The Value Hidden Inside

I thought it would be a regular day as I went into school, but I didn’t think that I would walk away with a powerful message that I would remember forever. Mr Sparky had walked into the classroom carrying a metal briefcase. Nobody really paid attention to it as the chatter continued around the classroom.

“Settle down everyone,” Mr Sparky shouted and the class fell silent.

Mr Sparky opened the briefcase and took out a piece of gold that was glistening in the palm of his hand.

“Who wants this piece of gold?” asked Mr Sparky.

My hand shot up. So did everyone else’s. Then, Mr Sparky dropped the gold onto the floor and repeatedly stepped on it, denting the gold and covering it with dust, the crunch echoing in my ears. Mr Sparky held it up.

“Who wants it now?” he asked again.

My hand shot up again. So did everyone else’s.

“This is a really important lesson, and I hope you all remember it. No matter what I did to the piece of gold, you all still wanted it. Why? Because it still had its value. That’s the same for any person. When bad things happen to us, we get upset and angry. When we fail to do something, we feel lost. We feel useless. But that’s not true. Every single one of you still have the value you had before, like this piece of gold. People want you, just as you wanted the piece of gold.”

“But Sir, how are we meant to fight back when things are tough?” my friend Lucas asked.

“When gold is melted into liquid, is that the end of it? No, no matter how many times you melt it and freeze it, it’s still gold, isn’t it? And it hasn’t lost any value. So, when you are going through a tough time, you can fight back and think of yourself as a piece of gold. Something that many people want, but you want it, not for showing off or because it’s expensive, but for the value hidden inside.”

That day, when I went home, I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t see a failure or someone people rejected. I saw a piece of gold, with value hidden inside.