Week One Storytelling: The Three Beauts

Once upon a time, there was a group of three stunningly beautiful young women that were admired and adored throughout their entire lives. These three young ladies were named Kenya, Deena and Alexis. From a young age, each of these girls have been their parents' prized possessions. They all had siblings, but none of their siblings could live up to the star status of these three girls. 

Kenya grew up in Washington, D.C. She was the girl that all of the guys wanted to take as their date to banquets and balls during high school. She was the captain of the presidential volleyball team. Kenya was very popular, but it seemed that she had more associates than actual friends while she was growing up. Sometimes she wished she had more friends that she could just have sleepovers with, and share all her secrets, but then she’d think to herself, “What do I need them for? I’m drop dead gorgeous!”

Deena grew up in Arlington, TX, she was the showgirl at the Texas state fair for the car show, and for the days that she wasn’t working as the showgirl, she had all of the guys from Grand Prairie High lining up to be her date to the fair each night. 

One night, when she was at the fair, she told her date to buy her a cotton candy after he had already bought her a turkey leg and lemonade. When her date told her that he didn’t bring enough money for that much food and for rides, Deena became LIVID! She began to scream at her date, not caring who overheard her verbal attack as she screamed, “Do you know who I am? Look at my hair, look at my skin! Do you know how many people would kill to take me to the fair, and you don’t even have enough money to buy me some cotton candy!”

 Before she could even see the small tear fall from her date’s eye, Deena stormed off in the opposite direction. 

Alexis grew up in Los Angeles, CA.  Just like Kenya and Deena, she was also a beauty queen, literally. Alexis had won 12 pageants in the 17 years she’d been alive. She was so rude to her parents, although they cherished her dearly. 

Even though her parents were her manager, personal bodyguard, and assistant, Alexis didn’t know when to treat them like mom and dad. Alexis was always yelling at her parents what to do and when to do it. 

Everyone thought she was so sweet, but the way she treated her parents tarnished all of that. Even though she had such an ugly personality, to her fellow contestants, Alexis was still the most beautiful girl in the competition. Often the other girls would say, “I would do ANYTHING to be her.”

The next year, Kenya, Deena and Alexis graduated from high school and all three ended up at Self Love University (SLU). The mission of SLU was to improve and promote the theory of “loving thyself.” These three girls thought that they would get A’s during their tenure at SLU.

 Just so happened, they all ended up living on the same floor and had a great RA. Their RA was trained to identify the pieces that needed to be worked on and could tell that she had her work cut out for her with these three. Every day she’d see them and hear them talk about what was so “beautiful and perfect about them.” Then she would say to herself, “Silly rabbits, within the mark of your vanity lies your largest flaw.”

I hope you all enjoyed my story! The inspiration for my story came from the Indian Fable listed below. This story really stood out to me, because it spoke a principle we should all remember to live by each day and it shows the consequences of not following a humble approach to life.

ONCE there was a great assembly of the animals in a wood. The lion said, "Look, how great my valour! 'tis this that makes me king of the woods."

The fox said, "Look, how deep my cunning! 'tis this that feeds me so well."

The peacock said, "Look, how bright my feathers! 'tis this that makes me the wonder and admiration of the wood."

The elephant said, "Look, how long and powerful my tusks! there is nothing that can resist them."

A toad, who lived secure in the heart [31] of a rock, close by, said, " 'Tis the lion's valour that leads him to the herds, and gets him killed by the hunters. 'Tis the fox's cunning that brings him to the furrier at last. 'Tis the plumes of the peacock that men covet; hence his ruin. The elephant is hunted for his tusks, and they are his bane. In the mark of your vanity is your death!"

Bibliography: 

This story is from the book, Indian Fables, by P. V. Ramaswami Raju (1887)

The picture of the crown can be found here, representing Alexis' pageant titles.