As simple as it is, a piece of wood with a long strand of embedded lead.

Perhaps, it is considered as a useful buddy in our daily lives. Many of us ignore it without even knowing that we cannot express and explain our feelings without this. Well, a pencil.

There was once a story about pencils owned by different status of people.

In a school supplies store, a group of pencils were dreaming of a fine future master. All of them of course dreamed of a luxurious life and a special treatment.

Not until after five minutes, an engineer bought one pencil and uses it as a pal in sketching construction buildings on a blueprint. His pencil is always with him wherever he go. Time came when the pencil turned smaller because of endless writing. That moment, it is on the garbage can now together with stinky mess.

Time has come for the second pencil to be owned by a painter. He also uses it so definitely. The pencil enjoys the company of his lord. They always hang-out. It is always with the painter-inside the pocket. When the painter got irritated with the natural disturbance around him, he broke the pencil. It’s worse than the first one. Poor pencil, it was left famished and breathless.

A collector of pencil bought the third one. But the third pencil is bored because he is just inside the box together with the other expensive pencils and now has considered himself useless. Everyday, the pencil wishes to be of normal purpose that will enjoy the company of needy people and that who will give attention to him. He felt so glum.

Very timid and non-sense, those words describes the fourth pencil owner-a student who always cuts class and hates studying. He does not know how valuable a piece of pencil is to comply with his lessons. He will just bite, ignore and throw it. The pencil was cracked.

But everything was going great with the fifth pencil. It is the spectacles of all the favors. Its master is a beggar. The young beggar just bought the pencil because he found it itsy-bitsy and he really wants to study-but he could not because of financial problems. His family can’t support his study. But he really took care of the pencil. H e really loves it because in his mind, someday it will be very useful for him. Someday he can use it when he enters the school. Someday, somehow…

For the four pencils who got a pathetic life, everything was a waterloo. All was messed-up. They became envious to the last pencil they loved at first. But now, they pity themselves. In a demanding world, they are now the what-so-called unknown heros of captivity, exile and vanity. Could they be more interested again in pursuing their life- forever in slavery? Ohh… But that is the only way out. No one knows.

It was in the middle of the plague night when the five dried pencils got to reunite again. They had a hard time skipping through their master’s locked window. The four pencils, who in their full expectation have lost their faith, now cease to be captivated again by unruly and you’ll-never-know owners. Isn’t it a hard time for them to conclude this crux and unofficial tag?

“It is how you treat your destiny…however.”