Storytelling Week 4: The Boy with One Fear

There once was a boy so ready to go to college he could hardly contain himself in the days leading up to his departure. His mother worried a lot about him though. The boy could see the fears his mother had for him, and when he asked her about them she gave him a looooooong list of all the things troubling her; classes, making new friends, taking care of his health, the distance from home, etc. The boy ignored her, saying that he wasn’t worried about anything at all! He would be fine! The next week he set off to college.


Within the first week he met many people, and made many new friends. He was already proving his mother wrong, he thought. He mentioned to his new group of friends that he was very excited for this new adventure in his life, and had no fears at all. They were all shocked, seeing as they all had at least one fear when it came to college. His first friend asked him how he did not fear anatomy, as it was the worst class of all. It was terribly hard, and would take up every second of his life, but the boy was still not afraid of the challenge.


He wasn’t afraid losing touch with his old friends either, as another friend had mentioned. He knew that even if he did not talk to his old friends as much, they would never lose their special friendship forged over the past four years.


Over the next several months the boy faced many new situations, some good and some bad. He kept a positive attitude throughout them all, and was excelling at this new college thing. He had joined the best fraternity, survived pledge-ship, was making an A in anatomy (literally unheard of!), and had plenty of great new friends! Nothing fazed this kid.


…..That is until one night at a party. It was his first night that he was allowed to talk to girls (that was a no-no when he was a pledge). In his mind it was no big deal. He had figured out everything else having to do with college life, and this was just another adventure, or so he thought.


The night was turning out pretty well. The boy was having fun with his friends as usual until he saw the prettiest girl walk into the room. How had they never crossed paths before? She was beautiful! His friends noticed him staring, and started teasing him and telling him to go talk to her. The boy had never been so nervous or afraid in his life, and it took a full ten minutes for his friends to convince him to go say hi. Eventually he went over, shakily, to start a conversation. They talked all night, and made a date for the next evening.

Affection
By Juliana Coutinho

Over the next month the boy got to know this beautiful girl, and asked her to be his girlfriend. Eventually it was time for him to go home for Christmas break. Now it was his mother’s turn to be excited! She embraced him for five minutes until he finally had had enough and wiggled his way out of her arms. He told

her how great everything was, and also admitted his one fear to her. She was so happy that everything had gone well for her son, and even a little happy that he faced some fear that semester.



Author’s Note: This story came from a Turkish story where a little boy sees his mother experience fear. He was very confused when he saw her reaction to what she was afraid of, and did not understand why she wanted to lock the door. He then sets off to find this so called fear, but cannot find it anywhere. There are three different groups he encounters, and each tries to give him a task that will induce fear. Finally he comes to a beautiful castle, which he enters without a second thought. A woman there then feeds him dinner, but when he lifts the cover to the plate a bird flies out and scares him. I adapted this story to a more applicable situation. I wanted it to be able to relate to the fears people have now. I thought of a very stressful situation for many people, which is change. When I started college I remember having a lot of fears going in, so this boy having none would be weird to many people who have fears of their own. I also wanted to show that sometimes it can be the small things that are the scariest, which is where talking to the girl came in.

Bibliography: "Fear" from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

Week 4 Reading Diary Continued: Lost Girl

For the second half of the unit of Turkish tales from Ignacz Kunos's Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales I was very intrigued by the story of the girl who got trapped on the other side of a wall, but found a way out through patience. I really liked the part of the story where she thought she was going to be freed, but then was deceived and yet she still did not give up. If I were to write a story about this particular tale I would want the young girl to get lost in the woods, instead of being trapped by some giant wall. Her mother would look for her day and night. I would want to girl to encounter a fox who would promise to lead her back to her home, but then at the last minute the fox would take a wrong turn, and lead her instead to a deeper part of the forest. The girl would foresee no chance of escaping. When she was most desperate a little sparrow would come to her, and show her the way home. It would be a long journey back. During this journey she would have a breakdown, and refuse to continue saying that the journey was hopeless. Her intentions would be to give up. As soon as she has accepted that her fate is to be lost forever, she would see her mother looking through the woods, and would run to her mother and rejoice with her! After they have finished embracing, the sparrow would reveal to them that they are not far from an uninhabited castle, and they would happily spend the rest of their lives in this beautiful palace made of marble.

Castle
From Wikipedia Commons

Reading Diary Week 4: The Boy With No Fears.

Before reading these Turkish stories, I had never heard any like them! They were very creative, and new to me with their wizards and fairies. These stories were from Ignacz Kunos's Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales. I really enjoyed the story about the little boy not knowing what fear was, but then a simple task showed him the fear he had been searching. I think this would be a fun story to use for my storytelling this week. I could modernize the fears others kept trying to test him with. It could be a student who was very confidant in their skills. People could keep telling him to take classes and do things that would surely scare him, but never did. In the end he may be scared to go talk to a pretty girl at a party. I would like to keep the part about his mother too. I enjoyed her position in the story. Instead of a mother sending her child to find fear, the mother could send her child to college. It would end with him and his mother being reunited at the end of his first semester. He would tell her all about his experiences, and that he finally found fear, but also the love of his life.

College Life
By Nazareth College