"Once Upon a Time, in a forest far far away, there was a duck that found an egg after a storm. Though it was not hers, she took care of it until a smaller duck hatched from it. However, this little duck didn’t look like the other little ducklings. It was a pale white color where the other babies were a puffy yellow. It was a lot taller than the other babies, too. And, it had a long narrow bill.

Though the mother duck loved her baby just the same, the other ducks were not as kind. They didn’t like the way the baby looked because he was different. Through his whole life, he was picked on and called ugly just because he didn’t look the same as the other ducks. Finally, one day, the duck told his mom good-bye and decided to leave so that he would be no longer picked on. He felt that a life alone was better than a life tormented.

One rainy night, he sat at the base of a tree to try and stay dry. He was alone until a beautiful bird that we know as a swan came walking down the path. The swan stopped to talk to the duck, but he turned her away. “You’re too beautiful to talk to someone as ugly as me.”

She stared at him, puzzle for a moment. Then, she said, “But, we are the same.” And gestured for him to look at his reflection in the puddle. So, he did just to see that all this time, he was a swan, too."

Everyone knows this story. It was told to us all when we were children to instill various moral lessons. “Never be mean to others just because they are different.” Or, “If you’re picked on, don’t worry because you will grow to be better than the people that are picking on you.”

However, for my purpose, I’d like to use something different. Imagine if the baby swan would have never been lost away from the other swans. Imagine if the storm wouldn’t have rolled the egg away for the duck to find it. Imagine if he would have been raised as a swan his entire life.

Once Upon a Time, in a forest far far away, there was a baby swan that lived a normal swan life. The end.

There would be no story to tell. There wouldn’t be any lessons to learn. The things you go through in life that you wish you could go back and change are part of you. That’s why you can’t change them. And it’s not a bad thing. You would not be you if you didn’t have the struggles and bad things that happened.

You have your own story to tell that consists of the ugly parts just as much as it consists of the beautiful parts. The lessons you learn and the obstacles you complete all make up something greater that others can learn from. You just can’t let yourself get so lost in the dark times that you miss the love that comes your way. There is always going to be someone to take you in when you aren’t there’s. And there is always going to be someone that will show you who you are. You just have to be smart enough to listen to them.

But, most importantly, the “ugly duckling” would have been nothing more than a normal swan if he would have never gotten lost and if he would have had a perfect life. Instead, the ugly duckling turned into the beautiful swan. See, the swan would have never thought that he was beautiful if he wouldn’t have first thought he was ugly.

You’re not meant to be an ordinary duck or a normal swan. You are meant to be something beautiful. You just have to make it through the ugly parts first. I’m not saying to tell yourself that you are ugly and be okay with it because you’ll turn beautiful one day. I’m saying that you have to go through bad times to become the you that you are meant to be. From the sad words of Hazel Grace, “If you want the rainbow, you have to deal with the rain.”

Hold your head up and take all moments of your life with pride. The bad and the good are just a balance of what your story will be one day. And, then, you’ll be at a point where you can help people going through the same things that you did. You’ll be at a point where you can say “This is what you have to look forward to. You’ve just gotta deal with the rain first.”