Story: Broken Hearts

In a small village south of Sepon, there lived a young man and his family. They were poor and did not have much to eat. They did not care about how they looked, just as long as they had food on the table. The young man once asked his father for a new pair of clothes but his father responded, “If the pair you have now are not ripped or torn badly, then you don’t need another pair.” The young man was used to this way of living so it did not upset him at all.

One day the young man was out hunting for birds and he came across a beautiful young lady. She had walked to another village and was just passing through but they had a special connection and just couldn’t stop talking to one another. Every day after, she came back to the village to spend time with him. She liked him because he was a gentleman and money was not the only thing on his mind He was a hard worker and enjoyed being outside and helping his family.

The young lady’s family was extremely poor once, but they worked hard to get where they are now. However, they are not wealthy. One day, her parent’s noticed that she was not home as often and would get home really late. They didn’t ask her where she has been, her father decided to follow her and see what she has been doing. As she was walking to the village where the young man lived, her father followed her. He made sure she did not see him and kept a close eye on her. As she got to the village she met up with the young boy and they both worked around his house. Her father was furious and went back home. He did not want his daughter to fall in love with this poor man at all. He knew how hard life would be if she married him because he has experienced it before. He had to stop this and the only thing he could think of was having an arranged marriage for her. There was a family that lived in the same village as them and they had a son. Their son was interested in marrying his daughter when he was younger but she was never interested. This was the perfect timing for her father to contact them and arrange this marriage without her knowing.

One week later, the young lady was about to head out but she noticed there were people at her door. She recognized them because they had met before but she didn’t know why they would be there. Her father told her to sit down with them to talk. She was so nervous and had a really bad feeling about this. Her father finally told her that he had arranged her marriage and now she is getting married. She ran to her bedroom with tears running down her face. There was no way that they could turn back now because the other family has already paid money and given a cow for the young lady. Her father made her go and they dragged her out.

Many days have passed and the poor young man walked to her village to find her. He asked around to see if people have seen her and they all told him that she got married. He could not believe it and was heartbroken. He knew that a beautiful young lady like her would never marry someone as poor as him so he went back home.

The young lady was more heartbroken. She starved herself for several days and became extremely sick. She told everyone that if she could not be with the one she loved, then she would rather die. A couple days later, she passed away. Her father never cried so much in his life. He finally regretted everything he has done and blamed it on himself. If he did not arrange her marriage and force her to get married, this would not have happened. He begged her to wake up and so she could go marry the one she loved but it was too late.

Author’s Note: After reading the story “The Lovers’ Leap” I was inspired to write this one. In the original story, the daughter’s father did not allow her to talk to the young man and chose someone for her to marry.  Towards the end they both run away and are chased by her father and a group of men. They both decide to jump over a cliff and die together. I liked the whole story and just wanted to add more to why the father did not like the young man. I also changed the ending to show how much the daughter loved the young man and to also show how the father immediately regretted his decisions.

(Broken Heart:Pixabay)

Bibliography: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web source.The Lovers' Leap

Reading Notes: Laos: The Lovers' Leap

(Couple and sunset: Pixabay)

The Lovers’ Leap was such a sad story. In the story, the father did not want his daughter to date this young man. I would like to elaborate more on that. I could add events that made the father feel this way. Maybe the young man’s father was his enemy. Or maybe the young man was extremely poor and he did not want his daughter to marry him. He didn’t want his daughter to marry him because he knew that his daughter’s life would be miserable. Another reason could be that in their culture, the parents always rearranged their child’s marriage so her father already arranged her marriage and if she did not comply some thing bad will happen. I can probably add another character as well, for example, her mother or her arranged fiancé. Adding the mother can add dimension and she could be there to give advice to her daughter.

Bibliography: Laos Folk-lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web source. The Lovers' Leap

Learning Challenge: Letting Go

One quote that really grabbed my attention was, “If you can’t do anything about it then let it go. Don’t be a prisoner to things you can’t change.” This is very true and I cannot express how much I love this quote. Some times I struggle with letting things go that I cannot change. I seem to always hang on to things to fix it or get it done. I will end up stressing over it because I can’t do anything about it. I definitely got this trait from my mom because she is the same way. Letting go does not make you any weaker, it actually makes you stronger because you are strong enough to put it behind you to find happiness. I know there are some people that always cling on to their past which makes it way harder for them to be happy and move on. The past is the past for a reason and you should definitely look forward to the future.

Quote image taken from Learning by HEART blog. Link to blog

Growth Mindset: Go without complaining

I can definitely relate to the article, “What it’s like to go without complaining for a month.” I always catch myself complaining and I try to stop. I have noticed that complaining will not make things easier. It will just actually spread the negative attitude towards everyone around you. I have experienced this when I was around a classmate and she always complained about how she did not want to participate. I didn’t either because it was something totally different, but I tried to keep a positive mindset. It was really hard because as I was telling myself to be positive she would be complaining to me. I will definitely challenge myself this month to try and not complain. I know it will really help me as a person and make me enjoy life more. Negative thoughts will just cause more stress.

(Positivity: Flickr)

Web source. What It's Like To Go Without Complaining For A Month

Tech Tip: Reverse Image Search

I think the reverse image search on google  is extremely helpful. Sometimes you find great pictures without information so this is an easy and fast way to learn more about an image.

(This image was included in a blog post: A reddit blog)

Story: The wife

There was a lonely lost girl walking around in the woods. She had no idea where she was. When she tried to talk to people they would just ignore her. It’s like they didn’t see her at all. She kept on walking until she saw a small house in the middle of nowhere. She noticed there were people living in the house, a husband, wife, and the husband’s mother. She watched them everyday through the large window of their house. She would follow the husband everywhere he went. Sometimes she even tried to talk to him and touch him but he never seemed to notice her. Each day the lonely girl grew more and more feelings towards the husband. She began to envy the wife.

One day, the girl decided to walk into the woods from the same direction she came from. She noticed something strange so she walked towards it. She saw a car that looked really familiar but she couldn’t grasp onto how she knew it. As she walked closer, she saw her body lying there. It was white, pale, and helpless. From then she realized that her car had flipped and rolled all the way down there. It rolled so far into the woods that no one saw or heard it.

The girl’s name was Jenny. She was from a small town about an hour away. She had moved there all by herself because she wanted to start a new life. Her husband had cheated on her and remarried so her plans were to get married again and have a family in the new town. Sadly, that didn’t seem to happen. It made her very sad.

She walked back to where the small house was. There she saw the little family that lived there. She thought to herself that she could still have the dream that she always envisioned. As this thought came up, she decided to do something horrible and become the wife. One evening, the wife went outside to do the laundry, the ghost lady attacked her and went inside the wife’s body. Now she was in control of the body. At first, she didn’t know what to think about this because Jenny was not an evil person, but she had always wanted to be happy in her life and this was her chance to be happy.

The husband and his mother began to notice that the wife was doing things differently such as the laundry and dishes. They didn’t think anything of it though. They just thought she wanted to change things up a bit because that’s the type of woman she was. As the days and months went by, they continued on with their lives.

The husband will never know what really happened to his real wife. He continued on his life with this ghost lady in their little house.

Author’s note: After reading “A Ghostly Wife,” I was influenced to write this one. In the original story, the ghost went inside the wife’s body and did many things to make the husband and his mother notice it wasn’t his wife. I wrote this story about the ghost lady and how she got to where she was. Some times tragedies happen and it wasn’t right for the ghost lady to do what she did but she had a reason. I also thought it would be interesting to keep the ending like that because it makes it creepier.

(Foggy woods: Pixabay)

Bibliography: Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day. Web source. Bengals: A Ghostly Wife