Quar(eight)tine Birthday

I was very excited for the first weekend of January as I had planned for this wonderful movie night with all of my friends who I was going to meet after a very long time. The trailer looked very promising and thrilling. However, a couple of days before the plan, all my friends had to cancel on me. It was heartbreaking for me to accept this and move on, but there was nothing I could do, and hence decided to watch the movie all by myself. I made it a point to enjoy the movie and relax as I had put in so much effort to plan it all. Little did I know to never judge a movie by its trailer because it turned out to be a flop show with boring themes and dull songs.

Now imagine the movie being my 18^th Birthday party and my friends canceling on me was them getting infected by covid. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, I was down with the coronavirus. Yes, I know! My 18^th birthday was in quarantine and trust me it can be awarded as the most boring birthday celebration in history and just the thoughts of it gave me small heartbreaks. The corona symptoms hit me on my birthday evening. In fact, my whole family had been infected with the Omicron variant. It was my first time getting the virus and I could not get any unluckier. A few hours before my special day I was down and resting on my bed with tears in my eyes when my friends thought of surprising me with good food and popcorn during the bad interval time. My building friends knocked on my door at midnight with a tasty cake in their hands just for me! The feeling of gratitude, happiness and love filled my heart and I just wanted to hug them tightly! It was a small gesture but it was enough to make my day. I secretly cut a small piece of cake after everyone left and whispered to myself “Happy Birthday” and chomped onto it with a huge smile.

The day was not over yet and neither were the surprises. The morning greeted me with fever and a blocked nose, the worst birthday gift ever. I was feeling very nauseous and dizzy for which I was on continuous medication. The happiness from midnight was slowly fading away and I was feeling sad and cranky again imagining all the fun time I would be having if the reality was something different. My expectations were disappointing. Dinner passed away with watching television and eating boring food! Just when I was about to lose all my hopes, the doorbell rang, and in came the light of sunshine – my mentor/ mathematics teacher but on top of that my best friend accompanied by his wife (also the best cook in the world). My face lit up with the brightest smile when I saw my favorite flavor pastry in his hands. Finally, something delicious.  That was not the only thing he was carrying, there was a red bag labeled by my favorite brand “Souled Store” which sells all cartoonish clothes and accessories. I was on cloud 9.

This whole experience was like ordering your favorite cuisine and getting a rotten and upsetting meal in return. Though I believe that after every low there is high incoming to balance the nature of life. I was sure that the ocean tide of sadness will soon be replaced by the big wave of happiness and things will go back to normal. I have learned quite a lot from this rollercoaster of emotional experience. Always be ready to face what life throws at us and if anything, the experience has done to me is it has made me stronger. There are still many things in my life that I regret and have disappointment towards like the constant feeling of not doing enough for myself and being lazy with my lifestyle. This moment in life is precisely when we need to buckle up and get ready for a rocky muddy track race because sulking is not going to help. A life lesson to cherish is that life is a math exam that will throw multiple problems towards you and all you can do is confidently find a solution for each one of them. Face them and ace them.