A Day to Remember!

Disclaimer: I attempted pouring out my emotions – something which is extremely close to my heart. Not sure, whether I could do justice to the avalanche of emotions that a teenage girl encountered off guard.

A picture speaks a thousand words, but this one image (school board) evoked a thousand emotions. A childhood friend shared this picture with me, and I ventured down the memory lane.

It was an eventful day in the year 1992 (can’t believe it’s been 3 long decades as I vividly remember every second of that day). That was a different era, and life was sustained without the internet. We expected our CBSE board Class X results in a day or two. Out of the blue, around 11 am, I received a phone call from a friend stating that the results were out and I was the declared topper. That was the moment; I shrieked! After that, I was numb and unable to accept what I had just heard.

Everyone at home was overjoyed – my mom couldn’t stop smiling and the phone didn’t stop ringing. After a few hours, we came to know that I wasn’t a topper only at the school level, instead, I had scored the highest percentage in the entire district. As the news spread like wildfire, all my relatives and friends started visiting us.

However, I feared this unanticipated success in my life and was absolutely clueless about how to deal with it. I, desperately, needed some ‘me’ time to be able to absorb what was going around me. Superficially, I kept expressing gratitude for all the congratulatory phone calls and the visitors, but the feeling was not sinking inside.

It was certainly one of the most special days of my life. It marked so many firsts for me. Yes, I topped the entire district. First time in my life, the chatterbox in me was silent and could not come up with any narrative. I, first time, experienced tears of joy. I had completely lost my appetite and went to bed without eating anything for the first time. I also experienced my first sleepless night waiting for dawn. Not only this, I witnessed the first ray of the rising Sun, for the very first time. The most overwhelming first was, my picture being published in the local newspapers with the heading – ‘pratibhavaan chaatra (talented student).

Fortunately, the overnight introspection helped me to gain my composure, and I visited the school the next day to meet all my reverent teachers, who showered all their love. I, also, noticed that the hope and expectations in their eyes were quite similar to what I had witnessed in my mom’s eyes. After almost 2 -3 weeks, a felicitation ceremony was conducted at the school (Pic 2 – only the pic is blurred, my memories aren’t). By that time, I had adapted myself to this new avatar. I, wholeheartedly, enjoyed the celebrity status at the school; the juniors flocked around with their autograph books and kept asking me to share my study plan and the strategy I had implemented. Thereafter, emerged a girl with the confidence to move mountains.

Also, she found escape in the below quote from ‘The Notebook’ by Nicholas Sparks –

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common person with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough..”

The above quote became my life mantra. However, When I retrospect, I feel that my younger self struggled with the adaptability quotient. That 15-year-old innocent girl was fearful whether she would be able to meet the expectations of all her loved ones. How I wish I would have enjoyed the day in totality.

If you also experienced something similar when the biggest joy of your life inflicted pain, then please share it with me.

Love & Light!