00:00Have you ever realized that people remember you only when something is missing in their life,
00:06not when something is missing in yours? And that realization hits hardest when you are alone at
00:12night, tired and questioning your own worth. And this story begins from that exact feeling.
00:20In a small, dusty village where life moved slowly and everyone knew each other,
00:25lived a 20-year-old boy named Armand, an ordinary boy with no big dreams yet,
00:32just a habit of saying yes to everyone. If someone needed help carrying crops, he was there.
00:39If someone wanted to borrow his bicycle, he gave it. If someone asked him to stay late and listen
00:44to their problems, he stayed, even when his own work waited, even when his body begged for rest.
00:50And people said he was kind, but no one noticed how every day he returned home with tired eyes
00:57and an empty heart. His father had died years ago, and his mother stitched clothes at home,
01:04often telling him gently that he needed to focus on his own future. But Armand always replied,
01:10I will do it later, because later felt easier than disappointing people.
01:14Until one afternoon, when his friend Samir came and asked him to help harvest his field urgently,
01:21Armand agreed without thinking, leaving his own small plot unfinished. And that evening,
01:27unexpected rain poured down, destroying Armand's half-done crop, while Samir's field stayed safe.
01:34And as Armand stood barefoot in the mud, staring at what he had lost, no one stood beside him,
01:41no one said anything. And that silence hurt more than the loss itself. That night, he could not
01:49sleep, and walked toward the edge of the village, where an old man named Hakim sat every evening
01:54near a dim lantern, a man who had lived long enough to lose people, land, and illusions.
02:02Armand sat there quietly, until the old man said, You look like someone who gives too much and keeps
02:08nothing. And for the first time, Armand felt seen. He whispered, If I stop helping, they will stop
02:16caring. And the old man replied calmly, Those who care only when you give are not caring, they are
02:23collecting. Those words stayed with him. And the next day, when Samir asked for another favor, Armand
02:30hesitated, and said, Not today. I need to finish my work. The reaction was instant. Surprise, irritation,
02:39distance. And that hurt deeply. The village felt colder. People stopped calling him as often. And
02:46at night, loneliness sat beside him. But slowly, something else grew too. His work got done. His body
02:54rested. His mind felt quieter. And one evening, as he shared tea with his mother, she smiled and said,
03:02You look lighter. Weeks passed, and only a few people still spoke to him. But those who did asked
03:09how he was, not what he could do. And when Armand passed the old man again, he did not stop to talk,
03:16because he finally understood the lesson without words, that being available to everyone had cost him
03:23himself. And choosing himself did not make him selfish. It made him real. And if you are listening to this
03:31and feel tired for no clear reason, remember this. You were not born to be everyone's solution. Protect your
03:39time, your energy, your life. Because the moment you stop being available to everyone, you finally become
03:46available yourself.
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