Areesha Iqbal

WE ARE RACING ON A ROUND TRACK WITH NO FINISHING TRACK!

You open your Instagram, you check your feed and boom, something comes alive within you. Do you know what that is? it’s desire.

Every second time you see something while scrolling down just casually on your social media you always come up with one thing or another for which you desire. Desiring for things isn’t bad but with desire, there always comes the feeling of lacking which is not only bad but harmful as well.

Your friend posting her beautiful picture with all her dark silky hair waving in the air makes you admire her and you wish for the same kind of hair, on your classmate’s Facebook story you saw his transcripts with A+ grades in most of the subjects, you find yourself longing for the same intelligence, you see a couple posting a video of the lava cake with the lavish dishes they just had while sitting in a five-star hotel, you have the whim of being able to be on their place, you see a batch mate posing with their award for the best speaker and you hanker for the same title.

Yes, it is good to adore others, to appreciate them, and to learn from them but at this very moment, there’s one thing existing in you that can prove to be destroying. That is the feeling of insubstantiality. When you are adoring these people you are abhorring someone at the same time and that someone is you yourself.

With the wish for the long straight hair comes your disgust for your short frizzy hair, while wowing on someone’s A+ in Math’s you totally forget about your power with the brush and what an amazingly creative artist you are,

On seeing the luxury of a five-star hotel you can’t enjoy the taste of the best, healthy homemade food your mother just set on the table, the spark of someone’s best speaker trophy attracts you so much that you forget about the medal you had won on winning a cricket match finals.

And not only this but many thousand times you see others, compare yourself and end up feeling less, one way or another. And if you turn the page and see the other way around, there are people like us watching our Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram stories, wishing to be us and counting themselves less.

So how to decide who is happy and satisfied? Who is the best? Isn’t it like a circle? Aren’t we all confused who is following whom? Every time you try to convince yourself that you are the best at something, the other moment the internet brings up something new to you in which you aren’t the best and there you go: running, chasing, fighting for the throne of that new thing.

And this continues forever! Chasing your dreams is great but chasing everyone’s dreams is a tiring job and at the end can leave you so exhausted that you won’t be able to accomplish even a single goal of yourself, let alone of others.

Dear mates, stop burdening yourself and losing your abilities and qualities down in the rubble of misconception. Stop running after everything. Yes, you can be versatile but you can’t be best in every other job you do! No one can ever be. Everyone has their own charm. Instead of doing little in everything, find your charm, and do big in it! Einstein was undoubtedly a great scientist but if he was ever asked to be in the boxing ring in place of Muhammad Ali you can guess what would have happened. Right? So next time you see something on social media and you like it, leave a heart to react and an appraising comment on it but don’t ever give a thumbs down to yourself. But if you still wish to win the race, let me remind you one thing:

We all are running on a round track which has no end. If you are ahead today, someone else will be tomorrow. So before you run too far and get tired, ask yourself that how will you manage to win your medal on a track which has no finishing line?