Ever since Everly was a young girl, she dreamed of going into the field of physics. She wanted to know everything about the interaction between matter and energy. Her wanting to become a physicist started when her mom made her take an archery class. The energy and force that the bow had before and after the arrow was shot out had interested her.
Going into college, her major was physics and she knew as soon as she was skilled enough in the subject, she wanted to be an undergrad research assistant to the physics professor she had looked up to all her high school and collegiate years. That professor was Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis was a highly respected professor and one of the top physicists in the country. Students would come from far and near to learn and research under him and Everly was no different. Except Everly was rejected from the program when the time came to apply. To say she was devastated was an understatement. But not discouraged, Everly studied and worked even harder to prove to Dr. Davis that he made a mistake in skipping over her. Everly even made a dream wall in her room with a picture of Dr. Davis on it so she had a visual representation and reminder of who and what she wanted to become.
One day, Dr. Davis's research assistant were out on the campus doing research and surveying students to see how much about physics they actually knew and understood. One of Dr. Davis' favorite and most promising research assistant, Arvin, happened to stop Everly and asked her questions that only a skilled physics student would know. Arvin thought Everly was pretty good and would easily be stumped by the hard questions he had to ask her.
Blown away by the complexity and genius of Everly's answers, Arvin asked, "How do you know all this? The ideas and concepts you are explaining are very complicated and even I, a research assistant for physics, have trouble!"
"I study under Dr. Davis," Everly answered.
"How? I study under Dr. Davis and I have never seen you in the research lab!"
"Well, I don't literally study under him... I use his reasoning and thinking to make my understandings," explained Everly like it was the most simple thing.
Without another word, Arvin dragged Everly with him to Dr. Davis' office. Dr. Davis had promised his research assistants, and specifically Arvin, that he would be the most knowledgeable student on campus in the field of physics. So finding out that Everly might know more than him, Arvin was jealous and wanted to confront Dr. Davis.
"Dr. Davis!! This girl here knows more and understands more about physics than I do!!" shouted Arvin.
Arvin then re-asked Everly the question from earlier so Dr. Davis could see what Arvin was talking about. After hearing her answer, Dr. Davis was blown away.
"How did you come to that conclusion? Who taught you to think that way?" asked Dr. Davis.
"Why, Dr. Davis, you did. I have studied how you think and I self-taught myself based on your reasonings," Everly explained again to the men staring at her with wide eyes.
Dr. Davis sat in silent thought for a couple of minutes and then it hit him. Everly had been one of the applicants that Dr. Davis debated about taking onto his team. In the end, Dr. Davis did not think Everly had what it took because she was a woman trying to make a name for herself in a male dominated physics world. Upon the realization of Everly's brilliance and his mistake of rejecting her due to her being a her, Dr. Davis offered Everly a spot in his TA program. Everly knew this was what she had always dreamed of so she took the spot without hesitation. She was used to people doubting her brains, but she never let that break her and she would prove to Dr. Davis that she belonged on his team.
Author's Note: This is an adaptation of Ekalavya's story from the Mahabharata. In the original story, Ekalavya wanted to become a disciple of Drona, but was rejected. He proceeded to make a statue of Drona and worshipped the statue as his guru. He self-taught and studied over the years. Years later, when Drona's students, including the Pandava brothers, were in the forest, Arjuna saw a dog with so many arrows lodged in his throat that it could not bark. Drona wanted to meet the skilled archer behind this. Drona asked Ekalavya who his guru and Ekalavya explained that it was him. Arjuna was promised by Drona that he would be the greatest archer in the world so to right this, Drona asked for Ekalavya's right thumb. Ekalavya severed his thumb without question and gave it to Drona which took away his archery skills.
In my version, I changed the story to be more modern and placed it in a college setting. I also changed Ekalavya's character from male to female as I felt I could show other types of prejudices placed onto the character. I wanted to write the main character as a female as most of the original epics and tales revolve around male characters. I kept the storyline pretty much the same with the same plot until the end. I have been fascinated with the idea of karma so I changed the end so that Everly, or Ekalavya, received a good karmic ending for her actions and hard-work that she took by learning and self-teaching herself.
Bibliography: “Ekalavya.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya.
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