Shades of 14 - Ep. 1

I remember turning 14 at the end of the last millennium. I remember my older brother's friend telling me that I was not 'teenage' enough. That was code for not rebellious enough, not angst-y enough. Even though I understood his point of view, I realized that mine was different. Quietness, obedience, politeness are qualities not cool enough to qualify as personality but I knew to some extent that this was more or less who I was. After all, I had been 14 years on this world and that should have been enough to figure myself out.

Little did I know! Having seen almost two more 14-year cycles since, the only thing I have truly learnt is not to jump to any conclusions of certainty. Everything can change and almost everything does.

The exact duration of 14 years popped up only because of an e-mail from Writing.com congratulating me on my 14th anniversary of joining. I joined on a Sunday so many Sundays ago in a fit of inspiration and in the belief that I had stories to share. I still have them but have successfully avoided the hard work of putting them down in words thus far.

That period of time was in the first few months of my arrival in the USA. I had arrived confident of my knowledge about the country from all the American movies and TV sitcoms I had seen, so crushing disappointment was inevitable. Turned out that people there had much the same petty issues as those in India and no, no laugh tracks accompanied constantly witty conversations to lighten up the workday.

In my little studio apartment already falling into shabbiness under my solo leadership and a lamp from Walmart for company, I may have been laying about when the brilliant idea of joining a writing community hit me. This was time long before Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, this website's interface (back in the day) looked as promising then as outdated it looks today. Times change and so do expectations.