Thank you, Chairperson.

A very good morning to the honorable judges, faithful time keeper, teachers
and my fellow audience. My name is Daniel Entengan and I am going to tell you a story about “The
Proud Rose.” THE PROUD ROSE.

Once upon a time, there lived a rose flower that was incredibly proud of its beautiful looks. The only
disappointment the rose had was that it grew alongside an ugly cactus.

Every day, the rose would be ready with an insult that it would pour upon the cactus for his looks, but
the cactus would remain silent and not react. No matter how hard every other plant in the garden tried
to make the flower understand and discourage it from insulting the cactus, the rose was adamant and
swayed by her good looks.

One day, a pine tree, growing next to the blossomed rose said that it wished it was a beautiful flower
and hoped it could also be as appealing one day. Another tree said to the pine tree that there was no
need to be sad as no one can have everything. Hearing the conversation, the rose replied to the trees
and that it seemed like she was the most beautiful flower in the whole forest.

Listening this, the sunflower raised its yellow head and said, “Why do you say that? In the whole forest,
there are many beautiful flowers, and you are just one of them.” To this, the rose replied that it saw
everyone looking at her and admiring her. The next moment, the rose used her cunning wit by
humiliating the cactus by calling it ugly and full of thorns. The other trees quickly replied that this was
shameful talk by the rose as no one can decide what exactly is beautiful, and the rose flower itself had
so many thorns.

As the days passed by, the rose looked at the cactus and continued insulting him. The cactus never
replied or even got upset and instead, advised the rose that God did not create any form of life without
a purpose.

Spring passed by and the weather turned hot. Life in the forest became difficult without the rain. The
rose began to wilt.

One day the rose saw a sparrow stick its beak into the cactus and fly away. The rose was amazed by
this and asked the pine tree what the sparrow was doing? The pine tree replied that the bird was
getting water from the cactus, which was hurting the cactus due to the holes created inside it, but it
could not see the bird suffer, and therefore, it was helping them.

The rose felt ashamed to ask the cactus for water. But finally, when she did ask for help, the cactus
kindly agreed. The sparrows filled their beaks with water and watered the roses’ roots.

The MORAL of this short story is “Not to judge anyone by their appearance.” Thank you.