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Rainbow and text
Rainbow and text
Original illustration by Mehak Vohra
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ashoka chapter.

 

I’ve always felt 

like 

something was wrong with me.

Like my feeling were equivalent 

to a hurricane 

swirling around,

ever-random, ever-changing.

Like I was the only one

who had no control 

over situations

or my reaction to them

or myself.

 

When the world expects laughter

while it labels all 

your cherished nuances

‘not-worthy’

and all you can give them

is your 

stolen joy,

a sob and an ‘I’m alright’

 

When the whispering voices expect

a Princess of Perfection

and you come in as a

‘teenager’

with usual tattered jeans and tattered attitude

(while the Princesses all around,

deep in their hearts,

want to be like you).

 

And when they want you to 

‘be yourself’,

but that entails being free

of outsider expectations

and then you realise 

self-assessment is key.

 

Oh, if I could tell

the past me

the old and repressed me

the part of me I loathed and

paid no heed to

that You,

You were the best part of me.

 

Things I thought were wrong were in fact

most correct

flaws turned out to be

strengths

my negatives were 

rays of hope

for improvement.

No chains and no expectations.

 

Breathe in the freedom

breathe out the despair

the regrets, and the never-quite-rightness.

So, take your acceptance vaccinations

because you don’t want to catch 

this fast-spreading disease

called perfection.

 

By Ishita Ahuja, for the Trans Solidarity Fundraiser

Her Campus Ashoka University held a month long fundraiser to contribute to the gender-affirming surgeries of the trans community in India!
Mehak Vohra

Ashoka '21

professional procrastinator.