YOUNG VOICES May Winner: The Imperfect Pot by Danielle, 5th grade Mineola Middle School

The Imperfect Pot

In a village far away lived a young girl named Abigail. Abigail worked hard to walk six miles everyday to get water for her family. She walked three hours just to get to the well and repeated that to return home. Her brother went with her to make sure she was safe during her trips. On her way back she carried two small pots hanging from each side of a wooden pole. One pot was perfect, and the other was cracked and leaky, losing around half of the water on the way home.  Everyday the cracked pot felt ashamed as they could not carry much water. They compared themselves to the perfect pot and always felt sad.  One day the cracked pot finally spoke, “I’m sorry, I’m never good enough. I’m cracked and damaged. I’m the reason not everyone in your family has water to drink.” Abigail jumped in, “Oh dear pot, your imperfection is a blessing to me.” The cracked pot was confused. How could they be a blessing?, the cracked pot thought. “Don’t you see?,” Abigail said while pointing at the path she walked everyday.The path she walked was full of flowers. Abigail continued, “The so-called imperfection waters the plants making them beautiful!” After, the cracked pot felt better about itself and its imperfections. They lived happily (imperfectly) ever after.