Greek Myth:
Personal Essay:
An Ordinary Treasure
“I want to give up......” I thought, as my energy was slowly being sapped up. Suddenly, I finally struck hard ground.
“Yay!” I had shouted with immense pleasure. Suddenly the whole woozy feeling to give up had gone away, leaving a boost of energy to keep me going. I carefully dug out the top of the bottle (or I thought it was) and stomped in anger.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Muck covered my boots as I dug a hole in my backyard. The sun was a vibrant yellow, finally appearing from behind the clouds, slowly heating up the freezing dawn. The hole that my dad and I had dug was huge; bigger than we had dug before, eleven meters by two, and filled our huge backyard. We had finished the night before, so what was I doing here? Just before we stopped I had discovered a alluring bottle made out of Roman glass, and on the outside of the dull glass was a dragon soaring above a turquoise sea. I was mystified by the sight, and immediately decided to dig the next morning, to maybe find more bottles of the same kind.
The mood of the day continued, followed by a slight drizzle in the morning, then sunshine, giving me luck in my find. Still I had not been very successful in finding another bottle or even a piece of glass. I was starting to become weary, and my muscles ached. Each pull required more and more energy and sucked out my will to continue. My energy was slowly being sapped up, and finally I struck hard ground.
“Yay!” I had shouted with immense pleasure. Suddenly the whole woozy feeling to give up had gone away, leaving a boost of energy to keep me going. I carefully dug out the top of the bottle (or I thought it was) and stomped in anger. It was a broken log, but somehow still in perfect shape. I gazed at the beautiful trunk, wondering what in the world had caused it to stay like that. I finally assumed that some sort of bacteria had covered it; but it was good bacteria, that got the detritivores sick, but kept the tree in good shape.
A minute later, I noticed the tree was covered in a brown-orangish liquid, and I felt it. The tree was rock solid, and I finally realised that the tree was covered in amber. I screamed out loud, extremely happy with my find. I slowly hacked open the wood, looking inside for insects covered with amber. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking at the wrong place.................
After a while, I gave up, and started looking for more bottles. I started to dig around the tree, then struck something orange. I pulled it out of the roots - it was a amber beetle! Then, I realised that I had wasted my time looking in the tree, because amber dripped outside the tree. Extremely excited, I raced towards my dad to tell him the good news.
A minute later, I found him, about to go to the shop. “Dad! Look at this!” I had exclaimed.
He came over and was surprised. “What is this?”
Excitedly, I told him that I had found a special stone, probably made out of amber, and we were going to make a lot of money out of it. He inspected the miraculous stone once again, and then threw it away.
“Dad, what did you do that for?” I angrily yelled at him.
My dad then shot back, “It was just a transparent rock with etches in it, not insects!”
My heart shrunk, and I was again ready to give up. I took the bottle I had found last night, looked at it, and looked at it again. There was no way I was going to give up......... but there was nothing else. Looking at my “tremendous dig”, I realised all of this was just a waste of time. I had broken the tree, shovelling inside, looking for insects, and only coming out with a rock that imitated amber and had a scratch on the inside. Then, I saw it. Another beautiful piece of glass, with its end sticking out, trying to tease me because I couldn’t find it. I reached toward the bottle and pulled it out, but it was stuck. I pulled against the bottle, and suddenly it popped out, and I fell backwards on the ground, and stared at the jar. I had found the other piece.
The beautiful turquoise jar had a matching mythical dragon on its side, and resembled a stormy sea triggered by the dragon’s breath. I immediately brought this to my dad and showed him the bottle.
Please don’t throw it away, I thought.
“How do you know,” he said, “that is not a fraud?”
I showed the dragon side to my father and he gasped.
Reminiscing upon that morning, while washing the jar and the bottle and storing them, I felt great. Even though I worked out all morning and used all my energy, I didn’t feel like I had wasted it. Next time, I would not even think about giving up, as now I know eventually everything will work out just fine.
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