A gifted moment

          Even the laid-back ones can motivate themselves by understanding the heartache, passion, commitment and perseverance. Somebody’s faith in us can go long way in motivating ourselves. Never ending obstacles seem to disappear once you come to know that somebody believes in you. Hope keeps us going.

          The phase; most of the teenagers experience it. Almost everyone if I must say. As I grew older, the teenager in me became increasingly rebellious. To be honest, I had pushed patience of everyone around me. Nobody could believe that I had grown up to be such a ‘spoiled brat’. I had been very tame as a child. Obeying everyone, excellent at studies, soft-spoken, is how the people who hadn't seen me for 2 or more years remembered me.

          But the phase, had introduced them to alien me. She was alien to me a well. But I enjoyed the attention she used to get. I liked how other girls envied her. I loved being a part of most famous clique with her. The need of independence, a separate identity and testing authority made me cherish the alien me.

          But this package of enjoyment came with bitter gifts. Whenever I attended family gatherings, I could hear people whispering behind my back. They would stare at me.  They wouldn't let their children talk to me, thinking I would be a bad influence on them. I wouldn't have been surprised that if their children misbehaved, they would have compared them to me. In short, I was a bad example for them. This didn't stop me from being the way I had become; in fact it made me more rebellious. I stopped attending family gatherings. I started drinking secretly. I had the most understanding parents, but I had become too ignorant to even listen to what they had to say.

          I would shut myself in my room once I got home and would get out of the room only when the dinner was announced. My grades dropped drastically. I bunked schools, never submitted any of the assignments on time, made students do proxy attendance for me. I was in bad books of my teachers.

          It culminated one day, when I was found breaking school’s rules along with my friends. The Discipline Committee had called for our parents. My mom had to take off from her work. I had been rusticated from school for a week.

          We didn’t speak until the next afternoon. I had locked myself in my room. I didn’t even get out of the room for dinner, the previous night. My mom ordered me to open the door during lunch time. I was ashamed and had no courage to face her. But, I was extremely hungry. I opened the room. I expected to hear the words, ‘You are grounded.’ But none of us spoke anything. She broke the tension by giving me a small gift-wrapped box. I nonchalantly opened it and found a little rock inside. I rolled my eyes and said, “Cute.”

“Read the card,” my Mom instructed.

          I took the card out of the envelope and read it. It read- ‘This rock is more than 200,000,000 years old. That is how long it will take before I give up on you’. Tears started trickling down my cheeks. She hugged me. There were no conditions in her love. It was unconditional. I knew she will love me forever and nothing can change that. This moment brought back the real me. This moment motivated me to be a better person. This moment gave me a hope for future. I decided to leave the alien me behind, and embraced my new future and the old me.

          

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