by Gayatri Sharma, Mahindra United World College of India
September 16th, 2018
“Have I seen you before?” I say
With a half apologetic, half bewildered smile
Spread wide across my face
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not really good with names”
I retaliate, as my brain
Filters back to the thousand letters and syllables, thousand faces
That it’s tried miserably to retain in the past few days
My eyes, accustomed to seeing known views and familiar traces
My ears known to heard voices and listening to similar cases,
Break down, build back up again
For I am the earthen clay,
And life is the hands
Molding me, shaping me, making me who I am
a
New beginnings
I see people with fire in their eyes
Fury in their veins
And it’s all disguised
By a gentle, carefully curated smile
Floating above sea tides
I’ve seen people like the tips of the iceberg
I can’t help but wonder about the depths they hide
They say when God closes a door, she opens a window
For that’s all I see, windows and windows letting light into what was dark before,
And the doors of ideas which existed before break open
Comfort zones become borders which need to be crossed
And my social anxiety sits like a demon to the right of my shoulder
After years of being secure and laid in
But what’s different is that I have the courage to say “Not today, Satan”
a
New beginnings
When someone asks me “Have you ever travelled outside your country before?”
I’m compelled to say no because I have no tickets to flights to act as evidence
a
But what about the time my Canadian friend painted the picture of her small town to me over tea?
What about the time me and my Swedish friend talked politics while we were waiting for the laundry?
What about the time me and my Colombian roommate stayed up late talking about culture, religion and
love?
What about the time I talked about backgrounds with people who don’t live on the same side of my
country as I do?
a
While I haven’t physically been present to any of these locations
The words spoken from the voices of those who have
Echo in my mind, resonate in my soul
Through the words of their personal anecdotes
It’s almost as if I’ve imagined and understood
How the wind blows in their town
How the grass feels
How the sun shines
And it seems to as if I’ve lived there too
a
New beginnings
They teach you things about yourself you never knew
They make you reach out to the darkest pits in your mind you’ve always been avoiding
They empty you only to fill you up again
They make you look in the mirror and see a new person
They make you realise being reborn isn’t necessarily a bad thing
a
If you open yourself up to New beginnings
They start making you feel belonged
Start feeling familiar
Start feeling comfortable
And start feeling
Like home.
