Fortunate Life

I watched a video today about The Ugly Duckling , but this time, it wasn’t the usual version I grew up with. Prof. Laureen shared a different perspective — one that quietly rearranged something in me. She said the “ugly duckling” never became a beautiful swan. She was a swan all along. She just didn’t know it yet. That line stayed with me. For most of her life, the swan thought she was a duck because that’s what everyone around her believed. The ducks compared her, judged her, and pointed out how she didn’t look or sound like them. They criticized what they didn’t understand — and she believed them. She thought she was less, unworthy, or somehow wrong for being different. But the truth was simple: she was never meant to fit in with the ducks. She wasn’t broken. She was just in the wrong pond. It made me think about how often we do this to ourselves. We suffer because we compare. We believe the opinions of people who don’t even see us for who we truly are. We shrink, we question...