AaraAara
I was born ordinary, and I learned very early how powerful that word could be.
In a world where everyone wanted more-more love, more money, more applause-I wanted nothing. Not in a dramatic, broken way. Just... nothing. Quiet mornings. Evenings that ended without expectations. A life that didn't ask me to prove myself.
I lived with my parents in a small house that always smelled like tea and old curtains. My mother believed success was stability. My father believed success was survival. Neither of them asked me to be extraordinary, and for that, I was grateful.
People often mistook my calm for laziness.
"Don't you want to fall in love?" my friends would ask, eyes glowing like love was a trophy.
"No," I would say, honestly.
They laughed, as if I'd told a joke. As if love was inevitable. As if choosing solitude was a phase.
But I had watched love closely-how it turned people desperate, how it made them shrink themselves just to be chosen. I had seen dreams collapse under the weight of someone else's expectations. I didn't want to be a before-and-after story. I wanted to be complete as I was.
I woke up each morning to the same routine. Help my mother in the kitchen. Listen to my father read the newspaper aloud, commenting on politics like he could fix the world with his opinions. I went to work, did my tasks, came home. No ambition burning inside me. No five-year plan taped to my mirror.
Success scared me.
Not because I thought I couldn't reach it-but because I knew how much it demanded in return. Sleep. Peace. Relationships. Yourself.
I had seen successful people wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. I didn't want medals for suffering.
Sometimes, late at night, I wondered if something was wrong with me. The world screamed dream bigger, *