Pencil, Paper, Imagination, Lesson by Samhitha Radhakrishnan

When I was a little girl, my family always told me to try new things. But, I never liked to, because I thought I would never truly find something that I would enjoy. However, that all changed one day.


Art. An activity that I used to hate at one point of my life. I never even tried to understand why I hated it so much, I just never attempted to draw anything. I didn’t want to try drawing, in fear of being bad at it. However, one day, I was just lying on the couch, doing absolutely nothing. Then, suddenly, my mom came over and gave me a paper and pencil, and she said “ Draw something, Sami”. I replied saying I don’t like to draw, even though I never tried it before. She knew I was lying but just replied to my excuse saying “ You never know unless you try.”


After that statement, my mom put the paper and pencil on the desk and left the room. I grumbled and took the paper and decided to draw something in two minutes. But, two minutes changed to two hours and after a long time, I finally finished my masterpiece. It was a tree basking in the warmth of the sun. The leaves were of different greens and on the tree there were little pink flowers. I went to my mom to show my work and she was amazed. Then, she grinned and reminded me of her famous statement, and that moment changed my life.


I realized that trying new things helps you find who you really are, and the only person stopping you from doing it, is you. Trying new things may not always be easy to do, and it was hard for me to brace the fact that it might help me, but in the end, I realized the value of stepping outside my comfort-zone. When I did that, I found my passion and now I am not afraid to take chances. I am now a fearless risk-taker.