“Excuse me, sweetie, you don’t have any rights to be in this area. This is a restricted area,” insisted the office lady.

“I am a student at this school. Now, can you please let me in?” replied Emma.

Then the office lady seemed confused and asked for Emma’s name. Then, what a shocked face came from the office lady! It was as if something terrible had happened. Then the office lady quickly walked Emma down to the front gate of the school.

The office lady replied, “You don’t go to this school.”

“What are you saying? I do go to this school!” cried Emma.

​

Then Emma started to shout for help. Fortunately for Emma, her parents, who were having a morning walk with Emma’s dog, Maple, recognised her. To her surprise, they were both very calm about the situation, and they took her back home.

“What just happened? Why didn’t you do anything about that? Is this really true, or is it a prank on me?” Emma shouted.

“Yesterday, you were shouting to our faces that you wanted to quit school because it was like watching paint dry,” Emma’s mum replied.

Then Emma went into total silence. She had made a mistake that had changed her whole life. For the next two weeks, she was as slow as a sloth and barely did anything.

“Mum, please send me to school. I promise you that I will not be ungrateful to you,” begged Emma.

Her mum had completely ignored her and barely looked at her. Emma had lost all hope of going back to school, but then she thought that she could get a job and earn enough money to pay for tutoring classes.

​

Ten years later…

“Sweetie, you have school today. Wake up!”

Now Emma is a mother of two children who are the most precious to her because they have been very grateful for their school and have a wonderful future ahead of them. Emma has told them about her childhood experiences. She has taught them how to be grateful for their school so that they don’t face the same challenges as she did!