THE BEACH...

“Why me? Why me?” was the question going on his mind as he walked across a dark unlit shore. The curvy pattern that was made by the stick in his hand on the sand was being washed away by the waves. The expressions on his face were that of complete dejection. “This was not supposed to happen! It’s not true, it just cannot be true, and why am I here?” he thought to himself. Not knowing why he was wandering about the silent lifeless beach.

He was not able to hold onto it anymore as tears started to roll off his eyes. Never in his life had he felt so dejected, so faithless and deprived. All those hours of hard work seeming to go in wane. He had given up so much just for this day and in the end it was not enough. “All my friends cracked the exam, why only I couldn’t?” was the thought pestering him since a day before when his results were displayed.

The more he thought about it the more he felt the darkness and coldness inside him grew. He could see her face standing next to him, comforting him along the rest of his friends. Which made him feel a bit better, but then again thinking that she cleared the test with flying colors and would soon go on ahead of him made him feel depressed.

“Is there any meaning to life anymore? I tried my best, and yet I could not succeed what else I can do now? Such shame I have brought upon myself and my parents. Should I actually continue living? ” He wondered.

Thinking about all that he gave up just to prepare himself for this test made him choke. Thinking all this he became motionless for some time. “Enough, I’ve had enough. I don’t want to live anymore” he thought to himself. He looked towards the ocean, a simple way to die he thought. He never learned swimming.

He sat there thinking the consequences of his death. His parents would surely be devastated he thought and so will be his brother. But will anyone else even remember his name in a few years, he thought.  The answer to this made his determination even stronger. He was a no one, a nobody; he could feel his own self-respect crumbling away. And as the sun started to come up from the horizon he stood up to meet his fate, his destiny, in his words.

He heard a few stray dogs barking in a distance. He went up close to see that they were barking on the just hatched baby turtles emerging from their sandy nests. Seeing them crawl up gave a smile on his face, which did not last long as he saw the dogs chewing up on them as soon as they came up, few of those who managed to get away were picked up hovering seagulls. He felt like saving them but as he took a few steps ahead he thought that it doesn’t really matter. The turtles’ lives are as insignificant as his and he just stood there watching.

What happened next was something that surprised him. A hatchling, dodging all its prey’s reached the ocean and swam off. He couldn’t believe a creature so small, fending off such big predators in comparison to it and finally reaching its goal-the ocean. Were the turtles really as insignificant as he thought? And it looked like they were far more significant than he himself, who couldn’t even move ahead of a single hurdle-the exam.