When Conceited Pete woke up in the morning, he expected the day to go just like any other day. He walked outside and told everyone about how he was the mayor of the town, how he was a great leader, and how he was amazing. Everyone in Dimford had been hearing him say this for the past six years. Pete walked back inside and kept up his morning routine, by turning on the song that he made about himself (his song was a satire about every other city in Indianapolis and how Dimford was the best) and cooking scrambled eggs. Pete took his eggs and sat down on the couch to watch some TV. When he finished, he hopped in his car and drove to work, humming his song along the way. “I am amazing, yeah yeah, I am so great, yeah yeah,” Pete would sing to himself. As he passed by everyone in his car, he would say hello and make some remark about something he was good at. Despite Pete’s bloated personality, he was pretty good at his job, although he did think he was the best mayor in the country. Pete’s conjecture was that he was remarkable and better than everyone else.

When Pete got to work, he walked to the construction site nearby to build some new housing. Since Dimford was so small and they didn’t have very many architects or construction workers: it was a community project. Of course, the building was overseen and mostly done by Pete himself, and he hadn’t had much trouble so far. Something else he hadn’t had much of was help, mainly because he told people not to help him and that he could do it on his own. Today he had a certain difficult part of the building in his section. This would usually be done by two people, but Pete refused help. “I don’t need help, I can do this on my own,” Pete lashed out whenever anyone offered him help. Pete tenaciously went on for hours trying to screw the long beam of wood into one end and then the other, without the beam falling, but he couldn’t do it. On his last try, he slipped and the beam fell on his leg! “AHHHH,” Pete screamed. Pete’s plight was that he was stuck under the beam! Everyone rushed over to help him; this time, he couldn’t say no. Pete was in pain and blood was secreting from his leg. The people lifted him out from under the beam and called an ambulance. As all this was happening, Pete thought about different times that he gotten hurt, and why. He thought about other times when other people had gotten hurt because they did not accept help. Then, Pete thought about times when people had asked for and taken help. Pete compared the different instances, and he found that help usually ended up working out better. It was just then that Pete realized he couldn’t do everything by himself and that it is okay to need help.

From then on, Pete would be nice to people, let them do things, and get credit. When Pete would wake up, he would walk outside and compliment neighbors rather than himself. Pete started listening to songs that other people made and cooking recipes that other people wrote. As life went on, Pete gained his community’s fidelity, and they started to like Pete. Pete was no longer Conceited Pete. He was Humble Pete.

The End