Story Of Your Life!
Benjamin is a 15-year old kid studying in school with his best friend Dennis. Both of them sit in the same row, play together, and do many things every day. Once during an exam, he and his friend were sitting next to each other. During the last 10 minutes, Dennis didn’t know the answer to a question, so he tried to cheat and ask Benjamin. Benjamin tried to tell his friend that it’s not allowed to talk in the exam. His teacher saw him and thought that Benjamin was the one cheating. Since it was strictly forbidden to talk during the exam, the teacher punished both of them and sent them home for 2 weeks as a punishment.
image from pixabay
The Punishment
Benjamin’s parents were so angry at him that they did not even give him a chance to explain his side of the story. So, he couldn’t prove that it was not his fault at all. Sadly for him, they punished him too. Benjamin was told to work in his father’s automobile shop for two weeks that he was suspended from school.
He started doing so unwillingly and soon found out that bad guys were working there. As the days progressed, he had to keep working with guys who used to bully him and were deliberately forcing him to do unnecessary work. Whenever he tried to complain to his father, he would get even angrier at him than before. When he tried telling his mom that he didn’t like to work with bad guys, she got angry too. Whenever he was going to the automobile shop, he saw his older brother going to school and getting more love and care compared to him.
During the two weeks, Benjamin was constantly facing one trouble after the other. On the 14th day, when he was going to the automobile shop, he saw his expected girlfriend talking to his brother at the bus stop. The same day when he was working at the shop, someone stole a wallet from a customer’s car, and somehow Benjamin got blamed. His father was already very angry at the situation and in his anger, he slapped Benjamin and called him a thief without any inquiry whatsoever.
From Bad To Worse
Benjamin started crying, left the shop, and went straight home. He locked himself in his room, laid down in his bed, and started to cry. He started getting flashbacks of all those events that happened in the past two weeks. He remembered how he got punished by the teacher for his friends’ fault, how his mom and dad treated him, and how the bad guys bullied him in the shop. He also feared that his elder brother and his expected girlfriend would get together.
He started to feel like nobody cared about him. He felt like the biggest loser and that everyone was against him. He felt like everyone else was successful and only he was the loser in the whole world. He felt like everyone was laughing at him and he was like a joke for the whole world. He was thinking again and again about every single thing that happened to him in the past two weeks during this emotional breakdown. The 15-year-old Lorensson loudly said, “WHAT DID I DO WRONG?” He cried and cried, over and over again for more than two hours with all these feelings bustling inside him.
From Worse To Good
He felt a little bit of relief after crying his heart out and started feeling hungry as it was already dinner time. Suddenly, he heard his brother shouting, “Benjamin, dad brought Pizza.” The word pizza changed his mood completely and instantly. After all, he just loved eating it! For him, it was as if the pizza was the only thing in the whole wide world that could bring him joy at that moment.
Benjamin washed his face and came out of the room. He found his father at his door, who upon seeing him, hugged him tightly and kissed him. All four of them then sat at the table and began to eat dinner. His father explained how he found the wallet in one of his employees’ pockets and that he fired him. He said sorry to Benjamin and thanked him as he actually helped him a lot to save his shop because the bad guy was stealing money from the shop all the time.
From Good To Better
The next day, Benjamin was finally able to go to school. On the way, he saw that girl waiting for him. She explained how everybody, including her, missed him in the class. This made him cheer up, and he felt an instant rush of happiness inside him. Upon arriving at the school, his best friend Dennis gifted him a nice P-cap, under which it was written “Happy Birth Day dear Benjamin”, and said sorry for his fault. Benjamin hugged Dennis for such a beautiful gift and for remembering his birthday. They then sat together in the class as usual.
It was the result day at school and when the teacher was handing out his result to Benjamin, she said “good boy” and smiled at him. Benjamin looked at the result and saw that his grades were a lot better than expected. He looked at the teacher and smiled. The teacher was already waiting for his smile, and she smiled back. Benjamin felt so much respect and love from everybody at school that day.
From Better TO Best
When Benjamin returned home, everybody surprised him by wishing him Happy Birthday. They celebrated his birthday with a cake with candles. The events of the whole day overwhelmed him a lot and he couldn’t have felt happier. As he was going to his bedroom that night, he heard his mom asking his dad if he went to see the doctor. He said he will go when there is enough money for his treatment. She got angry and asked him why he spent money on the cake instead of going to the hospital. He said that he had slapped Benjamin mistakenly and he wanted to make him feel better by buying him a cake. This showed him how bad his father was feeling.
The Sweet Comparison
Benjamin went to his bed and started to compare his day with the one before. Yesterday he was angry at everyone and thought everybody was against him. Today he saw everybody love him and felt so overwhelmed. Somehow, Benjamin felt embarrassed by the feelings he felt yesterday and started to think that he was wrong about everybody and that he shouldn’t have thought so bad about his own family and teacher. He realized that it was his mistake too during the exam. He realized that he should have followed the exam rules and instead of talking to his friend, he should have told the teacher that his friend was bothering him.
Flipping The Story
Now, let us flip the story and bring some changes to Benjamin’s personality.
Let’s go back to the moment when his father called him a thief and slapped him. He went home, closed the door, and started to cry in his bed alone. As he was crying, he was feeling everything that we read above. Benjamin was very emotional and angry at the same time. He got flashbacks of the past two weeks and started to think that everything happened to him because of his close friend. He was also very angry at his parents for not listening to him and simply accepting what the teacher said. He was furious for being kicked out of school for two weeks and that he was forced to work at the automobile shop. The third person he hated the most was the guy at the shop. It was because of him that he got blamed. And the last person that he was angry at was his brother who should not get more love and parents’ attention compared to him and should not meet and walk with the girl who he wanted to be his girlfriend soon.
The Angry Benjamin
He was repeatedly thinking about all these events and crying with so much anger and thought of revenge from Dennis and the guy at the shop. It was evening and dinner time. He heard his brother shouting, “Benjamin dad brought Pizza.” He did not give any attention to the word “pizza” although he was hungry and loved pizza too. His father was knocking at the door and tried to invite him for dinner but he did not come out. He slept with these feelings and the next day, when he met the girl, he abused her directly. She did not even get a chance to say anything to him and was surprised by Benjamin’s behavior and got angry. When he reached the school he saw his friend Dennis and started to fight with him. He punched him on the nose and it started to bleed. Benjamin then ran away back to his home, with blood on his shirt. His mother saw him and started to fight with him. Since he was very angry, he pushed her away and went to his room. He changed his dress and went to his grandma’s home in another town.
Blaming Others
Before going to sleep in his grandma’s home, he started to think about everything again and again and started to curse everybody. He blamed Dennis, the teacher, the guy at the shop, his parents, his brother, and the girl at the bus stop. Due to all of this, he completely missed the chance to realize his mistake and look at all those people in a positive way.
Missed Chances
The angry Benjamin did not give any chance to his father to show him love and respect at the dinner table. He missed out on the chance to hear nice words from the girl in the morning, and he did not allow his friend to give him the P-cap and apologize to him. He could not see his teacher saying “good boy” and smiling at him, and he even missed his birthday celebration, where he could feel overwhelmed and loved by everyone.
The Final Message
You either let the situation control you or step back, take a deep breath, and allow yourself to control your situation.
