The Problem Child

She was a complete sprain in the neck for most of the people. Liking to do things not so even or normal, she was as fickle as the flying air, pushing herself towards perfection bit by bit daily committing an enormous number of mistakes and trying hard not to repeat them.

She wasn't different from others for sure, she feared a little too more about people judging her, she repeated her mistakes unintentionally and found herself in self-criticism often, an array of thoughts rumbled in her mind daily, she would think a lot and often.

Perfection was overrated and boring. Being as imperfect as she could, she strived hard sweating her eyebrows in being up to the mark and not have any fingers pointing at her! She took a little more time than the usual humans to grasp and understand the logic, she was weak on that and she accepted that gracefully.

At the break of dawn, every day when she opened her eyes looking up to a new morning, every day she thought beforehand of how she could make people, her family, her colleagues at work and her loved ones around her happy. Yes, she cared a little too much about the impressions she carved in everyone's minds but that was her! And she couldn't stop that.

Struggling with self-respect yet an empath at heart, she desolated at becoming the pink of perfection!

"Sheena! This is not done! I mean this is common sense!! How could you even do this?" her colleague would chasten her even at the smallest of her blunders.

And a few more... "How dumb is this!?!"

"What?!? Come on! You are no more a beginner to make such mistakes."

"This isn't done, this is not supposed to happen your way."

"Why haven't you updated this? Why didn't you inform me about this! You are so poor at communicating!!"

Bitterly stung by their words, she would smile at them, holding herself as strong as an ox, giving them her side of explanation to which they lent deaf ears, apologizing even when she felt she wasn't wrong, toiling hard living up to their expectations. Little did they know about the tears which rolled out behind the doors of the washroom every time she faced humiliation.

She was perceived as a problem child. By this, I mean she faced difficulty in getting along with people a majority of times and struggled to do her all her jobs correctly.

Well, who isn't? Everyone is, in some or the other way! Each one of us has been in the bad books of somebody or had an unfriendly shoulder with at least one human on earth. She was no different.

Sheena was working with a big advertisement brand for the past one year and somehow, she had always been the face to a number of judgments. What was catchy? She accepted her flaws! There was no denial of that. She accepted that with grace.

Her daily greetings of humiliation from her team members had weakened her abilities and her ladder of courage to such an extent that she would get fever often as a result of her outstretched fear towards her work.

Yes, she had started fearing her own job. Having qualms about committing mistakes, fretting from imperfection, she had begun to lose herself. Latching herself behind the loo doors, she would cry her heart which had become so fragile due to the repeated encounters of dishonor.

Thinking of her, putting myself in her shoes, I am abashed with the unacceptability of humans towards each other.

We all have the good and bad in us, we all expect others to understand us but we all have weak knees when it comes to accepting the imperfections everybody is blessed with.

This girl Sheena, it's alarming that her colleagues saw only the faults in her. She also had the pros and too many which were barely noticed. Not that she left her job undone always, she only struggled to get it right without any mistakes.

Sheena had been a rebel. Here is a list.

It wasn't easy to open her eyes to a new day and to hope that her work would be appreciated someday. Facing taunts and humiliation in the public with a smile, accepting defeat requires a lot of courage! Walking a mile extra every day just to get better at work like others and above all, the ability to not fire back at people only because she did not wish to hurt them was a blessing in disguise.

To stand on a fine line between giving up and having faith in herself even when people around passed judgments was a hurricane task! Giving her best shot every day and yet facing obstacles getting to the finish line isn't easy at all. Building hopes and miserably failing, smiling at her defeats isn't easy. Not hating anybody for their judgments and believing that everyone has their own unique style of working which cannot be questioned and above all, taking it on a positive note that their reactions are a result of her actions, she tried her best in not building a cold shoulder with anyone.

Anybody from her circle noticed that?

'The problem child' was all she was perceived as but she was indeed a phoenix who was going to rise out of the ashes. Coming back to my point, all I would like to say is we all should make acceptability towards each other a practice irrespective of however the person is. It's well said,

"Your mistakes don't define you."

I feel mistakes are the most beautiful things that could happen to you. They are like a blessing, a step towards strengthening your own skills and self - learning.

Sheena was just as normal as others but maybe she needed someone helping her in identifying the root causes of her mistakes, some moral support and some sprinkles of motivation. But the failure of acceptance from her teammates towards her imperfections had bruised her, cracked her abilities and her confidence to work carefree.

When you start fearing mistakes, that's when you commit the most and that's where the self-learning stops.

That's what happened to her. Her abilities were now shadowed with her fears, overrun by the others and misunderstood as 'low on performance.'

We all have been a problem child some or the other way. I remember being one in my school days when all the teachers had those harsh eyes at me since I was terribly weak in mathematics and science.

I remember how it felt, how much I struggled to pass in the subjects and most importantly, I still remember those nightmares I would get of the dominating teachers trying to scare me of failure rather than uplifting me. I remember them talking about how weak I was and the parents meeting had almost choked my happiness, seeing my mother in tears, fearing that I would have to discontinue if my grades continued to fall!

And here I am! It didn't make me a loser in any way. I had faith in myself, my parents support too and that, in no way meant a failure in my life!

These mere judgments we all pass, the criticism in public, the perceptions we all make are so very easy, but I tell you, it takes courage to accept people wholly and makes relationships a cakewalk to handle.

Next time, you spot a problem child who could have mere or major issues with you, remember that accepting them is the first step! Somewhere, deep down there, they are battling their own subconscious fears which could be a result of any incidents, struggling to get better and healing their own wounds. Someday, they are going to rise from the ashes, someday they are going to shine the brightest for each one of us is blessed with unique abilities.

Marilyn Monroe once said,

"We all are stars and we deserve to twinkle!"

When was the last time you had trouble with someone and accepted them for what they were? Share it with me in your comments below. I would love to know!