The girl who learns how to sculpt

 

In a colorful little town, at the edge of a forest that smelled of resin and rain, there lived a girl named Mara. Mara was the kind of child who got excited about small things. She would stop to admire the shadows of trees on the pavement, talk to the cats sitting on fences, and invent stories about every lit window she saw in the evening.

But Mara had a problem. Every time she wanted something, she would say to herself, “It probably won’t work out.”

And somehow, it really didn’t.

One afternoon, Mara walked into the workshop of Mr. Ilie, an old sculptor who carved wood so beautifully it looked as if he were bringing living animals out of dry logs. Mara was always fascinated whenever she passed by.

“I wish I could learn to sculpt too,” she said one day, “but it’s probably too hard for me.”

Mr. Ilie raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“How do you know?”

“Because difficult things never work out for me,” Mara said confidently.

The old man put down his chisel.

“Mara, you have a very rare talent.”

She blinked in surprise.

“What talent?”

“The talent of deciding in advance how things will end.”

Mara didn’t fully understand, but she kept thinking about it.

The next day, when she returned, Mr. Ilie handed her a small piece of wood.

“Today we are not carving wood. Today we are carving something else. I want you to do an experiment.”

Mara nodded seriously.

“Until tonight, I want you to behave as if you are already a girl who knows how to sculpt very well.”

“But I don’t know how…”

“It doesn’t matter. Pretend.”

Mara left the workshop a little confused. On her way home, she noticed herself walking more upright. “A girl who knows how to sculpt probably walks like this,” she thought. When she passed her neighbor, she greeted her with more confidence in her voice. When she got home, she placed the piece of wood on her desk and looked at it as if she already knew what to do.

That evening, without even realizing it, she began carving carefully with a small knife. Not perfectly, not like Mr. Ilie, but with a lot of patience.

The next day, she returned to the workshop.

“Show me,” said the old man.

Mara handed him the piece of wood. You could vaguely see the shape of a leaf.

“It’s nothing special,” she said quickly.

Mr. Ilie smiled widely.

“Oh, but it is. It’s proof that you’ve started to believe something different about yourself.”

In the following days, Mara continued the experiment. Not only with sculpting. She started acting as if she were a brave girl, a talented girl, a girl people listened to. And slowly, people really did start listening to her. Her classmates began asking her things. Her teacher praised her more often. And her sculptures became more and more beautiful.

One day, Mara asked Mr. Ilie:

“But why does this work?”

The old man shrugged.

“Because the world sees you the way you see yourself first.”

Mara looked at her hands covered in fine wood splinters and smiled.

For the first time, she no longer told herself, “It probably won’t work out.”

And from then on, many things started to work out.