"I'll climb the tower"

Once there was this rather stupid eleven year old boy. Every one thought so! People thought he was dumb!

He was bad at most things the other children were really good at! He didn't like studying. In fact he didn't like school at all! He loved bunking school and going fishing with his friends.In spite of all these things he was a dreamer! He thought he was smart! No one else thought he was!

One day he happened to watch a movie in which a man climbed a tower. He was very impressed by it. So he decided he would do the same! There was a tower nearby. He made up his mind that he would climb this tower.

"I'll climb the tower!" he told his parents. They looked at him. They looked at each other. They shook their heads.

"Ill climb the tower!" he told his friends at school. They looked at him. They looked at each other. They shook their heads. He kept saying it over and over.

He told everyone he met that same line! People actually started to get sick of him saying the same words over and over! However, he never got tired of repeating that very same line to everyone he met!

One day he entered a bus going towards the town. He told the old lady seated next to him on the bus - "I'll climb the tower!"

"That's a good young lad!" she said.

He was relieved! He couldn't help but take a liking towards her-after all she was the only person who seemed to think it was a good idea! He decided to tell her his story saying a little more than "I'll climb the tower!"

"Lady, I have been dreaming of climbing the tower for months, for years actually, ever since I laid my eyes on it" he said with glee in his eyes. He wanted to tell her about the movie he watched as well but didn't. He was embarrassed to say that he got the idea from a movie.

"It might be easier than you think!" she said.

After having heard encouraging words from the lady in the bus, the young boy went on his merry way. He decided to go home and at least for today, the topic at the dinner table wasn't about climbing the tower like it had been for the past one week. Being the only son of his parents, he decided to be quiet that day. No one ever liked it when he brought up the topic. But it still seemed indeed strange that he wasn't saying anything.

This time he wasn't talking about climbing the tower. He was busy thinking about how it could be achieved. He was quiet at the dinner table.

His mum said "You're awfully quiet today son."

He kept still.

'The chicken is good." he said to his normally uninterested mother.

After dinner, he went to his room. He got into his bed. "Dear God with your help I'll climb the tower!" he prayed out loud.

The next day he didn't wait for the school bus to arrive at the bus stop and take him to school. Instead he went in the exact opposite direction! He was as quiet as a cat on his feet, just so no one noticed. He saw the tower from afar, and decided to walk towards it. It really was quite a distance away, but the young lad was indeed determined to get there. When he was finally in front of the tower, he told himself "Today Ill climb the tower!"

He put one foot into what seemed like a good foothold. He did the same with the other foot. He couldn't believe how good he was getting at it. His foot slipped once. Yet he tried again.Soon he realised he was very high up above the ground. He didn't want to look down. He continued to climb. He pushed his legs into the wall. He kept pulling himself up. He kept doing this. Suddenly he realised that he had reached the top of the tower!.

He was elated! Luckily there was a door there, that led to a winding stair case. He reached the base of the building. He was too scared to actually climb all the way back down again.

The next day, everywhere he went, he said " I climbed the tower" to everyone he met! People looked at him, as usual and shook their heads.

"I climbed the tower !" he told the bus driver.

"I climbed the tower !" he told his friends.

"I climbed the tower !" he told his mother at the dinner table.

"Did you really climb the tower?" his mother asked him.

"Yes I climbed the tower !" the boy replied.

She actually believed him.

The next day he met the old lady that had inspiring words for him the last time he met her on the bus. He greeted her and sat next to her.

"I climbed the tower !" he said to her.

"That's my boy" she said to him proudly.

He now had a wide grin on his face. He told her the whole story. He told her about how he started at the base of the tower by finding a good foothold. He then told her about how he keenly observed how it was done in the movie. He even told her about how he didn't speak to anyone for a little while at home and about how he avoided school that day, just so things didn't look suspicious. He was indeed elated. And he felt wonderful that he met the one person who encouraged him to follow his heart in the first place. He felt splendid.

He seemingly got the confidence to attempt doing other things in life from this one experience! It taught him alot! Every body else thought he was just another silly boy. He thought of the one time he climbed the tower, and it became easier not to care. Every time he had a hard task ahead of him, he thought about the time he climbed the tower.

It didn't seem possible but the class dunce actually grew up to be rich and successful! As a respectable businessman, he never stopped telling people his story wherever his travels took him! He loved to repeat the technical details about the time his foot slipped at the base of the tower, when as a little boy, he tried to scale the massive structure. He recounted with great detail the time when he didn't want to look at the ground because he had climbed up too high above the ground. People laughed but in a different way. Again he said "I climbed the tower" and people looked at him with pride.