Broken Hearts and Strange Girls || Shivika AU FF

𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐕

Now, Annika didn't mean it in all the bad parts of being 19, like running away from home. Annika meant 19 as in searching for her purpose. Searching for her home. 

19-year-old Annika never really fit in anywhere. Not in school, not with friends, not even among her family members. She jutted out like a sore thumb to no one but herself. She would interact with her high school girlfriends and smile smoothly, not letting an inch of her facade slip in front of them. It was always such an elaborate ruse of comfort that even her own family was fooled. But not Annika. 

Annika knew deep down, it was not where her heart was meant to be. Only Annika heard the sham that was her laughter, only she felt the pretentiousness suffocating her from within. She felt like one of those homely princesses that were, in truth, wild and adventurous with dreams of their own, however bound to their worlds of undesired luxury and prosperousness. 

And 19-year-old Annika ached to be whisked away into some foreign land where she could roam to her heart's content. 

There was only one place where Annika felt the closest to her inner self. Mrs. Gupta's classroom. 

When Annika was 16, she started taking photography classes at her high school on Aishwarya's insistence. Her teacher, Mrs. Gupta, was a calm, independent woman who even at the age of 52 was pursuing her dream of photography through teaching it. 

After falling in love and getting married, Mrs. Gupta decided to put her passion to rest for a little while, which had turned into a long while after she had her first child. 

Mrs. Gupta wanted to live vicariously through her students, but none of them truly gave her any satisfaction until Annika. 

Annika's ardor reminded her of her own passion, and Mrs. Gupta thought to herself on several occasions that if this girl does not pursue the life of the camera, then it will truly be a great loss to the world. 

However, Mrs. Gupta was experienced in matters such as these, and so she also knew that pursuing such a life would definitely come with its obstacles, as any road does. Mrs. Gupta knew that the fever of photography called people to foreign places, and to satiate that hunger for the unknown, one was often faced with the very hard decision between dear ones and the open road. It was a decision that even Mrs. Gupta had to make once.

The day that Annika graduated, there was an apprehension on Mrs. Gupta's face, one that Annika would remember for the rest of her life. As Annika moved forward to shake her guru's hand, Mrs. Gupta took her into a huge embrace before walking to the podium and choosing to say some things that, knowingly or unknowingly to her, would stick with Annika forever. 

"This girl walked into my classroom at the beginning of the year with a zeal for stories. As someone who once shared her devotion in my own youth, I saw the same dream to travel, explore, and tell stories in her that I had recognized in myself as a child. Thirty years ago, I met the love of my life, Amar. I knew that he was the one for me, and so I made the decision to settle down with him and forget about photography. I've never regretted the first part of that decision. I believe strongly in my marriage and my love. What I have ended up regretting was the decision following that one. Annika, I see in you the same young girl with the same bright vision for the world which is why, since beginning to show you the world of photography, I have feared that you will one day make the same mistake. Annika, your camera is so much more to you than a device used to take pictures. You see your entire world through a viewfinder. Before you walk off this stage tonight, I just want to leave you with one piece of advice that I have had to learn the hard way. Love isn't giving up one thing for another thing. Love is so abundant that you can love your family and your passion without absolutely needing to choose one or the other. So, please. If you have learned nothing from me these past two years, please learn this. No matter what, never give up your dream. Because life is too short to live without a purpose. And if I know anything, it's that your purpose is to tell stories through your pictures. I wish you nothing but the best."