Let your light shine: Nidhi's Reflection from Gramya Manthan

Contributor: Nidhi Choudhary

Why we value the air we respire; 

Only when life is, on verge to expire? 

Why don’t we perceive life, beyond our desired vision? 

For everything, why we search a reason? 

I am so grateful to the Youth Alliance family for the space they have created for each individual to bring out the best in them. During those 10 days of rural immersion, reflections left me with many questions to ponder upon. It also helped me to understand the inclusive community better. This space also facilitated me to listen and to accept myself. I also think if I constantly keep questioning myself at the right time then the solution will automatically come in front of me.

Being the part of YA, makes me feel like doing something for mankind. “Let your light shine” is the motto which keeps me moving in my life. When one sits in silence to contemplate and turn back the leaves of the past, one glare at the pains they suffered, locate the marks on their dermal and giggle at its very existence. Then, you think that you took birth with a few scratches on your palm and the world called it as your fate but the destiny is actually the marks all over your body as the struggle of being what you are!

YOU aren’t alone. 

Express. Share. Talk

Get yourself another chance

Don’t be scared

Love. Make Love. Live. Forgive

I know these will all be stories someday. And our pictures will become old photographs. But right now these moments are not stories. This is happening . This one moment when you know you are not a sad story. You are alive and you stand up and see the lights on the stage and everything that’s make you wonder. And you are listening to that song and that drive with the people you most love in the world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite. 

Just because you see people’s eyes open doesn’t mean they’re awake. Most are walking around existing in a comatose sheepish mind state and the sad part is, they don’t even know it! It is the responsibility for every awakened mind to help others remember to re-remember. 

I am so grateful for 2018 and all that it gave me- the self-discovery, all the highs and lows, the opportunity I was fortunate enough to get, and the remarkable people I met. Looking back, I’m valuing each and every moment that ended up being a lesson in the grander scheme of things. I’m not one for writing on what I feel about my personal journey but this one called for acknowledgment of it. I no longer force things. What flows flows, what crashes, crashes. I only have space and energy for things that are meant for me. Those eyes are useless, when the mind is blind. After all, calmness is all one needs in this restless world. 

In the world of 7.7 billion, you are a voice, for those who are voiceless, because we choose to act. See all life is, a series of choices and you use yours to stand with choice less. But you are not alone. But you are joined by the few. The Brave. Those who challenge the status quo and swim against the wave. There's a world at the risk of drowning, but it’s a world we all can save. And you might not know everything, but we know there's a need. What started with an idea or moment, became a seed. You protected with possibilities, you put all of your heart in. Your moment is now, to come together and empower. Watch the seed that you leave planted, become a flower. Thanks, Youth Alliance.