The Little Engine That Could

http://tigger.uic.edu/~plotnick/littleng.htm
Author is unknown

The story of "The Little Engine That Could" (aka "The Pony Engine" and "Thinking One Can") was one of my favorites as a child. As I have grown I have continued to cherish the story and the moral of not giving up even in the face of unlikely success.

After I had been on Nutrisystem for just a little while and I was having such phenomenal success I realized that I was ready to "declare" myself and set up a profile. One of the things I wanted was one of the weight tickers that give a graphic representation of where I had come from, where I am at, and where I hope to be.

I went to the ticker factory and looked at everything they had. At first I was looking for a running person, but I didn't see one I liked. Then I thought perhaps a car, but there was no road I liked. Then I realized there was an engine and a railroad track. This brought to mind the story I have loved for so long. So I decided to go with the little engine on the railroad track. Then I decided I really wanted to allude to this childhood story, for not only did I enjoy it as a child, I continue to read it to my first graders as a public school teacher. So I added a line of my own right underneath it! "I think I can.... I think I can.... I think I can.... I think I can...." I attach this to most of my posts on the NS and Jazzman boards.

One time in a thread on the NS board one of the other posters told me that I should change my message under my little engine to "I know I can... I know I can... " I replied that this message is part of my own motivation. I look forward to the day when I am at goal and can change my little engine's message to "I thought I could.... I thought I could.... I thought I could.... I thought I could...."

If you are unfamiliar with the story of "The Little Engine That Could" there is an embedded link just under the title at the top.

Here is one very short version of what might be the original story: "Thinking One Can" 1906. The earliest known published version appeared in Wellspring for Young People, a children's Sunday school publication. The author is unknown. This was reprinted in 1910 in a D.A.R. publication. Here is the complete version of the story as it appeared:

A little railroad engine was employed about a station yard for such work as it was built for, pulling a few cars on and off the switches. One morning it was waiting for the next call when a long train of freight-cars asked a large engine in the roundhouse to take it over the hill "I can't; that is too much a pull for me," said the the great engine built for hard work. Then the train asked another engine, and another, only to hear excuses and be refused.

At last in desperation the train asked the little switch engine to draw it up the grade and down on the other side. "I think I can," puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. As it went on the little engine kept bravely puffing faster and faster, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Then as it neared the top of the grade, that had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly, but still kept saying, "I--think--I--can, I--think--I--can." It reached the top by dint of brave effort and then went on down the grade, congratulating itself, "I thought I could, I thought I could."

To think of hard things and say, "I can't" is sure to mean "Nothing done." To refuse to be daunted and insist on saying, "I think I can," is to make sure of of being able to say triumphantly by and by, "I thought I could, I thought I could."

......I think I can...........I think I can...........I think I can...........I think I can.....

Missy
365/259.5/115