Are you “A Frog in the well’? I think everyone is familiar with the fable named “The Frog in the Well”.
It was a short and simple fable. A frog lived at the bottom of an unused well. One day, a tortoise came to the mouth of the well, the frog saw him, “I am extremely happy; the life here is amazing. I can swim in the water, jump around in the well, or even take a rest on the broken bricks. I can move up and down freely! Come down and try to live as freely as me!” the frog exclaimed. But the mouth of the well was too tiny for the tortoise to pass through. So the tortoise told the frog, “Have you ever seen the sea?” It’s much bigger than the well; its length more than thousands of kilometers!” the tortoise continued. The frog was shocked and had no words to say.
“The Frog in the Well” came from a Chinese idiom and it was derived from the story above. Nowadays, people use it to refer to the people who are short-sighted and arrogant.
A few months ago, an incident made me recall this fable. I saw Rebecca Wong, my secondary schoolmate, appearing on the cover page of a magazine. Without thinking, I picked up my phone and gave her a call. The phone rang “Doo…doo…doo… doo…hello?” and we had a chat for a long time. So we decided to meet and have a chat together at our Secondary School, the place we graduated. When I saw her, she looked bright and smart.
“Hi! Rebecca! You looked smart!” I said. “Thanks, ‘cause I’m an archaeologist now!” She exclaimed. I was shocked with my mouth open widely.
Let me tell you the time while we studied at secondary school. Rebecca was born in a very rich family. Her parents loved her very much. They found the best tutor to teach her at home. Everyday an expensive private car would drive her to school and back home. Rebecca had never got out of the car. She never went to see the world. She was like the frog; she thought her house was the biggest house in the world.
However, I was totally on the other side of the world. I was only born in a middle income family. But I liked travelling. I always saved up my pocket money for travelling around the world in the future. Until now, I had already travelled at least twenty countries.
We chatted for about half of the day. She told me about the process of becoming an archaeologist.
After graduating from secondary school, her mom found a marvelous tutor who was teaching archeology. That tutor taught Rebecca a lot of knowledge about the history and culture of different countries. Besides, because Rebecca was rich, so her father bought an extremely expensive video tape. That tape showed the environment of different places such as Egypt, South Pole and the Amazon Rainforest. And the most special thing was, the video can help the people to feel that place in a 3D format. That was the reason why Rebecca became an archeologist.
After I had heard her experience, I was shocked with anger; but I kept my anger secret until I got back home. I beat my fist down on my bed.
I had no idea why the frog under the well can see the world more than the tortoise…….