FRACTURE

Peter always wanted what was the best for his youngest son, Sam. And the only thing Peter could think of as “best” for Sam was forcing him to study—even when Sam had no interest in it.

Peter believed he was doing the right thing for his son’s future. After all, his other children had gained recognition and earned countless certificates in the same way—so why couldn’t Sam?

The task seemed simple enough: study and get good grades. But for Sam, it was like the most unreachable goal he could ever try to reach.

One day, Jasmine scored a perfect hundred marks in an exam, while Sam managed only sixty. Peter’s wife was almost in tears. And Peter? He became so furious when he saw the result that he did not even let Sam eat anything that night. He threatened him, telling him that if Sam wanted to continue living in the same house, he had to start getting good grades.

In Sam’s mind, all of this was nothing but a maze. He could never find a straight answer to any of it.

“How can someone expect so much from someone else? Why do I have to be perfect to be loved by my own parents? Why do they keep telling me that I need to give them good grades and a high-paying job in return when they say they love me unconditionally? How can they expect someone to obey everything they say? How am I supposed to become someone else?...”

All these questions, and many more, kept running through Sam’s mind. And as he grew older, the number of questions only grew with him.

Again, it is not my place to judge whether Sam was right or wrong. This story is about Peter, and I am not even close to his success and perfection.

Sam was a kind of “free” person. He believed that freedom was the only true form of success for a human being—the freedom to speak, the freedom to do what he wanted, and the freedom to live life in his own way.

So, in almost every way possible, Sam developed a completely different mentality from the rest of his family. He was like a chicken living inside a fox’s den.

Perfect Peter — 9