Week 11 Story: Perspective

Updated story found on Portfolio.


"AHHHHHHH!" thousands of fans screamed as he headed towards the stage. Performing on stage was his favorite part of his job. He smiled from ear to ear as he stood back and listened to the entire Wembley Stadium sing back to him his lyrics.

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Ava thought that the man standing before her, singing his heart out was the coolest person. She has been his fan since his first post on YouTube just singing a cover of a song in his room. Ava even went to his concert when he was just performing in small college auditoriums. Now, she saw him performing in one of the largest stadiums in the entire world. Honestly, she would do anything to  meet him.

Every time Ava would go to his concert, she would come back and talk nonstop about it to her friends. Nick, one of Ava's friends, could not wrap his head around what the big deal was with this singer. Ava would show Nick pictures from the concert as well as the songs she sang along to. Still, however, Nick was not impressed. Rather, Nick thought of him as an untalented celebrity unworthy of the fame he has achieved.

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Earlier that evening, Natalia was in her flat. As she crossed her living room to go to the kitchen, she caught her roommate change the channel of the telly from her ex-boyfriend's televised stadium concert to the food channel. Natalia hated him so much. It had been two months since they broke up but everyone in her life was still tiptoeing around her when it came to him and his fame. She regretted having him in her life as she thought of him as a player who played with her feelings.

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Right by the stage at the concert stood Ashley. She was happy to see her friend perform in their hometown. Ashley looked at him, then to the crowd, then back at him. She could see her friend so happy as he did what he loved.

After the concert, they grabbed Nando's as this was their favorite restaurant. Time would pass them without a single notice. Ashley's side ached as she laughed all night because of how goofy he was. Her favorite thing about him was that he always made time for his friends. She knew he was tired from performing, yet he was still there in front of her, engaged in conversation, and spending time with her. He really was one of her truest, kindest friends.

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Each person is entitled to having their own opinion based on the unique lenses they wear. Ava, Nick, Natalia, and Ashley all viewed the famous singer with very different perspectives based off the history and interactions they had with him. Some thought of him as good, while others hated his being. We cannot control how others view and think of us. Rather, we can only control ourselves, our own attitude, actions, and words. In a world where it is so easy to criticize as well as too feel put down, we must remember to disregard the "noise" the world may put around us and be our authentic selves.

The image above is of a packed Wembley Stadium, like the concert described at the beginning of the story. 

Author's Note:
My story is loosely based off of the Jataka Tale, "The Red-Bud Tree." In this tale, I found the lesson to be: A single thing can be seen from different perspectives. When we view a single person or thing, we are all looking at it with our own unique lenses, whether it be at different times, the same time but at different angles, or the same time and angle but with different mindsets due to past history and memories. In the original story, there were four princes who saw a Red-Bud Tree at different seasons of its life. Each prince saw something different from the other princes when looking at the tree.

Therefore, I wanted to use this lesson about perspective as the foundation for my own story. In my story, the Red-Bud Tree is replaced by a famous celebrity, while the four princes were replaced by four people who knew the celebrity (but in different capacities). I wanted to do it in this way because I wanted to incorporate a lesson about remembering that we have no control of others but only ourselves.

I chose to write the story using third-person language, because I wanted to have a helicopter view of the entire situation in order to acknowledge the different perspectives of the four people on the famous celebrity. I also chose not to name the celebrity. I feel that all readers are a fan of someone, and this celebrity portrayed in the story can be replaced by whoever the reader is a fan of. Lastly, I chose not to give the perspective of the celebrity. I wanted to keep the celebrity as a single item, like the Red-Bud Tree, who did not have a verbal role in the sections where another person's perspective is being described. This was to further enhance the message that we cannot control what others think about us.

Bibliography: "The Red-Bud Tree" from More Jataka Tales, Part A. Author: Ellen C. Babbitt. Illustrator: Ellsworth Young. 1922.