THE UGLY DUCKLING
“What sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it’s not. And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great.”
Emma Stone
Doesn’t the heading take you a little further into your past? Into your innocent childhood storytime, your initial learning phase when you listened to stories for leisure sake and thought nothing of the lessons silently screaming behind the storyline?
To refresh our memories, “The Ugly Duckling”, was a story that spoke of a young duckling that felt unhappy simply because he looked different to his siblings and was thus ridiculed. He was often left alone and ignored due to the different colours of his feathers and so, naturally, he felt unhappy, unsettled. Eventually, he grew apart from his siblings and wandered off.Until sometime later, he met some beautiful swans.
Oh, how he wished he had looked like them! It hadn’t been more than a few moments until he found himself admiring his very own reflection in the water beneath him. He grew up to be a fine beautiful swan and it turns out – he was never a duckling at all!
How intriguing, right?
This story is one of the many tales written by the famous Hans Christian Anderson. His life was pretty much like that of the “ugly duckling”.
Born in 1805, the son of a poor cobbler living somewhere in Denmark, he left home at the tender age of fourteen with the hope of becoming an opera singer. Anderson loved the theatre, but he found it quite difficult to acquire a position as an actor or singer. He was often ridiculed and mocked at. Although he had the passion, he had a crackly voice and appeared to be awkwardly tall. No one took him seriously and so, he eventually gave up.
But Anderson hadn’t given up forever.
He gave up one to take up another. He started anew. He chose to write instead and so, he went back to school.He began to write stories, stories that kept little ones intrigued and taught adults lessons to be held onto for a lifetime. He often wrote about travel and before long, his writings became famous in Denmark.
His stories are easy for little ones to understand and are excellent in teaching them confidence. In fact, Anderson particularly preferred narrating his stories to little kids before he actually wrote them.
One of the greatest lessons Anderson’s life and works teach us is simple yet beautiful:
Be you, You don’t have to be like everyone else in this world. You don’t have to be insta-famous or trendy. You don’t need to keep up with the Joneses. You don’t need to be like the rest in order to qualify for the best.
No, no, no!
All you’ve got to do is focus on yourself, your Hereafter, as well as the Hereafter of those that remain within your care, of course.
You’ve got to focus on pleasing your Lord. Just Him, not the people that focus on the pleasures of the world, not the people that focus on favours, not the people that focus only on materialistic values.
Being called an Ugly Duckling today will ultimately reap you the appearance of a beautiful swan tomorrow, if Allah wills, purely based on your level of perseverance, tolerance and the respect you portray for yourself by moving ahead with your goals.
For example: Being a Doctor doesn’t make an Educator less professional or less respectable based on the income they earn or based on the length of years they’ve studied. None would have made it in life, without the help of the other. The Doctor would never have made it through his studies without his teachers and mentors, the dozens of them. And the educators, they too fall ill, they too are in need of medical assistance. Aren’t we all?Aren’t we all what we are because of the contributions from others in our lives?
You are uniquely beautiful, admired for what Allah has blessed you with and so, never allow another’s blessings to dampen your gratitude. Another’s talent or beauty doesn’t make you any less talented or beautiful. Allah has blessed every single one of us with unique traits, with a purpose. How boring wouldn’t life be if we were all the same, with the same professions and talents, with the same features?
Just like Hans Anderson, never give up based on another’s inability to see your worth. Allah has used this man and his works, despite his religious affiliation, to inspire us as Muslims. Ain’t that a blessing for us? Grab it, take your inspiration and build within yourself that raging spirit to move on and move through the ocean of life, not like a lifeless log, but like an ardent and passionate diver, seeking life’s purpose and fulfilling it.
ess respectable based on the income they earn or based on the length of years they’ve studied. None would have made it in life, without the help of the other. The Doctor would never have made it through his studies without his teachers and mentors, the dozens of them. And the educators, they too fall ill, they too are in need of medical assistance. Aren’t we all?Aren’t we all what we are because of the contributions from others in our lives?
You are uniquely beautiful, admired for what Allah has blessed you with and so, never allow another’s blessings to dampen your gratitude. Another’s talent or beauty doesn’t make you any less talented or beautiful. Allah has blessed every single one of us with unique traits, with a purpose. How boring wouldn’t life be if we were all the same, with the same professions and talents, with the same features?
Just like Hans Anderson, never give up based on another’s inability to see your worth. Allah has used this man and his works, despite his religious affiliation, to inspire us as Muslims. Ain’t that a blessing for us? Grab it, take your inspiration and build within yourself that raging spirit to move on and move through the ocean of life, not like a lifeless log, but like an ardent and passionate diver, seeking life’s purpose and fulfilling it.
