Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a kingdom of perfection. Everything should be perfect in this kingdom from appearance till manner. No single mistake was allowed in that kingdom. The king and the queen taught their children about this perfection since their children was a baby. As the children grown up, they were pushed to be perfect each single day. The young princess would get punishment if she did something wrong, so she felt sick of being perfect. She wished that she was able to moved somewhere else so that she could live the way she wanted without any urge to be perfect.

One day, the kingdom held a party to celebrate the 17th birthday of the princess. The princess was not really excited because the guests that would be invited actually were the boring people in her eyes. They just spoke with also perfect manner and they would dress the same, just like wearing uniform to school. She wished that she could skip the party, but it was not possible.

As the party began, the princess just sat down on her chair and looked around with a boring gaze. But her parents forced her to greet the guests, so she did it reluctantly. As she got so bored, she asked her parent´s permit to go to the bathroom, but actually she was planning to go to the garden to be alone. Unluckily, as she tried to sneak out, she stepped her foot on the dress of a queen from her neighborhood. The dress was torn and that queen was really shocked. The princess apologized, but because she was so nervous, she didn´t really aware that there was a waiter with glasses of wine on a tray beside her. She bumped into the waiter and then the glasses of wine were fallen and some of the wine fell on that queen´s dress. That queen was so upset so that she left the party before it was ended.

Her parents were also angry at the princess because she already ruined her own party. Since she made a terrible mistake, she got punishment. The parents forbid her to go outside and she should stay for a month in her room. The princess was so disappointed of it, she felt that it was unfair for her. She did it unintentionally and it was an accident, but the parents didn´t want to hear any excuse. If the princess argued more, they would give her more punishment because she would also made another mistake by breaking the manner. So the princess just threw herself on her bad angrily.

When her parents left the room, she started to think about escaping from her room. So she opened the window and threw the bedsheet that she used as a rope to climb down. She was so sick of being in that kingdom and she just wanted to run away. She didn´t know where to go, but she kept running before everyone realized that she was escaping from the kingdom. She ran into the jungle, but unfortunately it was raining. The soil became so slippery and then she felt into a river. She was swept away by the stream flow and she was fainted.

The next day came, the princess heard a gentle voice that waken her up. She was so confused and she felt so weak. She also felt a bit afraid because she was in the stranger´s house. An old woman who owned the house and found her, explained what happened to her and where she was at that time. She told the princess to calm down and take a rest until she was totally recovered. Since the princess was so weak, she closed her eyes and agreed with the old woman to take a rest first.

After several days, the princess was fully recovered and then she explained who she was to the old woman. She told the old woman that she didn´t want to come back and she wanted to stay with the old woman that had been really nice to her. The old woman said that the princess could stay there and lived with her as long as she wanted since the old woman was alone and she had no children.

The old woman was actually a sculptor, every day she worked at her workshop to make a beautiful wood statue. The princess was amazed when she saw the old woman´s masterpiece. Suddenly, she was so interested also to learn how to make a statue from the beginning. Everyday she learnt from the old woman how to make a beautiful statue. It was hard for the princess but she kept learning.

After several times, the princess was able to make a human´s head wood statue. She already worked for the statue for couple months, but it wasn´t as perfect as she wanted.  There was something in her past that kept pushing the princess to be perfect in everything, but deep down inside she realized that she wasn´t a perfect person. She started to think how useless she was and her statue also because both of it were not perfect. The more she looked at the statue, the more she got angry. She threw the statue and broke it into two pieces.

The old woman saw it and then asked the princess to calm down. “Why did you threw it, it was beautiful?” asked the old woman after the princess calmed down. “Because it was not as perfect as yours and I am so disappointed with myself. I have tried to make something perfect, but it won´t work, maybe I am as useless as my parent´s thought.” the little princess answered sadly. “Do you like to see my first statue?” asked the old woman. The princess nodded her head and then the old woman showed her first statue. It was a statue of human´s head also but the face was so ugly, it had no eyes on it.

“Do you know why I can´t make any eyes in that statue?” asked the old woman, the princess stroke her head. “Because I am not able to see something good in me. I will tell you my other secret also.” said the old woman. Then she pulled up her long sleeve and showed to the princess that she actually only had one real hand, her other hand was actually an artificial hand which made from wood. Because it was like a real hand, the princess didn´t take any notice about it even though she already lived with the old woman for couple months. She was so surprised and really amazed. She respected the old woman more because with her imperfect body, the old woman was able to make a perfect statue.

“You know what my dear, I was born with only one hand. It took a long time for me to make a beautiful statue. At the first time, I thought that I would never be able to make a beautiful one, but my mother who also was a sculptors told me that we have to let go the thinking of perfection when we do something. We should think about something good in ourselves first because what we make will be a reflection of how we feel about ourselves. That’s why i couldn’t make any eyes on my first statue.” said the old woman.

“How can you make a perfect statue with your condition?” asked the princess curiously. “Actually there isn´t any such of perfection also in this world because we are only humans who are not perfect. A perfection depends on the way you see something, the way you hope for it. My perfection could be different than yours, so stop comparing your masterpiece with mine. Beside that, what you have said as a perfection, comes from imperfection, since perfection is a learning process from imperfection and mistakes.  As a human being, mistake and imperfection are part of ourselves. When you realize this thing, it will change the way you look at something. Something good from mistake is that you will always learn to be better, you will also be aware of your weakness and it makes you be more careful so that you are able to avoid doing the same mistake. So don´t be so hard with your self.  I believe with a lot of exercises, you will be able to make a perfect statue according to your perspective. You just have to learn from your mistake and fix it. Be patient with yourself also.” said the old woman.

So after that, the princess always kept her works, no matter how imperfect those statues were. She learnt from her mistake to make a better statue every single day. She was getting better and she could make more beautiful statues than before. After the old woman died, the princess became famous because of her masterpieces. She made a statue of the old woman and the statue at last became the landmark of that village.