The Lost One

I’ve had a fairly average life. The only aspects of it that could be considered not so weren’t quite exciting and cheerful moments. They're not something most people have to go through so I guess it  was the dark periods of my life that would set me apart from the peers surrounding me during the school day. A distinction I was glad to have, not because I was proud of those periods, but because any difference from my schoolmates was a good one. Anyhow, I had learned from those times and was honestly quite ashamed of them so I didn’t often drag those memories from the recesses of my mind.

It was only during my homework assignment that I found myself reflecting on the impact they have had on me. We had had a discussion in English class about what qualities and factors make a good hero or heroine. Our teacher told us there were two sides to every protagonist. The good and the bad, as the cliché went. 

“Every excellent character has a key trait that empowers them. A part of their personality that acts as their lifeline and guide in their adventures. Robin Hood had his bravery and sense of justice and Hercules, his strength. And not all heroes risk their lives and out-this-world experiences. Pooh was known by his love for honey and loyalty to his friends.”  That earned a chuckle from the class.

Everybody liked our teacher, Mr. Daner. He was funny and genuinely interested in the subject he taught, which showed from the way he handled his lessons. He also had a penchant for involving Pooh Bear in many of his lectures. He even had a stuffed version of Pooh that sat on his teaching desk that his daughter gave him. People used to tease him and call him weird for his Pooh Bear trait, until one day in class when he told us his daughter absolutely adored Pooh and had died four years ago from leukemia. The comments stopped after that.

“’But just as every hero has an outstanding gift, they have an equally magnificent flaw that cripples them. Nobody wants to read or watch a movie about a perfect character with no faults or errors; that would be incredibly boring.” And he was right, of course. Almost all of my favorite characters have been on the bad side, they were always just much more intriguing than the goody two shoes protagonist.

It was with the conclusion of his lecture that he gave us the assignment that has my now wracking my mind to find something to write about. “So that’s your homework. You are the hero of your life and thus, you must delve into yourself and find what your key strength and fatal flaw is. It doesn’t have to be long, just a short reflection that you will turn in to me by the end of class tomorrow.”

I knew what to write about for my key strength; that was easy enough. Ever since I was little my aunt told me how special I was and how I have an extraordinary gift.  My “gift” however isn’t really that special though. I just happen to be really smart. My intellect has always been far superior than those of my people I share classes with. I wasn’t eidetic or Stephen Hawkings smart, but it was enough to have me reading and doing math at a college level by the time I was in fourth grade. I was very proud of my intelligence, but I often grew bored of events and people that most others enjoy because they don’t stimulate me. They’re idiotic and irrational. It would be hard for me to write all that for my assignment without sounding pretentious, but its true.

It was the second part of our assignment that I was having trouble with. Its not that I don’t have any flaws, I have plenty them, believe me. But none of them could be considered my fatal flaw. I am bossy, short-tempered, and manipulative but those were honestly all things I could deal with better if I was determined to do so.

I’m not someone who’s averse to bending words and changing facts in order to fit my needs and if I wanted to complete this homework, it looks like that is what I’ll have to do, which will be easy enough. I can fabricate lies that sound more plausible than the truths they cover. I was not about to get a bad grade on this assignment; call me a perfectionist.