Self-Love to the Rescue
Ria sat in the corner of her room as a deluge of tears rolled down her eyes.
***
“And the winner of the debate is...”
It’s me. I know it just has to be me.
“The winner is Shreya!”
The entire assembly broke into applause except for Ria.
How? How was the winner not Ria?
***
“Hey! I got 92 in math,” said Sheena.
“Me too! I also got the certificate of merit,” said Naina.
What?! Even Naina- the girl who had just passed in several subjects last year, had gotten the certificate of merit, but she hadn’t?
How was that even possible?
***
“Hi Shreya,” Ria said as she passed by the corridor. “Hi,” Ria said a little louder this time and waved at her, but Shreya just walked past her.
“Hey, Sam!”
Sam was right next to her. Shreya could see Sam but not see her?
“I heard that you just got a thousand followers on Instagram. Congratulations!” said Shreya.
Sam had a thousand followers? But Ria had joined Instagram way before Sam. How had Sam overtaken her?
It was just not fair! Nothing was, in this annoying world.
***
Ria got a notification on her phone. She took it out and her heart almost stopped when she saw the message.
“Hey Ria. As you aren’t attending our meetings regularly, I’m sorry, but you can’t be a part of our committee anymore. This was a joint decision taken by the other members and me.”
It was a message from Priya, her best friend, or at least the person who used to be her best friend. To think that all the members of the secret gang including Priya, had decided to kick her out of it!
Ria felt as if the entire universe had conspired against her. Nobody seemed to like her. She just wanted to curl up and die.
***
Ria felt so stupid. She felt like she was the greatest blockhead in the whole world.
Ria rubbed her nose against her shirt and pushed the tears away from her eyes.
She stood up and pushed the curtains away from the window as a ray of sunlight entered, revealing the dust her room was immersed in.
The sun had just emerged from behind the clouds after the clouds had emptied all their water into the Earth. A faint rainbow was now visible against the pale blue sky.
Ria looked at the rainbow as a new hope filled the crushed heart of the teen. Suddenly, the world didn’t seem dreary and dismal anymore. Perhaps, she wasn’t as bad as she had thought herself to be. Perhaps, the world wasn’t that unfair to her.
Ria was only in her teens. Not being popular in school, not winning in a debate, wasn’t the end of the world.
Her life had just begun. She still had a long road ahead of her. She was going to cross this road by first- loving herself.
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