The Grass is Greener Where You Water It

Summary

The narrative reflects on the deceptive nature of appearances, as the protagonist envies others' lives based on superficial observations, only to later realize the beauty and perfection of her own life.

Abstract

The protagonist, struggling with her own life circumstances, compares herself to others she observes, both in person and on social media, and feels inadequate and envious. She sees two girls laughing and an old school friend who has become a doctor, while she is stuck in her final year of studies in a challenging environment. Photos of a classmate vacationing in Paris with her family exacerbate her feelings of discontent. However, she is unaware of the hidden struggles of those she envies. The classmate's mother is terminally ill, the doctor has been living apart from his family for years, and the girls she saw are merely taking a brief respite from their labor. The protagonist ultimately recognizes that her perception of others' lives as perfect was a misconception and that her own life was, in fact, beautiful and fulfilling.

Opinions

The protagonist initially perceives her life as less fulfilling when compared to the seemingly perfect lives of others.
Social media is portrayed as a highlight reel that can distort reality and lead to feelings of inadequacy and envy.
The protagonist's perspective shifts when she becomes aware of the actual challenges faced by those she envied.
There is an underlying theme that everyone's life has its own set of difficulties, which are often hidden from outsiders.
The protagonist's realization underscores the importance of appreciating one's own life and circumstances rather than yearning for what appears to be greener pastures.
The narrative suggests that superficial judgments based on appearances can lead to unnecessary personal dissatisfaction and a failure to recognize the value of one's own experiences.

The Grass is Greener Where You Water It

Worried, troubled, nervous; I slid through my window, watched the road with busy traffic, the sun scorching bright enough to make me look down. Down, where I saw two girls, chirping and laughing, on their way home.

Depressed and tensed; I shut the window. I switched on my laptop, logged in to my Facebook account, and voila! Saw an old school fellow, graduate from New York University School of Medicine as a doctor. Here I was, stuck in my final year, visiting wards of a not-so-good hospital, watching patients die everyday, watching pieces of my heart passing through a slit in the broken-hospital’s roof every-freaking-time. Anyway, I liked the post. My disgruntled heart didn’t authorize me to comment with good wishes, hence I quickly scrolled down my screen.

As I was scrolling, I saw an album of one hundred and seventeen (117) photos of my classmate, Tina, chilling out with her family in Paris; her pretty mom wore such an expensive hat, that I couldn’t even think of buying; kissing her daughter in a picture. They looked like a perfect family. I said masha Allah, to prevent my evil eye from striking her. She is in Paris these days; my dream place to ever be in; to have a photograph dressed in light brown shirt coupled with my favorite black palazzo pants and a beautiful cloth over my head, and of course with Eiffel tower behind me and posing like a pro in that crisp wind and and….. “TLIP!”

A drop of my sweat fell off from my wrinkled forehead on the side of the keyboard. I gazed on the left to the mirror hung on a wall, beside my couch; I saw not myself, but instead a 70 year old woman. I shrugged my shoulders, lifted up my head and saw this fan buzzing ‘bong bong’ in my ear. My room was like an oven, burning at 40 degrees. I slapped off my laptop, glanced outside my room, headed to the kitchen for water when I heard the door bell ring. My mom had returned home from grocery store, floating in a river of sweat. I quickly helped her get a glass of cold water from the kitchen. Meanwhile, I heard the noise of a drill machine from my neighbor's apartment. At that point, I wondered, why my fate has so many slings and arrows directed at me? Well! This is my life, so disgustingly weird. I went straight to my bed, took Xanax (anxiolytic), and slept.

Poor me! I never knew that those girls who were warbling in a sweet soprano, down the side of the road, were actually 13 year olds, who just had finished their labor and were enjoying merely a ten minute work-free-walk until their next stop.

Poor me! I did not know about Sa’ad, my old school fellow, whose parents had spent all their life savings on their only child. He had been living without his family for some 7 years with a trail of sorrows and medical-school-life problems altogether, which sometimes rendered him to wander lonely across the Broadway street of New York city, crying helplessly, knowing, he cannot return back.

Poor me! I did not know that this was probably the last time that Tina is seeing her mother. Yes! the one who beautifully hid her chemotherapy-induced-alopecia head under that fancy hat. She had only 3 months to live.

I shouldn’t have wasted my time, thinking about things that looked glitter but were not gold. I never knew what was the inside story. I had a perfect life, but I wasted it, watching others happy and that made my flawless life, rather a fake sorrow story. All that I saw on social networking websites or even visually, daily with my pair of eyes, was a mere deception.

I wish I had used those eyes to see how beautiful my own little world was, how perfect my own life was. I wish I knew this all.