A Ring’s Worth
    Have you ever asked yourself, how much are you really worth? Well, I have. I came to know my worth was more than I thought. I was an adolescent like everyone else. I liked to get good grades and when I was at home I liked to read books. You know those children's books, the ones where each page has a drawing that looks as if a toddler had drawn them, the ones with lots of color but not many words. Yes I know, I was a little too old for those books but they always caught my attention. I was weird like that.
So now, let me tell you a little about who I was before I get into detail about how I came to know my worth. My name is Bella, yes like the girl from Twilight, actually exactly like her. I had all her physical characteristics, straight hair, stiff body, and skin as pale as snow. I was also very anti-social, but not because I wanted to be. Nobody wanted to hang out with the weird girl who would get excited about children's books. I felt like the Caribbean, you know like the island, isolated from all the other landmasses.
This is where my story begins, one day I was in class, a small room of 16 students including myself. The teacher decided to do a group activity, and her activities required a partner. Since the class was equally divided by boys and girls she decided that we should partner up that way, a boy with a girl. After a couple minutes everyone except Jaden, Bryan, Ari and I had partners. Ari and I were the only girls left to pick from. So there I was sitting at my desk along with Ari nervously biting my nails. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face. Oh how I wanted, wished, and begged that Jaden would pick me. All I remember from that moment was Jaden walking graciously towards my table and I could feel goosebumps all over my body. My face turned red as a ripe tomato. When Jaden got to my table he slowly put his finger up and pointed at Ari. Of course he would pick her, c’mon she was the prettiest girl in class. After that all I wanted to do was go home, shove my face in my pillow, and cry my eyeballs out. I went home that day feeling worthless, like no one in the world wanted me, solely because Jaden, a kid who liked nothing more than playing video games all day, didn’t pick me.
When mom got home from work I went up to her room and shed tears as soon as I reached her door. I ran to her bed, laid right next to her and the first thing she did was hug me so tight I felt as if her hug just pushed more tears straight out of my eyes.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” she asked with anguish in her eyes.
“Nobody wants me; nobody loves me,” I sighed.
“Why do you say that, Bella?”
I told her what had happened that day at school and all she did was hug me again, stood up and gave me a ring she had in her drawer. It was a gold ring with a width of 3 and a length of 4 centimeter layers of diamonds. She said she had some debts she needed to pay and wanted 50 dollars for it and she asked me to try and sell the ring. All I thought was maybe she would give me some money in return for the favor so I did what she asked me to do. I went from house to house looking for someone who would buy the ring.
“Good morning, sir Would you like to buy this ring? Look, it’s very shiny and you can give it to your wife.”
“I’ll give you 25 dollars for it,” he said.
“Sorry Sir, I’m afraid I can’t sell it to you.” So I went onto Ms. Rosling's house and knocked.
“Good morning ma'am, would you like to buy this ring? Look, it’s very shiny, it would look great with that dress you’re wearing.” I was trying to be convincing, which I was, just not enough.
“I only have 10 dollars, sweetie,” she said while she waved her money at me, trying to convince me that, that was all the money she had.
“Sorry ma'am, but I can’t sell it to you at that price, but thankyou anyway.”
That morning I went back home to tell my mom I couldn’t sell the ring for a minimum of 50 dollars.
“Hmm, well have you visited Mr. Medina?” she asked. “He’s an expert jeweler,” she said “He might buy it for a more reasonable price.”
After dinner I headed straight to his house and knocked on his door.
“Good afternoon Mr. Medina, I’d like to know if you would buy this ring from me for 50 dollars?” I asked with very little hope left in me.
“Come in, come in, let me get a good look at it,” he said. He sat at his work table, turned on his bright yellow light, put the ring under it, and with a magnifying glass took a closer look at it. He then looked back at me and said, “ Oh no, I cannot give you that amount of money for this ring.”
The little hope I had left in me vanished with those few words.
“This ring, Bella, is worth more than 50 dollars,” he said with a surprised look on his face.
“It is?” I said with excitement but also a little confusion.
“Yes! I won’t give you any less than 300 dollars for it,” “Will you accept my offer?” he asked.
“Of course I will, thank you so much.” I shook his hand quickly, gave him the ring, and went home with more than quadruple the price my mom had asked for. When I got home I excitedly told my mom that the ring was worth more than she had asked for.
“Ahh, it’s because you went to the expert jeweler, right?” she asked with an accomplished expression on her face, you know the kind that moms give when they’re about to give you the best “I told you so” ever.
I couldn’t understand just yet what her life lesson was, what the whole point of making me go around trying to sell the ring was. I waited anxiously for my her to tell me.
“You see, Bella, I wanted to teach you a lesson. You are not worth what other people think or say about you, you are worth what the expert thinks or says about you.”
“You have to go to the one who created you, the one who knows all the parts you’re made of, the one who knows every little detail about those parts, because the only person who really knows your worth is the person who knows and loves you with all your flaws and perfections.”
“And you baby girl, you are worth everything.