TO SAY OR NOT TO SAY…YES

by Alina – Paraschiva Popa (Iorga)

LEPC, 2nd Year
“Yes, sir, I’ll be there”, confirmed Tom. He put the phone down, feeling frustrated.
Again. Why is it that every time Mr. Helmer* asked him to drop everything and jump (to the
rescue?), he felt the need to ask “how high”? Ever since Tom started teaching at this school, he
always said yes to whatever his principal demanded of him. At first, he did that because he
wanted to make a good impression. Then, it just seemed the easier road to take, even if it didn’t
always seem the right one. Eventually, everyone got so used to his saying yes that he felt
compelled to agree with everyone and everything.
“It’s as if I have no control over my life at all! Why can’t I say no? Oh, God, I’m such a
yes man!”
Tom knew that he was just a small link in a chain of yes men. He knew that the principal
was a yes man to his inspector who, in turn, was a yes man to his chief, and so on and so forth.
There seemed to be an endless chain of yes men, for ever trapped in this system which,
supposedly, made the world go round. True, but going round doesn’t mean going in the right
direction. It could mean that the world is stuck in a status quo that benefits no one…or, probably,
just a selected few. The ones at the top, whoever they may be.
As Tom was meditating upon this frustrating conclusion, he felt a strange, tingling
something in his body. He wasn’t sure how to name this sensation because it was extremely
unfamiliar to him. Could this be an ounce of determination running through his veins? Slowly,
his lips started moving:
“No…no more…”, he heard himself mumbling. While he realized what he was uttering, a
new thought, more potent, plunged into his mind:
“Where there’s a will, there’s a no!”, he whispered.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a NO!”, he exclaimed.
“WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A NO!” HE SHOUTED.

*helmer – a person who is in charge of a film and tells the actors how to play their parts
(dictionary.cambridge.org)