Dancing and being

I love to dance anytime and anywhere. When I travel in the metro, I listen to music and groove to it. It has occurred to me multiple times that people are staring at or judging me. It used to make me self-conscious earlier; I don’t care anymore. I realized that I can only be myself in my own space and be happy about it, my reality isn’t going to be someone else’s reality and s/he might not even appreciate my real nature and opinions. One day when I was travelling and grooving, an elderly man saw me and began smiling; I smiled back. Later when he got up and offered me his seat, I refused and he said, “Obviously. How else would you dance, na beta?” and smiled and left. It wasn’t what he said but it meant a big deal to me. There was not a bit of sarcasm in what he said. He smiled at me because he liked that I was happy in my own skin and in my own space.

You’ve got to think of the small things that make you happy and do them! Be it dancing or cooking or even if it’s just sitting at your favourite spot in the city and just relaxing. You don’t need to have a reason for it and you don’t need to be great at it. Just do it. Don’t wait for someone else to come and tell you to ‘go for it’. Just tell yourself: ‘All you need is your own love, care and motivation’. It’s time you find your own magic as well, if you haven’t already.
Agnes Thomas (19)
Hindu College, Delhi University, New Delhi