I Learned 3 Lessons that Day!
12 years of schooling, 3 years of graduation, and a year or so of work, I have always abided by the mantra of staying POSITIVE and being kind to everyone. That's one thing my parents have always taught me, be positive and everything else will just fall in line and be kind to every soul. But this is something I didn't always experience. When I first stepped into college, about 4 years back, I met different kinds of people, each of them obviously with a different view and personality, some not always positive or kind. So, my experience with the "not so positive" attitude started there. That was the first time I was staying in an all-girls hostel, sharing room with 2 strangers with whom I didn't share even one similarity. Now, a group of strangers, new to the city, all away from their homes, will surely connect in the first few months. There will be hostel night stay-ins, singing and dancing nights, play-dates, Maggi nights, we too had all of it. I think the first couple of months in Hostel were like a dream, they were just perfect, we'd wake each other up for college, go to college together, get food for one-another, make each-others beds. It was beyond perfect. But perfect is not a lifelong word. If we can fight as siblings belonging to the same home, as strangers with different opinions and views, there are bound to be fights among us.
Additionally, the concept of 'friends' has always been weird to me, like how do you get to know if the opposite person is your true friend. I was so dumb in this 'friendship' concept that I'd consider anyone who spoke a little too sweet to me as my friend, yes, including a random stranger I met at a fancy cafĂ©. Well, at present I do have like a mental hierarchy in place for anyone I meet from a stranger to acquaintance to friend, good friend, best friend, and then family. Now, in the first year of college, new people, new city, I made a lot of friends, including those from my hostel. We used to have lunch together, we used to look out for each other, hang out all the time, go to parties, visit cafes, at times even study together; basically, we used to do everything together. Looks exciting right? Honestly, we did have a good time. We called each other family. But glitter can't shine forever, right? It'll fade someday, so did we…
From a group of about 10-15 people, we started getting into smaller groups within ourselves, and, as we started adjusting in the city more, we started expanding out of our circle, finding new friends, and new spaces. As time went on, along with increased assignments from college and less interaction with friends, I never really saw how from hanging with a group of almost 8-10 people, I started hanging out alone. And yes, it was a tough phase… You're away from your home, in a strange city with no friends by your side, it does feel lonely at times, despite the positivity and "everything will eventually fall in line" mantra you carry.
So, most of my alone time, I used to spend at the beach. This one particular day while I was walking at the beach, I remember it was the monsoon season and there were high tides at the beach, I had my headphones on and was listening to some slow song (coz aren't most of us teenagers living in a movie inside our head, if you're feeling low, slow/low music should be playing in the background for effects, well I sort of am like that), back to the point, I was standing where the waves could somewhat touch my feet, lost in thought, though I learned something that day. I picked up a shell kept on the sand and threw it back into the water; I learned something again that day. As I looked on, to see the sun shy away in the water, and the moon come up with its shine sparkling on the sand, I walked back home with 3 lessons that day! I realized, not everything and everyone around is permanent and not everyone can be trusted as family, even the sand below my feet wasn't permanent, it slipping under me, drove me closer to the tidal waves. The waves giving me back the shell I threw taught me an important lesson of karma- what goes around, comes around. And finally, the sun shying away in the waters to give way for the moon to shine its light on the sand reminded me to never let go of my positivity mantra. Today, I hold onto all those lessons I learned that day, back when I went walking at the beach!
This is really good, could see the reality of life in this blog!!
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