Feature

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Gets Going!

Sajeda Tamanna Hussain

Life is a journey full of ups and downs. No happiness is everlasting and neither is any sorrow. In order to be able to take the best out of life, one needs to possess an optimistic view towards all odds that tread our path. Life is about being able to extract great joy from little moments, little things. A miserable heart is a very heavy burden that none can carry for long. Hence in my perspective, the ability to love, to appreciate, to care and as a result, be happy are the key weapons to win the battle called life!

Some might feel that it is easy for me to say this because I probably haven't borne enough to know what the word 'difficult' may really mean. But that is not the case! I feel I am somebody who is fortunate enough to have realized this long before my struggles could have defeated me. I was always aware that I could never completely get rid of my struggles and difficulties. Nobody does. But at one point I learned that I could better deal with them if I taught myself to accept the challenges of life in true spirit! How I first learned, here's my story!

I had just grown into a sixteen year old when it was time for me to leave home, leave Bangladesh and travel all the way to Norway. I was a scholarship student at the Red Cross Nordic United World College in Flekke, Norway. From Dhaka city, where the urban population density is 3008 people per square kilometer, (www.bdix.net), I had moved to a village where the population of the entire village was about 300-350 people. For the first time in life, I was completely on my own. As an adolescent, what initially seemed like the ultimate freedom of my life away from all the restrictions of my parents, soon turned out to be greater responsibility. Starting from cleaning my own room, to washing my own clothes, to feeding myself, I had done none of this before. As the days passed my homesickness victimized my insides like a quickly spreading virus. I spent my first few days crying, a few more sulking, and the rest, just being irritable for ever having thought I would ever be able to manage without abbu or ammu.

On a particular Monday morning, I woke up plagued with the blues, at an early hour of five. I hadn't had a goodnight's sleep for months of my stay. I would either be wide awake all night, or unceremoniously awakened by nightmares at very odd hours of the morning. This particular day had been no different adding another layer to the sour feeling conquering me. I got down from bed, frowning and decided that since I had nothing to do, I would clean my room before I left for classes at eight. The cleaning seemed so tedious a job, that it left me annoyed even at the yellow color of my bed sheets. As frustration slowly crept its way through my entire body, it had its effects on everything that I did. Nothing seemed right. The fact that I would have to drape myself in layers of warm clothes before I could leave for breakfast in a nearby restaurant seemed the worst of all. I had never quite got used to living in negative temperatures. Even the crackling fire of the hearth seemed inadequate to warm my insides against the cold bitterness that had filled it due to the absence of family.

As I walked down the snow covered streets, I began to mutter to myself. I had finally found someone to blame for all the miseries that had flooded my brain. 'You, sitting up there, doing nothing! You did a fantastic job by sending me to this deserted place and now I have nothing to do but fret about my life. Not a single Bengali in this entire village! A second year bloke who only knows how to boss around and a stupid Indian room mate who has as much brains as Emmy's pet guinea pig! It's all your fault. I know you hate me. And I also know you did this on purpose becauuuuu………!'

All my mutterings were drowned by the sudden thud of my fall on the slippery road. I barely noticed the pools of slush that had formed in places on the street and I finally managed to step on one of them, only so I could fall abruptly on my back. I groaned for a while before the sky somehow caught my attention! I kept gazing! The heavens looked magnificent! A royal blue studded with specks of bright white and to honor them with her presence was the graceful shine of a full moon. I could not remove my eyes when a sudden realization struck me! I quickly pulled my left hand out from beneath my back, where the titan read 07:30. It took me a while before I could hear the voice of my father echoing inside my head. 'You are going to a city located in the North-Eastern coast of Norway. It falls in the Arctic Circle where part of your year is going to be winter and the other part, summer. You will know how amazingly beautiful nature is once you come close to it!'

It was then I knew what dad had meant. It was true after all! I had never seen anything so mind-boggling before, having lived in a tropical country all my life. The sight of the sky boasting its beauty to me with stars and a full moon at 07:30 in the morning was all I needed to know what mistakes I had been making all these days. My misery about a decision I had made had kept me so busy, that I failed to notice all those things that could only inspire me to work hard and make my trip to this barren land, away from my family, worthwhile. I had forgotten my purpose. As I lay there and thought about it, I had never given myself the chance to enjoy the first touch of snow flakes; I had never stood to appreciate the beautifully decorated Christmas tree on Christmas Eve; I had never joined my friends on their trip to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). In fact I had missed out on so many little occasions that could have not only made me happy, but could have given me bigger and better reasons to try harder, to battle and win.

Well, to some it will probably just be a moonlit night, or rather, a moonlit 'day'. To me, it was an inspiration, a memory, a charm that will remind me all my life, that 'When the going gets tough, the tough gets going'!

(Student of North South University)