Week 11 Story: Getting Used to It

 Getting Used to It

    When things happen again and again to an individual, they become used to the action. When you first enter an odd-smelling room and notice the pungent scent, you eventually get used to it. When you move to a new school in a new state, unable to make friends and seem to succumb to the loneliness, you eventually get used to it. When Aunt Jennifer brings the same green bean casserole every Thanksgiving, you eventually get used to it.

    The same goes for receiving. You never realize how much you take for granted until you realize that you are always being given to, because you eventually got used to it.

    It was always easy for Max to see the world in a positive light because he always got what he wanted. The newest toys on Christmas, more money than he could store for his birthday. His family even celebrated Thanksgiving like it was called "Maxgiving", because it seemed like he was always asked what he wanted cooked for him. He was so used to it.

    Max's mother always made sure to give. She did not have the best childhood herself, and so she made sure she gave him the gift of a bountiful life. All the gifts, clothes, money he could imagine. That was her gift to him. As he group up, however, things began to change little by little, and Max noticed. Although Max was seemingly spoiled, he was extremely kind. All the gifts that he outgrew, any extra money that was left over, or anything that he did not find particularly interesting that he was given, he would hand off to others. He would especially hand it off to those less fortunate.

    Max's mother could no longer take this action of giving. It almost seemed like she had spoiled herself through the action of spoiling Max. She had been so used to making sure Max had everything he wanted that she could not stand it when he gave to others. With that, she lashed out on him. She blamed him for being ungrateful, unhappy, and selfish. She made it seem like what she did for him was not enough for only him, and that giving away to others was a selfish act.

    With this, Max left. He matured even more throughout the years and continued to give even more than he had before. His family looked for him, sought after any signs of him throughout the years, but he was not to be found. 

    One day, his family noticed an article in the paper. It talked about a man who was so charitable, that he gave up his entire savings for a family that was bankrupt. They realized it was Max. He handed over everything he had to make sure that they were the ones who had everything.

His mother was filled with rage. She felt unloved and unappreciated. Everything she had cast onto him was seemingly a waste. The toxic method of giving to her child seemed to be worthless. She did not know how she was handle the anger, and how she would cope in the upcoming years by knowing that her son was as selfish as he was, at least in her eyes. Max knew this ahead of time, and he thought to himself: "She'll get used to it."

--- Authors Note ---

My story is based off of The Supernatural Person in the Lake, an apache tale. The story for my was a little hard to understand, so it is possible that I interpreted in a different way. I was confused as to how I was going to write my own story based on it, so I took parts of it rather than the whole, which is something I normally don't do! 

The tale was essentially about a mother who gifts a gift to her son of being a medicine man; this was hard to interpret, but as the story followed, it was clear that he was able to give a lot to others based on this gift. I tried to make it a little more modern and understandable for both myself and readers. I was afraid I would make it not similar to the story, but I got rid of that worry and began to take key parts that I enjoyed from the tale, like the gift from mother to son, and the end of the tale where he gives back to others. At least, that is how I interpreted it. 

I would advise reading the tale yourself and finding out what it means to you, but I am glad I tried this new way of interpreting a text and creating my own story based off that technique! 

Source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911)

Giving