A fiction story to learn from

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Eleonora is a very cheerful and somewhat carefree little girl. Since childhood, Eleonora has lived with her extended family in a large house. Eleonora lives in a family that has a peculiarity: all of her descendants possess one or two special abilities. Every child who reaches the age of six will discover the Gift on their own. This tradition has been passed down from Eleonora's mother's family. All of Eleonora's cousins, older brothers, aunts, and mother have received their respective Gifts. Her mother can cure illnesses simply by eating her dishes. Eleonora's older sister, Anna, is very strong, beautiful, and tenacious, so much so that she is often asked to help lift heavy objects in the house. Her second sister, Liana, is very beautiful and intelligent, so much so that many men want to be with her. And let's not forget her cousin. Her cousin, named Eliza, can hear any sound from far away.

Now Eleonora is eleven years old, but she has not yet received the Gift. She was supposed to receive the gift a few days after her sixth birthday. Seven days after her sixth birthday, Eleonora's family would definitely hold a ceremony where the little girl would hold the doorknob and, if successful, the door would change appearance and the contents of the room would change based on the gifts each received. At first, Eleonora still couldn't believe that she hadn't received a gift. She thought that maybe she had received it before the other members of her family, and she also thought that maybe some time after the ceremony Eleonora would receive her gift. Eventually, Eleonora began to accept the truth that she hadn't received the Gift. Unlike the other members of her family who had received their respective gifts. However, Eleonora's parents continued to support her and never compared her, even though she hadn't received any Gifts. Eleonora's parents believed that this didn't make their little girl any less special than the others: Eleonora would still be special in her parents' eyes. This event is very rare and had never happened before in Eleonora's family, so when the event happened and Eleonora's extended family found out that Eleonora had not received any Gifts, their feelings were certainly mixed between confusion, sadness, shame and disappointment. Also, their extended family was quite famous in the village where they lived, they were known as the Magical family because each one had their own gifts that could help the villagers. And something like that couldn't be something her family could be proud of. This is where the problems started.

Eleonora would leave the house, there were always people asking about Eleonora's gift and every time Eleonora said that she had not received any gifts, it would become a topic of conversation among the residents of the neighborhood, to the point that Eleonora sometimes felt less confident about leaving the house. She was often compared to her brothers by the other members of the extended family: "Just try to be like your brothers, have your gifts so you can help us all." Words like these were familiar to Eleonora's ears, or even sentences like "Maybe you're not your mother's biological daughter, that's why you don't get gifts!" Sentences that were really painful for Eleonora, but since they happened often, Eleonora got used to hearing them.

Eleonora began to feel ashamed of not receiving gifts like other family members. Since she was often compared and belittled, she felt that the events that happened to her represented a lack or a limitation within herself. However, she still tried to help the people around her according to her abilities. Her grandmother often said that whenever Eleonora wanted to help, she was considered an "obstacle". Although her intentions were good, in reality she was underestimated because she didn't get any gifts. Although Eleonora really enjoyed helping the people around her, entertaining the small children near her house, helping her parents cross the street and much more, it was as if her extended family turned a blind eye and didn't see that side of Eleonora, focusing only on her flaws. But Eleonora always tried her best to help. Her parents always reminded her, "You don't have to prove anything to anyone, son," but Eleonora didn't seem to care about those words; she always wanted to prove to others, especially her extended family, that she could be just like the other members of the family, each with their own gifts, that she was special just like everyone else. Eleonora also secretly admired her older sister Liana, she wanted to be her beautiful and kind older sister, with her smooth, shiny black hair.

One day, Eleonora's extended family wanted to organize a gift-giving ceremony for Eleonora's younger cousin, Antonio. Antonio was Eleonora's closest cousin, and if the ceremony went smoothly and successfully, Antonio would receive his gift. Antonio was very nervous because of the pressure from the people around him who said, "Antonio, you have to succeed, don't do like yesterday's ceremony. It disappointed many people," his uncle said. Yesterday's ceremony his uncle was referring to was Eleonora's ceremony.

While Antonio was getting ready in his room with Eleonora, Antonio said to Eleonora,
"I'm afraid this ceremony will also fail," Antonio said to Eleonora.
Eleonora replied, "Okay Antonio, don't think about it too much. This time's ceremony will definitely be a success and you will definitely make many people proud, especially grandma," Eleonora said, calming Antonio down with a smile.
Then Eleonora left the room to help the family prepare the necessary equipment for the ceremony and to greet the guests who were starting to arrive.

There was a sacred candle, very important for the ceremony, and whoever held it was never supposed to let it go out. It was believed that the candle had been passed down as a tradition in Eleonora's family. Eleonora wanted to help move the candle to the room where the ceremony would be held because she saw that the other family members were busy welcoming the guests. When she wanted to lift the candle, she carried it carefully because she knew what the consequences would be if the flame went out. As she was heading towards the room where the ceremony would be held, her grandmother suddenly shouted "HEH ELEONORA!!". Eleonora was shocked and accidentally dropped the candle until the flame went out. Her grandmother immediately cursed her. People started to crowd around.

"What are you doing?? You are useless here!!" "What can you do? Instead of helping, you ruin an important event!"
"You always ruin events like this, you are so useless!"
"You can't do anything! You have no gift, you can only annoy someone."
The curses continued to come out of Grandma's mouth. Grandma was like a person possessed by emotions. Eleonora's position was only to hold back tears and apologize repeatedly. But even though Eleonora was wrong, she felt that Grandma had gone too far. Finally, Eleonora spoke.
"Sorry, Grandma. Sorry."
Grandma remained silent.

Finally Grandma left the room and Antonio was there who saw Eleonora holding back tears, hugged her and tried to calm her down. In the end, the ceremony was canceled, or rather, postponed. Eleonora also apologized to Antonio for postponing her important day. Antonio said, "It's okay, little sister."

For two days after the incident, Grandma wouldn't say a word to Eleonora. Until one day Eleonora went to her grandmother and said:
"Grandma, I'm sorry for yesterday, I have no gifts, not like the others. But I always try to help you as much as I can, I'm sorry if it ends up like this. I want to be proud of you like my older brothers. But I will never be enough in the eyes of Grandma because I have no gifts".

"I want to help you, I want to be useful, I want to be Grandma's special granddaughter too. I know I have disappointed Grandma since the last ceremony where I failed to get a gift, but I can't do anything about it. I'm sorry Grandma, I couldn't make her proud", said Eleonora with tears in her eyes.

Grandma was silent and thought about Eleonora's words for a moment, then unconsciously shed tears and said: "Forgive Grandma, Eleonora. All this time I have made you feel ignored, forgive Grandma's words yesterday that must have hurt Eleonora's feelings. Grandma also surely loves Eleonora like her other grandchildren. Forgive Grandma for not being able to accept your flaws. But now Grandma promises to accept all your flaws and give the same attention to all her other grandchildren. In fact, unconsciously you are the one who helps unite our family, you are a beautiful and cheerful girl who knows how to make people around you happy. This is your gift. Making people feel comfortable."

Grandma approached Eleonora. And hugged her immediately.

The message that can be drawn from the story above is that everyone should have their own strengths and weaknesses. We should not be inferior or ashamed of our flaws, until we are forced to compare ourselves to others and behave like others. Be yourself because everyone has their own uniqueness. We do not need to prove our worth to anyone and use criticism as motivation to be better.