When you make fun of someone nonstop, it becomes a bad habit. And, sure, the person you’re bullying may get used to it… but others? They may not be so passive.

This stories revisits the famous “Ugly Ducklings” story and takes a new perspective: is that goose ugly? Or are those ducks? They’re mean and rude - just honk and cluck, making fun of everything about their “sibling”. These ducks care more about feeling cool than being kind. Let’s take a look. Enjoy the story below:

Four ducklings grew up in the same nest. Yet one egg was very different. While three little ducklings were soft and yellow, one was bigger, grey, and had a long neck. You see, it was actually a baby goose whose egg had been placed in the wrong nest. This is not very common in nature, but it can happen.

At first, the three ducklings only joked about the goose’s looks. But soon they picked at everything; how it swam, the way it talked, even the way it smelled and blinked. They didn’t notice it, but they were getting used to criticizing. The teasing became a habit, and the habit became their normal.
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Then one sunny morning, the four young birds left their little pond for the first time ever and headed out to the lake. They paddled through tall reeds and arrived at big open water. Everything felt new and exciting. There were so many animals. In the distance, they saw another strange-looking bird.

“Look at that one!” laughed one of the ducklings. The others joined in, and the goose stayed quiet.

But the strange bird wasn’t quiet. It spun around, hissed, and bit a whole chunk of feathers off one duckling.

The four scrambled and the strange bird away. One duckling now had a skinny-no-feather wing. It felt ugly and useless. The other two ducklings were instantly embarrassed to be seen together in public. But as months passed and they kept exploring, the little goose’s understanding of the world changed, too, realizing they were only acting like mean bullies out of habit. It’s what they knew.
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His neck grew longer, wings grew stronger, and he soon looked like every other geese at the lake. But since he grew up with ducks (not geeze), he carried a unique perspective. This was rare, and many were curious to know his perspective and spend time with him. They liked his personality. And whenever the ducks were rude, find something else to do, ignore it, or tell them directly, “that’s rude”.

The three ugly ducklings were confused with the goose’s new attitude, but they had other things to worry about: one’s feathers never grew back right, another became awkward in its own way, and the third stayed frustrated.

They never quite figured out… the world is big, full of variety, and wild. Will you spend all of your time making fun of it, or trying to understand?

STORYBOOK: The Three Ugly Ducklings

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