”Wow, the moon appears so big!” she exclaimed.

”Yeah right” he said forcibly.

“Really, you don’t feel anything when you look at it, do you?” she asked him, irritated.

The moon has always been her companion, and she had held onto it long enough that it was now habitual to simply gaze at it for no other reason.

The completion of secondary school examinations led to her leaving her house to attend a boarding school at the age of 15. Boarding schools were not a new thing, but among her cousins, she was the one who left her house too soon. There were five of them, and they lived like one family, reaching out to each other for everything. The sudden plucking away from her gang was one of her most painful experiences that she had suppressed within. Each time she moved places, the nights seemed longer as she could not sleep due to the thoughts that would come by. Anger, hatred, loneliness, and yearning for her dear ones— all these feelings tumbled one over the other, along with heaps of responsibilities of studies and various other life pressures. As the nights seemed diabolical to her, she would then walk to the nearest window of the dormitory or of the hostel rooms, breathe in the cold breeze, and stare into the void and the extreme darkness. To her sustenance, it was the faraway stars that would accompany her through the teary night and then the moon.

The calmness the night sky provided became her rationale for thriving in those disturbing days. She went through the DABDA pretty well and somehow managed to balance between her normal and dreary days. She patiently waited for nightfall to see the moon. The moon stood aloof, high and mighty, containing its craters and shining brightly.

At times she would do the same while she was at home with her parents; she loved looking at the moon. The thought suddenly struck her, ”Everyone is just on the other side of the moon. Why am I sad? I can see them soon,” she consoled herself. That is how she had been, and even now she gazes at it just like before, thinking she would see her dear ones soon on the other side of the moon.

Eventually, everyone is on their own in life, either searching or building their own little corner to stay put. The experiences that come along are just the steps that you climb upon to reach where you are today.