The night before the science examination, Karma could not concentrate. The chapter on motion and energy felt like a tangled knot in his mind. Around him, the study hall was silent except for the soft turning of pages and the steady tick of the clock.
He had almost decided to give up for the night when his friend Pemba leaned over. “Let's solve just one problem together,” she said. They drew a diagram, talked through each step, and slowly the knot began to loosen. One problem became two, and two became ten.
By the time the warden rang the bell for lights-out, Karma felt something he had not felt all evening: quiet confidence. He had not learned everything, but he had learned enough — and, more importantly, he had learned not to give up.
The next morning, as he opened his examination paper, he smiled. The questions were difficult, but he remembered his friend's words: just take the next step. Sometimes courage is simply choosing to try one more time.
