2021… Building Resilience by Shanzay Sameen

BANG! Tripping over a rock, you fall hard on the ground as you scrape your knee, skin tearing and droplets of fresh blood oozing out like there’s no tomorrow. You know how it feels when after successive victories and achievements, one falls hard right to one’s downfall, just like the feeling of having to get your cheeks very softly kissed by the legendary “flying chappal” technique used by desi moms when they see you still sleeping at 7 am.

Surely, after every rise, there is a fall. Similarly, 2020 was no less than a rock in the way of our peaceful lives that twisted and turned our fates, yanking and swirling our ordinary everyday routines and making a foul-tasting milkshake out of it before pushing us forcefully into a maze in order to test who makes it out alive. That maze was Coronavirus. And that milkshake was a mixture of our goals…

What happens after you trip over a rock?

What happens after you trip over a rock? You obviously get back up (albeit you make your friends feel second-hand embarrassment as they observe your fruitless struggles on making things less awkward) before straightening your clothes, lifting your chin up and gracefully continuing walking. This is exactly how we need to gather ourselves together, leave our worries of 2020 behind and arm ourselves with the lessons we learnt this year before heading to 2021.

Get up! It is time to start with a new beginning.

Stand back up with pride because it is you who made it out alive after a year full of disastrous events. Walk again but with grace and elegance because you are now armed with confidence after getting to learn how this world, even during a catastrophic pandemic, stood up enraged at the brutality faced by the late George Floyd. Smile again but now with wholeheartedness because you never know how temporary life can be and how many might be in need of love at such times especially those who lost their loved ones in Beirut Explosion.

Believe that 2021 is going to be a year of rebirth.

A year full of expectations. Like our very own Hogsmeade, this year will be full of treats. Like the Forbidden Forest, this year might bring thrilling adventures. You can see the future painted in your eyes. Push open the doors of expectations and fade into the light. There is so much more to experience in life.

2021 is going to be a year where we come alive.

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Shanzay Sameen’s – XI-G (Generosity) driving force to write is the support of her cherished friends and the golden opportunities provided by her school which enabled her write-ups to get acknowledged by significant platforms, with the recent example of the release of the second volume of Shaheens Quarterly that published her poem “Prejudice.” As Shakespeare had said and she quotes, “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come,” she firmly believes that it is better to live a day full of joy rather than an entire life full of nothing but despair. She thinks of herself as a girl who got pushed into a deep tormented sea in 2020 but somehow made it out alive in 2021 Alhamdulillah!

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Cover Photo by Demi Kwant on Unsplash