Unrelenting Ambition

She did not laugh this time; she was so unbothered and indecisive that it made her heart, which ran a marathon a while ago, come to a point where it cannot move its fingertips. Her veins are alarming her peers about the impact they made while her brain was fighting the urge to open her eyes to finally face those people who embarrassed her or close them so that she could drift into the oblivion. It was silent around her, but within her she could feel a storm that could disrupt the balance by uprooting the trees, swirling the cars, and destroying whatever comes in its way. But all these seem to be bearable when compared to the needless pain that is piercing right into my soul.         The first response she could give was to tap her toes against the floor from the first row where she was seated. The chief guest stopped her speech as if she couldn't account for any missteps in her program. Finally, she opened her eyes to prove to herself that she reached the same land from where she drifted a few seconds back. The hall is so silent that they can hear even a pin drop. Seconds passed from that moment, but she couldn't let her mind out of the moment when she was embarrassed. They laughed. At her. But why?          All because she had a delicate, fragile flower blooming inside her. She always wanted to get hold of it. She has never been afraid of its leaves or its thorns. Every trial she has taken has led to her bleeding, either by the thorns or by slipping down while reaching its stems. But the heart of her never took a step back. She had a determination that she would hold it someday. She knew it was far away, and also she knew that the far was reachable. She had flames in her soul, and her eyes burned for that unfulfilled dream that is soon to be fulfilled. But now, all she could feel was the disappointment that she felt when she told the chief guest that she wanted to do her doctorate at Columbia University, New York. The disappointment that the people in the hall made her go through all because she had a higher dream. The people can also include my fellow students or maybe the professor who taught me in my college. They mocked. But I never failed to notice that the chief guest didn't laugh just like the crowd did. She knew that the flames in my soul would burn until I reached my zenith.       Soon the seconds became minutes, and minutes rolled into hours. They crowd dispersed after the event was over. But when I looked back to that moment. I felt a simple thing: that the embarrassing moment planted a sapling in my heart and that I will get hold of the flower soon.