Strength TogetHER 5- Session 4

 

17th October,2020

Audre Lorde once said and I truly quote,

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences."

If we really give this quote a deep think, we will realize the heavy truth prevailing in this simple thread of words. We often tag certain things as "unordinary" just because our version of the "ordinary" was different. To put up in simpler words, most of the times, we are unsatisfied with the reality because we had a different expectation put up in our head. But, it's not wrong when we hesitate to accept the unordinary because it's a "human thing" to do.

To accept the unordinaries, whether it's a place or an event or our friends or even our own selves, the topic for this time was "Accepting the unordinary." We had our session on 17th October, 2020 and to help us see the beauty of our flaws and celebrate it, our moderators was our joyful and energetic Mrs. Aayusha Gupta, who is a CA and has recently started her own practice firm. She is also the secretary of Dharan Toastmasters Club and an amazing public speaker. 

Let's be honest. Have we ever been ungrateful towards anything just because it wasn't what we expected? Or, let's make it more personal. Have we ever belittled ourselves because of our flaws or because of the standards set up in our head? Obviously yes. But, to listen all the stories behind the "yes"s of our companions would be a time consuming one. So, we had four speakers sharing their stories so that the rest of us could relate to it:

• Having an unordinary habit of staying in a quiet room, our first speaker is fond of being alone and spend time in absolute solitude. She says that she embraces this trait as it's unordinary but helps her to rejuvenate.

• Our next speaker introduced herself as a person who wouldn't say NO to anyone which later became so toxic. Eventually, she accepted it and confronted it.

• Giving us all a new outlook on the word "unordinary", our third speaker termed the word "unordinary" as "special". She celebrates everything that makes her special, be it her music taste or her forgiving nature. She takes a lot of pride in being herself and embraces all her flaws.

• From a naïve girl to a responsible woman, our last speaker has been accepting all the unordinaries that took/has been taking place within this transition. She rises unafraid despite of the unordinary.

After hearing all the stories and commenting on each one of them, our moderator raised a simple question to stir up the excitement of the session. She asked every one of us to confer about one thing that make us unique. This proved to be a really good exercise as each one of us got to ponder and celebrate at least one of our uncommon traits.

If we reflect about accepting the unordinaries, we will realise that we have discomforts in embracing our flaws due to the carping and judgmental nature of human beings. Thus, our moderator had quick handy advises for us:

1) Accept everyone the way they are.

2) Understand.

3) The first step towards a non judgmental society begins if we ourselves stop judging in the first place.

4) Leave out the negative energy.

5) Accept your uniqueness.

Really, we all human being differ from one another and are unordinary. In the journey of life, 75 times out of 100 times, things do not happen according to us and are unordinary. I am different from you and you're different from me and that's unordinary. I have flaws and hidden scars which make me unordinary. But, this is how it's supposed to be. If the moon was an ordinary ball of luminescence without the black craters, it wouldn't be romanticized and made into poetries this much.

If things start happening according to us, what's the charm? Where's the adventure and what's the fun? Let's strengthen together by embracing it all. Whatever happens, happens. Thus, putting the whole thing in 3 words and 1 quote, "Accept the unordinary."

Written by: Aastha Shrestha (LOKOPAKAR)