Newsletter July 2024

Newsletter July 2024 by Rishona Chopra

The forge of life - Saikiran Sahu

                                                      Illustrated by Christian Espinosa

In the forge of life, we're tested, tried,

Through every hardship, we abide.

Though storms and thunder may 

rage and winds may blow,

Our strength within begins to show.

With every stumble and every fall,

We rise again; we stand tall.

Each challenge faced, each fear unchained,

Our resilience is surely gained.

From struggles faced and fights won,

Our endeavour's just begun.

With every stride, we grow stronger yet,

In the face of adversity, we'll never forget.

Because our motive is to rise, conquer, endure,

And become stronger evermore. 

                                                                                                      -Saikiran Sahu XC

The Secret Behind Her Productivity - Shambhavi Nautiyal

Surabhi was a 14-year-old straight-A student who always tried to make the most out of her time. She didn’t make friends, or maybe it’s just that her friends didn’t stick with her. She had been moving through her day, keeping much to herself and studying as much as possible. Then, a new transfer student ‘Kavita’ entered her life.

She was smart, confident, uninhibited and open about her feelings. She always looked so happy and ‘perfect’ in Surabhi’s eyes. It made her wish that she could be like her. Then, one day, Kavita came up to her and said “Hi!” She complimented Surabhi’s hair and how pretty she looked, which made her drop a tear or two.

Kavita kept probing her until Surabhi confessed how her mother never let her sleep, how she could not study ‘enough’ and just couldn’t make time, and then Kavita told her how the same things happened to her, and so she tried a new timetable which helped her.

Kavita asked Surabhi how she felt then, but she said "Nothing can ever help me". Then Kavita suddenly got all serious and said “If you don’t let yourself be helped, you won’t be helped”. Surabhi ran to the girl’s restroom, looked in the mirror, and realised that she had been betraying herself by telling herself that she could never succeed and everyone else was ahead of her not making any mistakes.

She told this to Kavita, when she confirmed to her that everyone including herself always went through times when they simply couldn’t achieve their goals overnight and had to do the job bit by bit. Surabhi was hit by a wave of discernment, how she had been gatekeeping a lot from her friends without actually knowing. When she was with them not much came out of her mouth and she just tried pushing her fears and problems under the rug because why would she trouble them with her problems, wouldn’t that just make her ‘uninteresting’, ‘cry-baby’ or ‘too sensitive and uncool’.

Kavita told her that it’s always okay to feel your feelings and first sort her things out before approaching a friend. Surabhi felt renewed and comforted for the first time in weeks and just decided to be grateful.

------------------------------------------- The End ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Shambhavi Nautiyal 

Class- 10

Ahlcon Public School

Never Stop Dreaming - Shambhavi Nautiyal

One should never stop dreaming because if you stop dreaming, you lose vision of your future and your life purpose. So, instead of waiting for some fairy to show up and tell us where to find our passion, we should create it ourselves. This means we should take on hobbies, find what resonates best with us, and make it our life purpose. 

We should keep doing it until we become the best at it and then find something new, which would probably be around the corner because the universe renders us the energy we send out. 

If we have a productive mindset and want to keep working to keep ourselves alive; it is the purpose the universe will fulfil because the universe is constantly hearing our thoughts. 

So, if we tell the universe we want to evolve and become a straight-A student, it is the kind of path the universe will weave for us. And, this is the basic manifestation that we do daily, sending out messages to the universe through our mind and receiving replies with the same level of energy in the form of our life events. 

That's why, we should surround ourselves with the best kind of people, content and music to have positive thoughts. I am currently healing from this, I have renounced friends, I used to meet daily, who didn’t match my vibration, but now, I need to stop bonding with the foundation of trauma and sadness. I want to stop relating to people based on sadness and make it the foundation of my relationship with them. 

So, maybe, now I will not make any such friends when I am depressed, and if I do, then, I shall try my best to avoid them, otherwise. If I have friendships like that, then, whenever I hang out with them, I will feel depressed because that may turn out to be their inherent disposition, or we might never be able to interact about the good things in our lives because we would be so occupied with trying to cook up a conversation based on our melancholia. 

This attracts a kind of reality even further in my life, feeds that scarcity mindset, and brings down even my positive vibration. However, I have also had many nice friends made on this basis, those who understand me, empathise with me and don’t judge. But I have also had negative experiences where the negative would just linger and not go away. It boils down to enforcing your boundaries. I can go around, sharing my grief, but then it makes me dependent on external validation. 

Shambhavi Nautiyal

Class 10

Ahlcon Public School