What makes a potato tick?
It was a relatively cool pre-summer morning of April 2011. The school was buzzing with activity, students in white and white running around, boys throwing chalk at each other, showing off their athletic prowess to the pretty girls standing in trios in corners of the class, conversing in hushed voices, with the occasional pointing and high pitched laughter. Then there was a group of boys, the less athletic kind, who sat around a table, playing games such as tic tac toe, Hollywood Bollywood, pen fight and simultaneously stuffing their faces with cheap canteen snacks and homemade parathas.
The young goddess potato was a part of this group. She was a plump little girl, with height more than all the boys at the table save one, and a light brown streaked shoulder-length wig that brought out her dark brown eyes. She didn’t feel like a black sheep with them. Those boys treated her like one of their own, like their bro, but at the same time, each of those guys would protect her like a fragile china doll if needed. She knew that she loved it, loved them. It was so much simpler. Looking at the girls in the far corner, she recognized two of her former best friends, with a whole new clique of their own. She’s not gonna lie to herself; she missed them. But at the same time, she understood how trivial their lives were. Nobody went through what she did and still feel a little gain in her weight as a life-threatening crisis. Missing a year of school completely threw her off her social circle; when she came back, they’d started ignoring her, behaving as strangers would, making her feel as if she carried around a dark cloud, and her sadness was contagious. But she wasn’t sad; all she wanted was to get back to her normal life. She remembered the day she confronted them because that’s what she did.
“We don’t have a problem with you, we’re just not friends anymore”, they had said.
People told her that they were not worth it, not worth spending hours at home staring at her books, with just that one time repeating in her mind when she was supposed to study. Then there were the grown-ups, who would be even worse, telling her to “just lose weight, and you’ll be fine”. So people made friends only based on looks? This was so fucked up.
Coming back to the present, looking around at her new friends, she saw that even though she didn’t have what she’d expected when she’d rejoined school after chemo, she had gotten what she had wanted. Pushing down the whiny voices inside of her head, she knew she could do this. She would get back on track with studies, and not miss the memories that school life is supposed to have. And so she did, pushing that pang of regret in a box deep inside her mind, a box where many more future regrets had gone, the box whose keys she had thrown away and forgotten, and it worked. She didn’t completely forget it though. Even now during some of her dark days, the horror of being completely and utterly alone would resurface, and she would feel invisible and beaten down. But she knows that she can get through that, that she is strong enough. She is Goddess Potato.
Hey all you fantastic readers,
Sorry, it took so long after the first post, Christmas goodies were a huge distraction. We hope you enjoyed this second entry, as always, do comment and share :)
PS.: Shorts is sick, here’s to her getting better soon!
Till the next post,
Adios amigos!
The young goddess potato was a part of this group. She was a plump little girl, with height more than all the boys at the table save one, and a light brown streaked shoulder-length wig that brought out her dark brown eyes. She didn’t feel like a black sheep with them. Those boys treated her like one of their own, like their bro, but at the same time, each of those guys would protect her like a fragile china doll if needed. She knew that she loved it, loved them. It was so much simpler. Looking at the girls in the far corner, she recognized two of her former best friends, with a whole new clique of their own. She’s not gonna lie to herself; she missed them. But at the same time, she understood how trivial their lives were. Nobody went through what she did and still feel a little gain in her weight as a life-threatening crisis. Missing a year of school completely threw her off her social circle; when she came back, they’d started ignoring her, behaving as strangers would, making her feel as if she carried around a dark cloud, and her sadness was contagious. But she wasn’t sad; all she wanted was to get back to her normal life. She remembered the day she confronted them because that’s what she did.
“We don’t have a problem with you, we’re just not friends anymore”, they had said.
People told her that they were not worth it, not worth spending hours at home staring at her books, with just that one time repeating in her mind when she was supposed to study. Then there were the grown-ups, who would be even worse, telling her to “just lose weight, and you’ll be fine”. So people made friends only based on looks? This was so fucked up.
Coming back to the present, looking around at her new friends, she saw that even though she didn’t have what she’d expected when she’d rejoined school after chemo, she had gotten what she had wanted. Pushing down the whiny voices inside of her head, she knew she could do this. She would get back on track with studies, and not miss the memories that school life is supposed to have. And so she did, pushing that pang of regret in a box deep inside her mind, a box where many more future regrets had gone, the box whose keys she had thrown away and forgotten, and it worked. She didn’t completely forget it though. Even now during some of her dark days, the horror of being completely and utterly alone would resurface, and she would feel invisible and beaten down. But she knows that she can get through that, that she is strong enough. She is Goddess Potato.
Hey all you fantastic readers,
Sorry, it took so long after the first post, Christmas goodies were a huge distraction. We hope you enjoyed this second entry, as always, do comment and share :)
PS.: Shorts is sick, here’s to her getting better soon!
Till the next post,
Adios amigos!
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