Week 4 Storytelling: Presidential Debate

“I can’t do this anymore,” Stacy thought as she sat in her seventh period class. “I’m about to graduate and I don’t really know what all is going on at this school anymore. Maybe it is time to give up being Student Body President? I have always wanted to see Beth take over the position; I mean she is my best friend. That could be cool, right? I’ll see what everyone else thinks at the meeting tonight.”

The bell rang. Stacy stood up grabbing her backpack and walked out the door, headed for the student council classroom. She walked in the room and it was empty.

Empty Classroom (Source)

Walking to the front of the room, Stacy thought, “I’ll just sit in the president’s chair until everyone arrives.” She looked at her watch, “the meeting isn’t for another ten minutes. I’m sure everyone is just grabbing a snack.”

Sitting in her chair, Stacy watch as each student council member walked in one-by-one and plopped down in one of the chairs facing the front of her room. Finally the last member walked in the room and the meeting was read to begin.

“Hello everyone,” Stacy began. “I want to thank all of you for coming to our weekly meeting. I actually have something very important I would like to discuss with you today. As you all know I am a senior and am about to graduate, so I need someone else to take over as president. Before I graduate I would very much like to see Beth take over my position as president, if you will approve of that. Please, tell me what you think of Beth. All of your opinions will probably be much different then mine since I am her best friend.”

All of the student council members cheered. They said, “Make her president now! Of everyone involved in stu-co Beth is the best! Make her president after school tomorrow!”

Stacy suddenly became angry and roared, “Quiet! You are not even going to think about it first? Even while I am still the president, you wish to replace me?”

Shocked, and slightly ashamed, the student council members talked briefly amongst one another. Then Tyler, the football captain, stood up to speak for everyone.

“Look Stacy,” Tyler began, “Let Beth become president. We know you, we have seen you teach her all the skills needed to be president; we want you to see your best friend be president. Give away your duties and rest without any worries. You are about to graduate, so you should be resting and enjoying the little bit of time you have left here. You know this school would be great with Beth as its leader. We love Beth. We can tell that she is a competent leader and will do great things.

Stacy said, “Well, don’t let my fondness for my best friend deceive all of you.”

“We won’t!” said Tyler. “Do what you want Stacy, but make sure that it is what you truly want for yourself. Beth will be an excellent president and will bring changes to this crap hole of a high school. Why ask for anything else? With Beth as our president what can go wrong? She knows everyone in this school and she would gladly go out of her way to help anyone. She takes special interest in others and asks nothing in return.”

“Are those the reasons you want her as president?” asked Stacy.

“The one reason,” replied Tyler, “is that if Beth says something to me I can believe it.”

Tyler sat down in his seat. All of the student council members looked around at one another, nodding their heads in agreement with Tyler’s speech. Stacy looked at the members and smiled.

Sally suddenly stood up and exclaimed, “Let’s make Beth our president tomorrow afternoon and have a cookie party!”

Stacy sat in her chair at the front of the classroom. Smiling, she knew that these were her last few weeks in high school and she wanted to cherish every moment.

 “Everyone!” began Stacy. “I am very happy at this moment. I am glad to see that I am a great influence on you. Let us begin the preparations to instate Beth as the next student council president!”

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Author's Note. In this story, King Dasaratha begins to realize that he is of old age and realizes that he wants nothing more than to see his son Rama become king. Dasaratha calls an assembly of the Kosala Council – which is composed of lesser kings, governors, noblemen, heroes, wise men, and Kosala judges – to hear their opinion's on making Rama king. Dasaratha tells them that he is old and wants to make Rama king, the assembly cheers in excitement and Dasaratha becomes angry at this fact, thinking that they just want to replace him and get rid of him. After a brief moment between those assembled, Sumantra the charioteer stands up to speak for everyone. He tells the King that they know Rama will be an excellent king and that he was groomed for the job. He then expresses that the king should rest in his old age and enjoy watching his son take the throne. After a little bit of back and forth, Dasaratha finally realizes that the assembly came to the decision all on their own and without the King just telling them so. Dasaratha is pleased and the preparations for Rama to become king begin.

Making the story modern created a more realistic perspective. While there were instances where I used imbedded quotes so as to make the original story more transparent, I did change the names. Stacy was Dasaratha, Beth was Rama, Tyler was Sumantra, and Sally was Vasishtha. Having Beth be Stacy’s best friend added a similar element to Dasaratha and Rama’s father-son relationship, demonstrating their closeness as well as their high regard for one another. Using a high school student council, while still political, was as similar to a monarchy as I could imagine. This retelling is very much my own perspective and experience of student council while I was in high school. I was never the president, but I was in the background and was able to see how it worked more as a monarchy and popularity contest than a democracy. Being student council president is also a very difficult job for a high school student, so reflecting the aspect of the story where Rama was groomed and trained to be King was something I felt was important to include in my retelling. 

Bibliography. Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.