. Some have neglectful parents who don’t
assist with any part of their lives. In contrast, others are practically
smothered by parental involvement, unable to find their own identity. Children
live in all kinds of conditions and are sometimes ‘set up for failure’ from the
very start. But some children are able, despite their initial circumstances, to
achieve great things in life. Some part of them drives them to succeed and,
because of this, they learn the value of hard work and gain a stronger personal
character and a higher level of maturity in the process.
Jenni was a
girl who lived in a village, built at one of the rural places in the country,
with a reasonable amount of distance from the city. The city has been
considered a “sacred” place, where no one from their village has ever been to.
From young, Jenni had a dream. A dream no one in her village has ever
accomplished it. And that dream was, to be able to undergo proper education in
the city. When she told her mother about her dream, her mother simply dismissed
her with a wave of her hand and told her to stop dreaming. Her father too, was
pretty sceptical about her dream and took it as a joke. This was when the seed
of dreams was planted in her heart as she was determined to prove herself in
front of her parents.
Due to the
lack of funding, there was only one building in the middle of the village,
which the children called “school”, but, it was nothing more than a dilapidated
building with a chalkboard in front of each of the 6 rooms in the building.
One day during
lessons, the teacher went on to talk about dreams. So far, when asked about
their dreams, Jenni’s classmates would simply mention very simple things, such
as having a lollipop, but Jenni’s dream wasn’t that simple.
There were
quite a few challenges that Jenni faced, such as the fact that she did not have
enough time that could be used at her disposal to chase her dream. As her
mother had to go about selling things and her father, busy farming and taking
care of the cattle, the tiresome burden of taking care of her younger sister
and doing the household chores now fell upon the shoulders of Jenni. At times
she really felt like she wanted to give up, but thinking about the attitudes
shown by her parents and friends, she said, “No way. I have to do this.”
Marking out the day of the country-wide examination, she said to herself, “This
is the time I’ve been waiting for.” The country-wide examination was a platform
to evaluate the abilities of students around the country, and the best of the best
will be able to enrol into any high school they choose to go to, under the
government’s approval.
Jenni had her
eyes on the examination, and in order to do well in it, she had been studying
day and night for it. Making use of the limited resources she was exposed to,
she thought creatively and created a study table for herself, together with a
chair, where she sat at during her free time, and together with some textbooks
she had managed to borrow through her father, who had friends in the city, she
studied. She studied really hard, that even when she was sleeping, she would
still be thinking through the knowledge she acquired. She was really
determined.
The day
finally came, and Jenni was finally able to fight for a place in schools in the
city. Since this was a rather important examination, a teacher was sent from
the city to invigilate the process of the exam, and to ensure that there was no
cheating, which was not likely to happen. Handing up her answer script after
two hours, Jenni returned to her home, anxious for the results.
A few days
later, Jenni received a prestigious letter from the government, stating her
enrolment into one of the schools available in the city. Staring at the letter,
Jenni had finally tasted success. Success through her hard work.
*Paragraph one doesn't belong to me. I used it as a story starter. Get the original story here*
