Bloom For Yourself: Tale Of An Introvert, Shy Girl Sneha Narayanan

An Introvert, Shy Girl Sneha Narayanan

Here is Hatke Story’s new motivational story Bloom For Yourself – Tale Of An Introvert, Shy Girl Sneha Narayanan.

They say that ‘Beauty is about being comfortable in your skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are’, but is it true? Of course, it is. But does society allow us to hold the same mentality? No, it doesn’t. People criticize overweight boys and girls in the worst way. Especially girls, they make sure that she is left with no confidence and self-love.

People have so many opinions, but what they bring out for oversized girls is worse than these opinions. In all these opinions, mindsets, what should these innocent girls do? After all, they have no control over their body. Why only them? No one has it. Well, this new story will prove you wrong.

Life will teach you a great life lesson: ‘ If you are determined to do something in life. If you can overcome the obstacles, then you can make it happen too. It’s all about belief, willpower, and self-control. Only you can change your life.’

I’m Sneha Narayanan, an army officer’s daughter. A South Indian, born in Delhi and brought up in different states of the country. I changed nine schools in twelve years of schooling. It is my story of a very average, introverted girl who was not good at anything. So let me tell you more about myself in detail.

I come from an army family, and my parents have always had many expectations from me. Still, unfortunately, I was not good at studies or, more specifically, mediocre. I used to achieve around 70 percent, but nothing below 90 was considered decent in my family. 90 was nowhere near what they expected from me. However, I turned out to be the opposite person. Forget about being excellent in studies; I never even participated in the debate, dance, or other school functions. I had an inferiority complex and low self-esteem.

I didn’t have many friends. Just two, and that also we stay in touch through WhatsApp. Crippled with social anxiety, I am a very socially awkward person and stay at home. Ordinary things like talking on the phone or eating in front of others are scary for me. Talking was difficult as I couldn’t talk without fumbling. There was a phase in my teens when I was overweight, under-confident, and felt an inferiority complex, and the list of my demerits goes on.

Everyone used to tease me for being fat. 

When I was a teenager, my classmates focused on dieting, losing weight, and making themselves attractive to make boys drool over them. I was a plump girl happy in my skin and didn’t believe in running behind men.

When I was in the 10th standard, I fell for a guy. I didn’t dare to tell him, so I only told my best friend about it. She started laughing and said, ‘Are you crazy? Look at yourself. Why on earth anyone will ever like you. You look like a baby elephant.’ I was shocked after hearing her opinion about me. Tears rolled down my eyes. My own best friend was fat-shaming me. At that particular moment, I felt like disappearing underground. That incident affected me a lot, and I decided to lose extra fat to take the course of my life into my hand.

However, reshaping my body was a tedious task as it involved a lot of hard work and required self-motivation. Still, I didn’t give up in front of the odds and worked day and night to change my reality. I’d begin my day after drinking boiled water and eating eggs for breakfast. I eliminated sugar, junk food, and refined flour from my diet and switched to healthy meals. It was tough, but I kept doing it. In the end, I lost 15 kgs and became fit again.

It was good to see my body in shape. I was featured in the Times of India. People’s point of view changed towards me, but you know what? It didn’t affect me as I had stopped caring because I thought it was a waste of time. Why would I care for such people whose point of view revolves around my body and not my personality? They didn’t care to peek inside and see the real me. They only and only judged me from my body. So I’m not dying to care for them. They can keep their sick mentalities to themselves. I certainly don’t need it.

Life went smoothly after the weight loss journey. I finished my MBA in 2011-12. Then I taught in a college as a lecturer for two years. In mid-2014, I called it off and started preparing for bank entrance exams. I cleared prelims but couldn’t clear the interview due to my speaking disabilities and lack of confidence. I wasted one and a half years in preparation. After that, I decided to pick up a job. Firstly, I joined Convergys in 2016. Later, I joined IBM in 2017. The journey was good with itsy bitsy problems circling. Though, nothing significant happened in my life.

In 2018, I decided to quit my job. Now you must be thinking, why would I want to quit IBM? Well, I’m different and honestly speaking I wasn’t satisfied with my job. Corporate and that rat race was never my thing. I wanted to do something different, something better, something creative. So I thought of pursuing writing as my career. I had always loved it. Reading was my favorite past-time, and My family was supportive of my decision. What else could I’ve asked for? I left the job and moved from Noida to Sikandarabad as my father was posted there.

2018 was a good year for me, more like a milestone. I created a motivational blog regarding topics like self-acceptance and feminism. I started writing whatever I wanted to. I talked about social taboos. Despite having just 500 followers, my blog won the ‘Best Personal Development Award,’ and I was featured in a newspaper. It boosted my confidence a lot. I mustered the courage to inch forward in writing and decided to write a book, but life had different plans.

Something came in the way that shook me from within. I slipped in that zone back. I was anxious, hurt, broken, and very disturbed. To let out my pain, I started writing a book of poetries ‘Bloom For Yourself’. Yes, my first book happened at that time only. There is a saying that ‘Bad timings are not bad at all. Hardships and pain are more like an opportunity. Beautiful things happen to us at that time only.’ True that after that incident, I do believe in it.

Then the best followed the tale. My book was published online by a publisher. Within a month, it became a best-selling poetry book and crossed 100 reviews. Now, my publishers are all set to launch the paperback in October. Overall, the journey was incredible. I loved every moment of it. I know my story is straightforward. I didn’t struggle as much as others do. Nothing grave ever happened to me, but most of us have simple stories. These little barriers corrupt life more than the more prominent barriers. So it is essential to overcome all of them.

I want to share one thing with all of you. After reading my story, please don’t think that you have to change yourself. You must lose weight as it is good for your health but don’t care about body shaming. Because not all the time we can control body weight at some point in life we will fall. We can’t even change certain things about our body, like height, color, body, and facial features. So we must learn to accept. Always remember that if you don’t love yourself, then no one will do it.

I have written this message in my book. Maybe it can help you to understand better. 

It is okay if you are fat or thin,
Why try to fit in?
Why try to follow the crowd? It’s OK to be different. Say that aloud.
Here is a fun fact, and it is true,
It is okay to be YOU!

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