My Reflection: The Pencil by Paulo Coelho

             The story seemed so simple at its introduction, but just like the story's message, it depends on how you look at simple things and how you interpret the simple presentation of the story. 

After hearing the story, my perspective in life broadened. The story hit the reality that same as the pencil, we, as mankind has five characteristics as well: We need someone who will guide us in order for us to perform our capabilities in a most purposive way; if the pencil needs us, we need God as our sole guide. Second, if the pencil need to bear the blade of the sharpener to improve its writing quality, we also goes through the pain of life's tough challenges that would hone us to become a better person. Third, the pencil has its eraser to delete errors, it simply implies that in life, as individuals, it's possible that we commit mistakes, but we should not hold on to that and let that mistake make a mark of dirt in our lives, we should strive to erase that mistake and move on. Fourth, the pencil's design doesn't matter at all, it is what its content, its lead. Just like us persons, the most important about us is what goes inside. Our core values and characters that makes our whole personality. And last, the pencil and us will someday somehow fade away but will always leave a mark.