Gauzy tendrils of fog lap at my heels, tickling my calves as I caper towards the center of campus.
My name, Sahana, speaks of strength and tolerance; and to anyone who’s met me, it’s synonymous to brilliance and reliability, dauntlessness and originality. Adorned with a tiara, cloaked in ferocity, armed with stubborn determination and a storm of passion: I am bent on forging a brighter future for every community within reach -a pinch of pixie dust and a smile at a time.
The sky encases a tale in every orb of dew and a voice in every fork of lightning.
I love how letters are strung together to erect dimensions of magic and mystery, and I revel in the power to conjure cities of opal or incite revolutions merely by rearranging those very letters to capture my fancy.
A breeze infused with nutmeg and burnt cinnamon dances with whorls of spiced pine and peppermint as it sweeps by.
Every Thanksgiving, I write to every person I’ve learned from, every acquaintance who’s made me laugh, and every friend who’s made me. I’m spellbound by the way photos and books immortalize slivers of time in a capsule of human emotion. I don’t believe in coincidences.
I whip my head around, beaming at my captives as they stumble over each other, eyebrows furrowed in protest: my darling friends who’ve always been happy to humor my every escapade - up until I haul them out with me.
I love easily, care fiercely, and forgive quickly. I think dragons ought to sneeze bubbles. I’m convinced colors sing in languages we don’t hear. There’s something awfully reassuring in being blessed by elephants. I believe in kindness.
Propelled by music, we spill onto the quad of our high-school, the fluorescent lights slicing through the misty sheath of gray and pooling under my bare toes as I flutter through puddles.
I’m as graceless as a goose. I seldom think straight - the ideas bend and scatter like suspended fireworks through my mind. I believe every dawn brings promise of adventure, and each day is fulfilled only by completing a quest to learn, create, or fix even one thing.
My companions squeal in furtive delight before half of them invariably flee indoors, while I continue to belt Disney songs off-key.
I find pessimism exhausting, cynicism draining, judgementality stifling, and optimism to be a practiced choice. I don’t remember a time when I’ve settled for the status quo. Every dusk falls with an invite to confront new challenges, and I opt to greet and grow from each one.
A fine layer of silver droplets coats the atmosphere and alights on my face, a refreshing contrast to the chafing warmth of the cafeteria I’d slipped away from.
I believe each person has the power to inspire progress and every individual has been guilty of sanctioning retrogression.
In the storm I hear verses of poetry flitting between the raindrops, a paean to nature and all creation weaving a spell over me as I spin…
I’ve been bestowed with a heart strung with dreams and a core of wildfire. I think praying is as much about getting back in touch with oneself as it is about reaching for the divine. I find satisfaction in science and peace in faith. I believe empathy is a universal language we all ought to learn fluently.
Mercurial ripples wink up at me from the cracks and depressions punctuating the rough-hewn concrete of my stage.
I think our lives amount to the ripples we create, a culmination of every unconventional risk and instance of gratitude, every time we make a stranger smile or console a friend.
I hover for a timeless second, swaying to the melody of the birdsong and the schoolbell, the wind and the rainfall, the prongs of a thousand binders snapping shut and the soles of wellies darting between buildings - and realize I’m drenched to the bone.