Rationality in the Dark Woods

Never have my parents ever refused for something reasonable that I have asked for but it was different this time. It was like they had lost their rationality in the dark woods. Their ability to decide was clouded by their emotions. They could not reason it out with me but they were still adamant when I put up my request to join a boarding school. Just the word would send shivers down their spine. From getting dressed for school and making my sandwich to completing my homework, since childhood, I did it all by myself and it is one of the primary reasons for my enhanced adaptability to new environments.

But for my mother, these nuances were too subtle to be noticed and like any parent, she believed I was too young to sustain myself in a foreign environment. The first time I expressed my desire to join a boarding school my parents took it to be a joke and laughed it off but I was dead serious.

I clenched my fists, gritted my teeth and with a look of seriousness in my eyes stormed out of the room. After an hour I found myself lying on the bed with my legs leaning against the back wall and head on the bed just wondering how life at a boarding school would be. It seemed just like a wonderland with large playgrounds and friends all around.

The next day I woke up even more determined to plead my parents to my side.

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Before I could make my point my mother erupted like a volcano, words coming out from her mouth like hot lava. The deadline for registering for the entrance exam was very close but on the other hand, I could not see her temper cool down. I felt dejected and almost believed that it would not be possible but still, I pressed myself to look for solutions in unorthodox spaces.

This led me to believe that I now needed a Goliath as my slingshot had failed me and the first person who materialized in my mind was my uncle who never disregarded my pleas as frivolous but always asked me to justify why I believed I should proceed forward with my demands. After an hour of vociferous reasoning I looked at my uncle for a final response and what he said next has been forever etched in my memory. He rhetorically asked me if I ever noticed how his way of approaching any argument shifted from person to person and I only understood the significance of this question later when I saw my uncle taking a practical approach with my father and an emotional one with my mother.

The funny thing is that he used my big jumble of childlike arguments and segregated them accordingly to please either of my parents. This personal victory left me with valuable lessons that I still hold dear. It taught me that different people dance to different tunes of thought and I can’t be rigid in the way I want myself to be heard. Secondly it made me realize that no matter how stuck up I feel in a situation, I should never forget the cause of my fight and lastly, it taught me to never lose faith in my abilities because solutions to any problem may be found in unusual places. It taught me that I don’t need to be a genius to figure things out, I just need to keep my eyes open.