Once upon a time, a boy named Plan found a rolled-up blank sheet of paper under a rock by the river.
He unrolled it and looked. The paper was completely white, nothing on it at all. But as he walked away, he glanced down and saw that the path he had just walked had drawn itself onto the paper.
Plan ran a few steps, and the line on the paper grew longer. He stopped, and the line stopped too.
“A map that draws itself!” he shouted with joy.
He walked around exploring everywhere he was curious about, and the map traced every step — through forests, across fields, through villages, along rivers. His map filled up with countless paths.
But one day, he walked along with a group of friends who liked to steal fruit from other people’s gardens. He knew it was wrong, but he wanted his friends to like him, so he went along.
When he looked at the map afterward, that day’s path was fainter than the others, like a pencil line drawn without full commitment.
The next day, he helped an elderly woman carry her things home, and that path was darker and clearer than any other line.
Plan began to understand that the map wasn’t just recording where he went — it was recording what kind of person he was, each and every day.
He folded up the map and decided that from then on, he would only walk paths he could be proud of.
His map slowly filled with dark, clear lines, and when he grew up and looked back, those paths told the story of a life he had chosen for himself, one step at a time.
Moral: Our life is a map we draw ourselves, through every decision we make each day. Every step we take, every action, every choice shapes our own path. Choose to walk the path you can be proud of.
