Raya was not a bad girl. In fact, she was an amazing person, respecting the elderly, loving to the young ones and caring towards any animal she found on the street. Therefore, at school, her peers as well as teachers adored her. However, all Raya seem to want at this moment were good grades.

“Ugh! This is so hard,” she complained as she looked at her maths book. “What are alphabets doing here?” she uttered as she placed her book on her face and leaned back on her chair.

Then suddenly she stood up and went towards her bed, still talking to herself, “Let’s just leave this and listen to my favourite band. I still have a week before the exams.”

And like so many times before, Raya got distracted and her studies was forgotten.

Fast forward to a week after this moment, Raya was sitting on her chair once again trying to cramp as much information as her brain could handle the night before the exam. She had wasted the whole week without studying with any real effort.

And fast forward to another week, Raya was sitting on her school bench with her best friend beside her as she stared at her marks. She was disappointed. She knew that she could have done better than this and that was also what the teacher had commented on her paper.

“Why does she have to highlight it?” Raya whined as she stared at the teacher’s comment. Mia, her friend who had gotten a perfect score, tried to comfort her.

“Give me some tips, please, how can I do better?” Raya asked her friend.

“By working harder, I guess,” Mia softly replied.

“But I did work hard. My brain was literally exploding with the information overload!” Raya exclaimed.

“That’s where the problem is. You worked hard, no doubt, but just the day before the exam. Can you tell me your study schedule for the exams?” Mia asked.

“I… uh… honestly, there is no schedule. I just study when I am in the mood and stop studying when I am not in the mood. But yes, no doubt, I get distracted a lot due to my mobile phone,” Raya shrugged.

Mia sighed softly, “Too much of anything is bad, Raya. That’s what my grandma told me after I got addicted to shows and would do nothing else but watch them day and night. Addiction disturbs both our physical and mental health, I realised this after that.”

“You’re right, I lost the track of time going through the mobile. I have to go and show my parents this, ‘Can do better!’ remark,” Raya said as she understood the importance of focusing, but only after a hard-hitting lesson. The embarrassment of the comment was more intense than any pleasure she got from spending time on the mobile phone.

Raya turned towards her friend and asked hopefully, “Will you help me with my studies today?”

Mia smiled, “Why not? We are in the same class and we will share our goals. But we will also have fun. Since too much studying is also bad, right?”

They both laughed as they made their way out of the classroom.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 24th, 2025