Sara had always believed in destiny, faith and hope. But sometimes things don’t turn out the way we want them to be, and it’s hard to stay positive while you are surrounded by negativity.

Similarly, Sara, during any crisis, tried to remain calm and composed. She would often tell her friends motivational quotes like, “There is always light at the end of the tunnel,” or “You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life,” and many more.

However, everything in her life changed after her father lost his job due to the lockdown in the Covid-19 pandemic and during the same time her younger sister Maria got sick.

Sara and her family faced a lot of financial hardships. But Sara did not lose hope, and she applied for part-time jobs so that she could support her family.

After a lot of hard work and dedication, Sara’s family got a little stable financially and could afford basic necessities. However, her good days did not last long as her younger sister Maria got diagnosed with cancer and need immediate surgery.

The surgery was very costly and Sara’s family only had her meagre income to rely upon, since her father was still searching for work. Sara was devastated and could not think of any way to arrange the money for the surgery.

On the other hand, Maria’s health declined with time. Sara applied for a loan from the company she was working at, but it took time in processing. Unfortunately, they lost Maria as she could not get timely treatment. This was a huge blow to all the family members, but Sara held herself responsible for it.

Sara’s life turned upside down and she started hating the words ‘hope’ and ‘faith’, because relying on these words did not help her family’s situation. Now she started believing that positivity only hurts.

Sara was my best friend, I tried to talk to her and tried my level best to make her regain hope and positivity, but I was unsuccessful. Sara became very reclusive and would not come out of her room after coming back from work. She avoided all the meetups and even stopped attending our phone calls.

Sara’s behaviour affected me as well, now I also doubted in faith and hope. One day, after work, Sara was returning home, lost in her thoughts, when she bumped into a girl. The girl, Zimal, was holding a locket in her hands with her mother’s photo inside it. The jerk she received from Sara bumping into her made Zimal drop the locket and it fell into the sewer. Zimal looked at the locket vanishing into the sewer with a desperate look because in it was the only picture of her mother she had, who was no more in her life.

Sara apologised to Zimal, but instead of getting mad at Sara, Zimal calmly said, “It’s okay, mistakes and accidents do happen.”

Sara was completely shocked at her calm response. She asked a few more questions, and thus they became friends.

Sara came to know that Zimal had a very painful and sad life as she lost her mother when she was a toddler. Her father could not take care of her so she was brought up by her aunt, who treated her very badly too. But despite her tragic life, Zimal didn’t lose hope, she kept studying in difficult situations and started a part-time job.

Sara was moved by Zimal’s positivity. Sara realised that she was lucky to have a loving family who stuck together in every situation. Sara soon returned to her positive self, like she used to be earlier.

After a few weeks, Sara’s dad also got a good job and they slowly, but steadily, started to come back to their old life, but now they were stronger than before. Their hardships had made their faith stronger and hope made them positive towards life.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 20th, 2023