Paved Was The Left, The Right Cobbled

By Priyadarshini Maji

It was the paved way that I was always determined to take. When I was sent away to this unknown place in my adolescent years, that’s what I had always kept in my mind.. never to get noticed by people, go with the flow and take the easy way out. But things don't always go as planned. Actually it never does.

I became the laughing stock of the place. Within days the bullying started and I took the easy way out..going with the flow. Yes it was bad, too bad at first. But I had gone with it, and eventually it stopped. But the turmoil within me had just started then. I had become more and more concealed. It had started reflecting in everything I did. I was totally consumed by fear. I had planned to stay that way..hidden, until I was out of that place. But then I saw someone else

struggling. I saw it in front of my eyes, what I was living with, within.. I think that for everyone, there is a time for inner struggle- a time when one asks, ‘Who am I? What do I mean to myself?’ It is those who face this struggle and deal with it other than taking the easy way out, are the one who eventually succeed in who they want to be. I had faced the same situation then. One must learn to make choices about what they want in their life and then stand for it and at the same time they must learn to change themselves in order to achieve it.

In time, I changed. As the saying goes - before knowing others I should have a sense of who I am, but there is always more to be found at the bottom of the well ‘me’. With each choice, I chose not only who I am but who I will become. And in time I was above all. I rose to great heights that the place offered.

My struggle was a fight against misunderstanding and loneliness within me. There will always be struggles within me, dilemmas I’ll face..but I’m determined to master them.

If I wouldn’t have been tormented in my early days and if I had chosen paths differently, I would be a completely different person today, weak even.

Paved was the left..the right cobbled and I took the Right way out.

By Priyadarshini Maji