Once upon a time, there was a valley the villagers called the Singing Valley.
Whoever made a sound within this valley would hear it sing back with the most beautiful melody they had ever heard.
A girl named Suraseang heard about this and wanted to try it very much, because she couldn’t sing at all — her voice was hoarse and shrill, and her friends always laughed whenever she tried.
She journeyed into the valley, through the forest, across a stream, until she reached the center, surrounded by tall stone cliffs.
Suraseang opened her mouth and let out a sound. Hoarse, cracked, not beautiful at all.
But the valley sang back in reply.
The melody that echoed back wasn’t her voice transformed to sound beautiful — it was her very own voice, but reflected back in many overlapping layers, becoming a complex and wondrous new melody.
Suraseang stopped to listen, then sang again. Her voice and its echo wove together into a song like no other.
She sang, and the valley sang back, until the sun set.
On her way home, she understood — the valley hadn’t given her a beautiful voice. It had simply turned the voice she already had into a song.
And from that day on, Suraseang was never ashamed to sing again, because she knew her voice was her own, and it didn’t need to sound like anyone else’s to be beautiful.
Moral: Each of our voices is unique, unlike anyone else’s. Don’t compare yourself to others — instead, discover and embrace the beauty in your own way, because that is what makes you truly yourself, and like no one else in the world.
