Folk Tale for Landon and Annabelle

Life is like a journey on a road that is puzzling and has roughness and kinks. Throughout your journey on the road, you face the wind, the sun, the storm, winter, spring, light and darkness, though you need to keep moving forward. You constantly fall and need to stand up again. I believe that persistence and hardworking is key to success in your journey. Here, I would like to tell you the famous story of a rabbit and a turtle. The story metaphorically tells you how persistence is important.

Once, a rabbit, the king of speed within the animal kingdom, challenged a turtle to a running contest. The turtle openly accepted the challenge, though he knew he would have a rough path to pass, if he was going to win the race. The rabbit and other animals of the kingdom laughed at the turtle for racing with the rabbit, because turtles walked very slowly. They started the contest, while all the animals came together to watch the match. The rabbit was proudly posturing, since he was confident that he would win the race. All the animals were talking about how the rabbit runs fast, though the turtle is ridiculously slow. The turtle felt alone but hopeful that he could succeed. The rabbit and the turtle started the race. The rabbit ran very fast and got a big distance from the turtle. The turtle was walking slowly, though determinately. The rabbit was too proud and confident so he thought he could take a nap on the road and then he would run again and would win. He chose a nice spot on grasses under a shadow of a tree aside the path and fell asleep. He went to a deep and sweet sleep, though the turtle was still walking slowly, but constantly.

He was so persistent in moving forward that he didn’t stop, even one second. He just walked forward. The rabbit was still asleep, while he was having sweet dreams. The turtle was still walking. He passed the rabbit and walked forward. He was tenacious and was walking toward the end of the contest. The animals saw him getting closer and closer to the end, though unbelievably they couldn’t see the rabbit. The turtle finally reached to the end and won. He won, while the rabbit was still sleeping. The turtle won because he was persistent and determinate in his path. He walked slowly but he never stopped. (Niloofar Gholamrezaei, Iran, 2016)