There once was a sheep named Derek. He lived in the plains with his mother and father, and lived a quite simple lifestyle.

“I want to grow up and be like you, Daddy!” Derek would always say. He just seemed to want to be like his father in every way.

“Derek, you are only such a young sheep. Have you any thought about your possibilities? Why do you want to work like I do? I’m not happy at all with my job,” said his father. He was a very stern being. After all, he did not have the easiest job for the low pay he got. There always seemed to be something stressing him out.

“What’s bothering you, Daddy?” asked Derek. Although he always wondered, he never asked.

“Don’t worry about it. I just have work problems,” snapped his father. Derek kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to make his dad mad.

Years passed, and Derek started having more and more troubles with his schoolwork. He was forgetting to do assignments because he was too “busy” playing on the computer. His parents took a lot of their time out of their day to get him back on track. Derek graduated from Wool School with a 1.9 grade point average. He decided not to go to college because, unfortunately, his father didn’t.

“But I want to be like you!” said Derek. He was in a small argument with his father.

“Derek, you just don’t understand. I made a lot of mistakes when I was your age, but I want you to have a better future,” his father replied. He was right; Derek did not understand at all.

So, Derek did not end up going to college, but ended up working the same job as his dad. With the horses of the plains, he worked beside a conveyor belt and separated different colored cherries for a living. All he had to do was put the red cherries in one barrel, and put the yellow cherries in another. He worked for a ram who was the leader of the factory.

“Okay, Derek. I expect you to put your best effort into our company. We need all the help we can get,” said the old Mr. Ram.

“Yes, sir!” Derek always replied. The cherries came out of a large hole in the wall and rolled out on the conveyor belt. He watched the horses beside him for the first few minutes. They made this job look so easy, which led him to think that it actually was easy for him. He started sorting the cherries, and realized that the conveyor belt was going too quickly for him. His position near the end of the conveyor belt meant a lot of cherries were going to be wasted.

“Come on, Derek! Mr. Ram is not going to be happy if you don’t pick up the pace,” remarked one of the horses. Derek started panicking. He didn’t want to lose his job on his first day. He began to put cherries in the wrong barrels. He was missing cherries here and there, and couldn’t keep up with everything.

“What has happened here?” said Mr. Ram, storming out of his office after a few minutes have passed. “Who has been putting these cherries in the wrong barrels? You’re ruining the whole project!” Everyone stared at Derek. He was still dizzy from the commotion.

Derek got to his senses and looked at Mr. Ram, who was also looking at him. Derek smiled sheepishly, knowing that Mr. Ram was going to immediately get rid of him. Derek was gone before he was able to think.

Mr. Ram looked at the barrels of misplaced cherries in disgust. He wasn’t ever going to hire a sheep again. While all the horses were working swiftly and efficiently, Derek ruined the whole thing. Mr. Ram realized that a chain was only as strong as its weakest link, which was Derek.