Hope

And then it dawned on her: she had nothing left to lose. A drop of tear from her already ‘stoic’ lacrimal glands generated somehow, which ended up near her lips. She could feel a terrible pain in her chest, as if her lungs were compressed. She found it difficult to breathe. And post few seconds, she felt a cringy pain near her cheeks and there she began mourning loudly. Her eyes welled up again – which favoured crying. She could get a blurred image of the report card which she cursed; the books stacked in a messy order on her bed which she cursed as well; the vague visuals and sounds of her parents lamenting her XIIth board exam grades, which obviously she cursed; and, well, she cursed herself the most. But then, she stopped with a sudden sob, as she thought of something that would end all her worries. She wiped her tears, checked the bolt on the door – it was locked. She swtiched off the ceiling fan, placed a table right beneath it, made a knot in her towel, fixed it on it’s obvious location and she was all set to show her acute cowardness to the world by surrendering herself into death’s hand…

Hope. That’s the four letter word which we all ignore when the world falls apart for us. While there are some who regain faith in this miraculous word, there are the rest who don’t even want to regain faith in it. To those people, I personally have an aptronym: cowards. Hope is something that we need for surivival. We all have dreams, passions, ideas or at least something to live for. But when life does not turn out to be favourable and as we had expected it to, we go into a phase which they call ‘depression’. Ask them who’ve been in depression and made out of it, how ‘beautiful’, how really ‘beautiful’ it is to experience! I suppose, every eight out of ten teenagers have been in depression at least once in their adolescence. Be it on a big scale or small, they have experienced it. Okay, so even I’ve been in it. When you’re in it, you feel hopeless. The first thought which comes to your mind is to end your life. Jeez! And it’s after this that you are bombarded with all the negative and gruesome thoughts and ideas you can ever think of. I mean it’s so terrifying. Then there are some complimentary symptoms of depression:

1. You can’t eat (you don’t feel like)
2. You can’t sleep (you don’t feel like)
3. You procrastinate (you don’t feel like, but you do!)

I know your soul needs healing, but without eating? Without sleeping, for God’s sakes? I can do without my gaming console, I can do without my headphones with full bass, I can do without YouTube…but I swear on God I just can’t do a day without eating and sleeping!! How could you people???

It is a million dollar saying…no a billion dollar…wait, a quadrillion dollar saying; chuck it! It’s a true and meaningful saying that “you only get life once.” So why not just live it? Even if there are some obstacles (without which life would be boring, isn’t it?) why not just think of an appropriate solution to cross it? After all, it’s in these situations that you get an authentic chance to show the world how strong and courageous you are. Trust me, the world would bow down to you if you face the challenges that life throws at you and mould the same life into being better – or perhaps the best. All you need is to survive. Survive all the cortisol (the stress hormone) that is released in your body during tough times. Survive all the negative thoughts, especially of ending your life, and not giving in. Survive all the jeers and rants and laments which you will get to hear by the people around you – and flip the scenario by 180 degrees so that you get to hear praises by the same people when you make it through. All you need is hope. Hope for a better life. Hope for making the situation better. All you need is faith in the word ‘hope’. Believe me, hopelessness sucks. Isn’t is too much of a monotonous life if you don’t have a passion for living it to the fullest? Who doesn’t like adventures? Who doesn’t like bragging and exaggerating their childhood and youth stories to people when he becomes old? Who wouldn’t like thinking, on their deathbed, about the splendid life which he or she lived while he/she was young and being content about it? One failure should not stop you from inspiring others. One failure should not stop you from carving your life the way you ever wanted. And obviously, one failure should not stop you from being the one you were destined to become.

With hope overflowing in you, you can make yourself energized again and you will be as good and strong as ever. Trust me, you can and you will.

…just then something happened. A picture of her parents flashed in her mind for a second. She stood on the table stiff and frozen. She could even hear her heart pounding and the sound of her aggravated breaths in the eerie silence. Just when she could not think about anything, thanks to her frozen brain, she heard a knock on the door. Twice, thrice….and for the sixth time in couplets. She regained her senses and stepped down from the table. By this time, she could hear her parents shouting her name on the top of their voices. Her face looked pale, dried tear spots clearly visible. She opened the gate. Her mother almost lost her mind on seeing the ‘death-setup’. The trio did not speak a word – they embraced themselves in each others’ arms and that was when another life emerged victorious over death!