‘New Beginnings’ – the phrase in itself is an anomaly. The beginning denotes the start of something new (not the High School Musical song, thank you very much), and the end of something. Whether the beginning is for the better or worse is usually undeterminable.

We all end our days and have a fresh start the next day. So, in a way, we have new beginnings every single day. Even something constant in life is sure to change, or should I say, change is the only constant in life.

Let me tell you a story inspired by change. You can make your judgments regarding its ending and your understanding of a new beginning, and whether it’s what one hoped for or something entirely different.

“Once upon a time, as most stories begin, there was a princess, a princess that was one just in name. Like all princesses, she was loved by her family and had a pure gold heart. What made her different, however, was that instead of saving her as is the norm, her kind heart became the cause of her troubles. Others took advantage of this fact, which resulted in her always pulling the short end of the stick. She’d work extremely hard only for it to all get ruined at the last possible moment, making her a laughingstock in her kingdom. She would somehow get blamed for things like droughts and storms, which weren’t even in her control, or anyone else’s, earning her the tag of a jinx. And when she did succeed in her work and helped her subjects, some other officials would steal the credit and leave her to bite the dust. She wasn’t considered capable of anything in her life and was always thought to be a spoilt brat.  This made her parents and everyone else around her never, ever take her seriously.

However, all the princess wanted was to escape the prejudice of the people she knew and prove that she was someone worthy, someone who could bring about much-needed change. She was very interested in the art of magic and after years of working for it, she finally got an apprenticeship at the magic tower close by, which, although small, would be the start needed to help her achieve her dreams. Then things just got impossibly worse.

She got sick. So sick that she couldn’t even leave her room without help, let alone her kingdom. As the apprenticeship offered was on a time crunch, she lost what she felt was her ONE chance at taking control of her own life and happiness. This just proved what her family already assumed about her being incapable and being a spoiled little princess who never worked for anything her whole life. This was very far from the reality though. She studied hard every second she got, took care of her MANY brothers and sisters, covertly helped the palace employees and people in need, and was a mature woman who could mediate and solve conflicts. She could have achieved a new beginning that was needed if only she had been given an opportunity. Her family who had already accepted her as a burden, incapable of independence, took her illness in stride, thus rendering our princess almost useless in their opinion, causing irreversible harm to her psyche.

Slowly, she began to lose all hope. Hopes about her future, her present, and her happiness, all started to feel like a pipe dream. Despair at her reality and the behavior of everyone around her had increased to such an extent that she decided to give up on everything, including her life.

Now we've arrived at a familiar situation, a princess in grave peril who needed help. Wasn’t this a perfect time for a handsome prince’s entry on a white horse? As I said, our princess is a princess only in name, even though she behaved and acted every bit as a princess ought to. There was no help for her because no one even noticed that she needed help. She was so used to suffering in silence and working from the shadows that she forgot - sometimes other people need to be shown the truth so that the sufferer is understood, even if the truth was originally hidden away for their sake.

But I digress. Let’s get back to the story. Just when everything seemed to have been lost and the princess was just about to do something irreversibly horrible, the palace received a proclamation from the Head Mage, the most powerful magician in the world. He had been searching for his successor for centuries in secrecy as he wanted to discover a worthy heir for the most powerful position of power in the magic world without any manipulation from other sources. And he had deemed our princess as the one he was looking for. The Mage had been looking at her efforts and was duly impressed. When the king expressed his concerns about his daughter’s health, the mage placated him. The princess would get better, slowly but surely, as she worked towards her aim if she was as powerful as he suspected her to be. So, the royal family, unwilling to let the princess go but wanting her to get better, went ahead with the mage’s directions.

The princess, having found her purpose, coincidentally found an abandoned baby unicorn during her training in the woods. The unicorn, though a different species and scary, somehow reminded the princess of herself, helpless and in need of someone to understand its plight. This led to her adopting the unicorn, despite many protests from her family as unicorns are extremely dangerous and a threat to humans. She remained firm in her decision, and subsequently due to her efforts, the unicorn won over the hearts of the naysayers and became a beloved part of the kingdom. Moreover, the company of a loving creature was a great source of comfort to our princess in question. This, along with her renewed sense of purpose as a future mage, helped her get out of her room and around the palace, preparing for what she knew was an opportunity that would not come again if she failed to grasp it. In retrospect, one might say that maybe she had to struggle and hold out previously for the current opportunity she had, which was something much better than anything she could have imagined for herself, something that made every catastrophic incident until now feel worth the result.

Slowly but surely, the princess made herself capable enough of leaving her home. During this period, however, she noticed many things that she didn’t before, maybe because she was too preoccupied with her problems. Her parents were aware that their daughter was suffering, and it hurt them very much that they were helpless and unable to help their beloved daughter. This is what made her father so overprotective, and her mother so coddling. Her siblings, although younger, had been a source of comfort and support to her when she was unable to help herself, much more than she had previously realized. She had been able to achieve whatever she had because she had the sanctity of a home and a family to go to when things got too tough for her to handle, a place where she could be alone to work through her problems. She now realized what she had, but also understood that she needed to leave it to pursue her goals and happiness. She never wanted to get sick with that horrible disease called depression ever again, as getting cured of it had been a huge task that was undertaken by not just her but everyone around her. This made her afraid of potentially facing those dark days again alone, consequently leading to her facing a dilemma, should she go for her future, or should she stay back where she knows how to handle her sickness if it ever gets worse with needed familial support? Now how will our princess face further challenges? Will she remain strong enough to leave her safe place and her family? We'll have to wait and see!”

Thus, everything is a shade of grey, a representation of duality. The positives can’t overshadow the negatives. This doesn’t imply that the positives don’t have any role and impact though. This dichotomy is what makes our lives truly worth living. The princess, we can imagine, felt bittersweet at the end. On one hand, she had the beginning of something amazing but uncertain, but on the other, farewell to something safe, monotonous yet comforting. Isn’t most of our lives filled with moments like this? It might feel scary to leave the familiar, but new beginnings always have the potential to turn into something splendid if only we allow them to lead us stronger than our fear of the unknown. Well, my narrative role ends here. However-

I’m curious to see how the princess ended up, how about you?

.    .    .