The straw that broke the camel’s back is a saying that many know, but few choose to elaborate on. The weight of a single straw doesn’t break a camel’s back. The weight of the 99,999 straws before were a struggle, but the camel could handle them. The last straw is what makes it unbearable. Everyone saw the 99,999 straws and stared in awe. “How many straws can the camel handle?” They would say. They saw the camel started buckling slightly at the weight of the first 99,000. “Will this be it?” They said. They waited and watched in agony. They couldn’t do anything to help the camel. The camel gripped on to the 99,100 straws as if they were necessary for survival. The camel thought that it’s purpose was to hold those straws as tight as possible and one day those straws would also ablige and help hold it up as well. 99,500 straws came quickly. The camel kept moving. They all watched. They all saw. The camel tried to pretend that the weight of the straws was normal, and light as a single feather. “There are heavier loads on weaker camels”, the Camel would respond. The camel grew weaker over time. The camel wanted to convince them that the straws were necessary, inevitable even. The camel would say, clinging to those straws, “These are just the straws I’ve been given. What else am I to do but carry them? They are on MY back, after all. If I’m not to carry them, who will?”. They watched. They saw. At 99,900 straws, the camel started to feel the weight of the straws that it had been denying. At 99,950 straws, it started questioning the straws. Were the straws the camel’s fault, as it had thought? Were the straws the camel’s identity, as it had sworn? At 99,980 straws, the camel cries out. “Can it take much more?” They said, watching now, having believed that the camel should have been long broken by now. They had come to accept the loss of the camel that was healthy. They had believed there was nothing left for that camel to do. They just wanted the camel to finally break, so they wouldn’t have to worry. So they wouldn’t have to know how much that camel was hurting. They love the camel, but the camel loved the straws. At 99,990 straws on the camel’s back, it looked behind itself and saw the hand that kept adding the straws. The hand of it’s owner, picking the straws off her own clothes and placing them onto the camel. At first that camel felt betrayed. The camel was angry, but scared to confront the owner. At 99,995 straws, the camel realized that the owner had its own straws to be free of, and it held on to the straws one last time. At 99,999 straws, the camel couldn’t handle it anymore. It came down to a choice: take the last straw and crumble, or take no more straws at all. For once in the camel’s life, it chose itself. It stumbled, barely able to move, away from the owner and shook as many straws as it could off of itself. The camel still had 5,000 straws on it’s back, but the weight was manageable. It still had back pain, and the weight will still linger, but it’s back never broke, and it never will.