Aardvarks are some of the shyest and most timid animals on earth. They are solitary creatures which means that they live alone. They dig burrows in the ground where they spend most of their time, except when they come out to eat. Aardvarks may be considered to be some of the strangest and oddest looking creatures. They look like they are made up from parts of many different animals all pieced together. They have a long snout ( nose ) that looks like a pigs nose at the tip, they have rabbit ears, a kangaroo's tail, they have almost a hairless body and thick strong front claws for digging.

They are called earth pigs. They have four toes on their front feet and five on their back feet. They have an arched back, a long thin head, and its back legs are longer then it's front. They have sticky wormlike tongues that can be up to 12 inches.

Often, when ever something looks different or out of place, they are called odd, strange, weird, creepy, freaks or even funny looking. Our first impressions of them when we see them may cause shock, we may be grossed out, they may give us the creeps, the heebie-jeebies or the willies, we may be turned off by them, they can make us feel uncomfortable. Everyone responds very differently to something that they consider to be weird or strange looking. 

But as strange and weird as an animal or a person might look to us, they all have a place in our world. They all have unique, special skills, abilities and talents that makes them valuable and useful of our world, whether we can see it or not. They all serve an important, vital purpose, no matter who or what they look like.

For example lets take a look at the strange looking aardvark we spoke about. The holes or burrows aardvarks dig are used by other animals for shelter and protection to escape the cold, the heat and predators. If not for aardvarks some animals would have no home. Aardvarks are amazing engineers. Their presence is critical to the survival of many creatures, they may not be the cutest kid on the block, but they make a valuable contribution to the health and the success of our environment and our world. There is a plant known as the aardvark cucumber, it relies on the aardvark to spread it's seeds. The aardvark eats the seeds and then deposits them when they go to the bathroom.

The aardvark affects and impacts the lives of many different kinds of animals and plants. They help control the insect population, they ants, and termites which can be very destructive. 

Now, that you know what an aardvark is, I'd like to tell you a story about an aardvark named Ajari. Like most aardvarks, Ajari was very very shy and timid. The other animals who lived in the grasslands of the savannah they all looked down on him, they teased him and made fun of him because he was different. He was constantly being bullied, picked on, called mean, nasty, ugly cruel names because of the way he looked. Almost no one liked him or even wanted to be around him, he was rejected by almost everyone. No one wanted to be friends with an aardvark.

Because of the way everyone treated most of his life, starting when he was vey young, Ajari had a very poor self image of himself. Self image is the way we see ourselves. Ajari spent most of his life very sad and alone day dreaming. He would often wish and pretend that he was someone else, because he didn't like himself for who he was or the way he was. Some days, he wished he was a big strong lion, or a powerful leopard, he wished that he was as fast as a cheetah so he could run like wind. He would even settle for being a hyaena or a baboon, it couldn't be any worst then being who he was. Anything, would be better then being a weird looking aardvark. 

Ajari was very envious of the other animals always wanting to be like them, he was a little jealous because they seemed to have it all and he had nothing. He was embarrassed and ashamed of the way he looked. For the most part, he stayed away and avoided crowds or going out in public. He was always nervous when he was around other creatures, he felt like everyone around was always judging him, looking down on him or turning their nose up at him, he felt awkward, uncomfortable, out of place like a fish out of water. When he got really nervous he would Sutter and stumble over his words when he spoke. It seemed like no matter what he said it never come out right.

Whenever he tried to express himself and put his thoughts and feelings into words, he would get tongue tied, his words would get all jumbled and twisted up and turned around. It seem like every time he opened his mouth, he was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth. He was afraid to talk because no matter what he said, it always seemed to come out the wrong way, so he tried to avoid everyone as much as he could.

Ajari felt like a loser, he felt like there was something wrong with him. He just never could seem to fit in. He felt hopeless, and trapped in a world where he wasn't wanted, and didn't belong, why was he even born? Who wants to live that way? It would have been better for him, if he had never been born. It seemed like all his life, he had been a huge disappointment to everyone including himself. In the eyes of the other creatures, he was a sorry pathetic loser, he was scum, he was nothing, a nobody, a worthless, undesirable good for nothing creature that had no business being here, he was a mistake, a freak of nature.

Eventually, all the name calling and the rejections broke his spirit. He begin to believe all the bad things, everyone was saying about him. Ajari  felt worthless, he felt dumb and useless, their words had finally crushed him and broken him down. He tried very hard to hide the fact that was in hurting, he was broken and in a lot of pain. His heart begin to shrink and shrivel up inside him, he lost faith and hope in himself and in everyone else, after awhile he couldn't feel anything, love, hate, pain or joy, all he felt was emptiness. Ajari couldn't take all the pain and the heartache anymore, he didn't want to live like this everyday, so dug himself a very deep hole underground where he stayed buried for the rest of his life.

Ajari's story, is a typical story for many people around the world. Countless people have been through, suffered through and lived through, some of the very same things that he did. While some stories may have a happy ending, other stories will end in sadness or in tragedy. 

The way we see ourselves and feel about ourselves can have a positive effect or a negative effect on our lives. It can affect us in a good way or in a bad way. It will affect all our choices and our decisions, and our choices and decisions will affect  our happiness, our joy, our dreams, as well as the kind of life and the kind of future we will have.

 Ajari the aardvark saw himself in a negative way, he saw himself as unattractive, homely and unlikable, he felt like scum and a worthless loser. He had very little faith and self confidence, he doubted himself. In his eyes, couldn't get anything right, everything he did turned out wrong, and look at what it cost him. Ajari was born with special and unique gifts, skills and talents that he never got to use, because he never believed in himself, and because he never believed in himself, all his talents and skills were wasted and got buried with him. To find out why having self-esteem is so important, click below to continue to the next page.