Light a Candle - Don't Curse the Darkness
By Karen P.
It was a bright sunny Saturday and flowers were blooming everywhere. Lee was on her way to school. She was dreaming about the weekend, while the gravel was crunching under her feet. Lee loved Sundays and always looked forward to them.
At school, Lee and her classmates were told that they had to write reports that were due Tuesday. This immediately ruined Lee's "special" Sunday. Lee's report was to be about the New Year celebration. She hated that topic because she had to do so much research on it. She knew more about dragons and complained to Ming (her best friend,) that she wanted to trade topics. Ming said no and Lee was not happy. She tried to switch her topic to Lanterns, Taoism, or Confucius, but no one wanted to trade topics. She was stuck with the New Year and she didn't know where to begin.
This was not the first time Lee found herself in this situation. She was always complaining about assignments and chores. For example, one Wednesday Lee's teacher told the class that they were going to have a test on Monday and Lee hated tests. Lee complained to her friends for three days in a row. Finally, even they grew tired of listening to Lee and told her that instead of whining she should be studying. But apparently, Lee did not learn from her previous mistakes, because she was still heading home this afternoon and thinking about how unfair it was to have to do this assignment.
Lee lived in a beautiful house. It had a small garden where Lee liked to spend time, but even the garden couldn't calm her that Sunday. At dinner Lee wanted to tell her parents that she wasn't able to do her report, but it would be a disgrace for a child to complain at the table. Lee just sat back and kept eating her rice. After dinner, Lee told her parents that she didn't want to do the report, but they replied that it would be a disgrace not to complete an assignment given to her in school. Even so, she spent the whole day moping and didn't do any of her report. On Monday, Lee went to her teacher and complained that the report was too hard. Her teacher said that you should always try before giving up. Lee wasn't so sure but decided to take her advice.
Lee found that the research was not so hard after all, when she put her mind to it. Sometimes going to the library and asking for help on your topic is not a bad idea! The librarian helped Lee find all the information she needed for the report. Lee used history books, children's story books, and even an old newspaper as resources for her paper. She found out that dragons and lanterns were both part of the New Year's celebration and could be included in her report, which gave her much to write about. To make her report look beautiful Lee used her calligraphy brush, ink, and special rice paper.
Lee's report turned out to be the best one in the class, but she had to work late into the night Monday. Lee told her teacher that next time she had a report to complete, she would not back out of her responsibilities. She would do it the first day she got the assignment.
"When it is dark, light a candle don't curse the darkness!"