Students in India face an array of problems ranging from stress due to competitive exams, peer pressure, parental stress, inferiority complex, relationship and a lot more. All these doubts and un-resolved issues affects them deeply and hinder their everyday course of action. One can never truly pin point a teenage life crisis in particular.
One of such teenager happened to seek help from our special friends to get rid of her confusion and to talk to someone who truly understands her feelings. Lets call her Anamika. Just like the rest of the lot, she too faced an extreme amount of exam stress. She was preparing for the JEE exams and was disappointed with her poor performance. She blamed herself continuously for the result and went on to certify herself as dyslexic. Anamika never learned and understood the concepts but only by-hearted them. This method worked well in school but backfired in JEE mains. It is for this reason that she vented out her doubt about being dyslexic. She considered herself disabled. She tried to talk about it with her parents but they never acknowledged her problem which led to a sore relationship. Everyday when Anamika opened her Facebook page and saw a list of mere 150 Facebook friends, it broke her heart. She was an extremely introvert person and lack of self confidence led her to question her normality and so kept herself aloof from the society.
Anamika also had a rough childhood. She had to go through a series of schools because of frequent transfers and that never led her to have good set of friends. Hence she felt extremely lonely and blamed her loveless childhood for her current situation. As her vulnerability got to her, every time she met a new person, she would immediately plunge into telling them about her sad life and so no one found her interesting or fun loving. This made her believe that she is a boring person and is not capable enough to make friends. To top it off, she was feeling all these emotions just two weeks before her final attempt at JEE.
It was a bit tricky to handle a person like this who is on the verge of emotional breakdown just two weeks before her big day. But our experts used all their energy to understand her and to resolve her issues.
Our special friends carefully and patiently heard every issue that disturbed her . They understood her problems and addressed the matters which needed urgent attendance. They quickly went on to explain her the true meaning of dyslexia. They asked her to re-collect the days when she stood first in 10th boards and that no dyslexic person would have been able to do that. They talked her through to stop tagging herself as a disabled as she wasn’t one. They made her understand that not being able to understand certain concepts was pretty normal and not a sign of a disability. Our special friends filled her with confidence and encouraged her to be a part of the crowd. For it is good to stand out from the crowd but its catastrophic when one doesn’t consider them worthy enough to be a part of it. She had to stop pitying herself for what had happened to her in the past and that nothing was wrong with her. Taking pride in what she is and to feel comfortable in her skin was the only way to go. She still had a lot of time in hand to create good memories instead of regretting about her past.
With their constant support and encouragement they were able to push her out of her comfort zone to make her see her capabilities and strengths. They motivated her to get involved in social activities which are backed by her hobbies like working in teams, dancing, music class, swimming and sports. As the experts say the only way to get to know more people was to talk to them and to know if she shared any common interest with the others and slowly take it from there. She was encouraged to initiate small conversations with people on different topics and not just on her story.
One by one our special friends dealt with the various issues and helped her with different techniques starting from time management, relaxation to daily health care and de-stressing.
They showed constant trust in her and believed that she could crack the exam because she had the potential but wasn’t aware of her hidden qualities. She was too tied up with her problems and missed out on the true self. The special friends helped her experience who she really was and that comparing herself with the happening lives of others will only get her down further into the ditch.
Anamika felt extremely determined and motivated after each session and her confidence grew bigger. She was on her happiest edge as she learned her true value. She loved who she was and the way she was. The self doubts and confusion now seemed pointless to her. She decided to put all her energy into the preparation for JEE exams and worked on her personality alongside. She gave up on the thought of considering herself as a disabled and studied the concepts thoroughly until she actually understood.
She came back a few weeks later with a good news to share. She had successfully cracked her JEE Mains exam and had made bunch of friends along the way. Although it did take her time but she understood what was going wrong. Anamika had understood that the only person who could make her feel good and happy was she herself. Through the journey she understood the importance of small things and how those little things together make a huge difference in life.
