Freed by the Unknown

It’s the time of the year again, Christmas season and high school reunion. Supposedly, it is a merry and bright season but not for Dara, her sad December started ten years ago. Everyone in Dara’s high school batch is expected to enjoy another get-together party during the holiday break – everyone except for her. She doesn’t seem to care about the reunion. Every year, she makes a lot of excuses just to skip the gathering from being sick to being busy and all. Also, every year she hopes that everyone will just stop inviting her, she wants to be out of the list.

“They finally understood.”, she whispered with a lopsided smile upon checking her messages - zero. She did not receive any invitation nor did anyone care to check her excuses this time. There are just five days left before the annual reunion kicks off. She doesn’t want to come but she feels sad about not being remembered. She does not understand herself. 

A beep interrupted her train of thoughts. The message from an unknown number says “You want to be there, you are just ashamed.” Dara stared at her phone for some time. Her mind wandered on who could possibly be the sender. Dara dialed the number but nobody is picking up.

She panicked. That is her secret and nobody should have known about it. She couldn't remember talking about her problems to anyone, not even to her parents. She tried to keep everything to herself - her sadness, her fears, her emotions.

Dara was once the friendliest and the batch’s top student. She was envied, she was praised, and was acknowledged by everyone. But the past is now a distant memory for her, everything went upside down after her graduation.

Being a top student, people are expecting her instant success in college. Unfortunately, she has to suffer from a bunch of misfortunes and failures. Her professor gave her a failing mark because of a lost exam paper and she was disappointed. She stopped going to school and hid from all her high school teachers and batch mates. She started working as an online sales representative using a different identity. She misses her friends but she avoids seeing them because she is ashamed of her failures.

She stopped posting updates of her life on social media, opted out of group chats, and never replied to any of her classmates’ messages. She became a totally new version of herself - gone was the bubbly and smart girl, born was the stoic and timid Dara.

Just months ago, she finally graduated from college but she seems not proud of it. She did not announce it, kept her graduation pictures in the closet and did not even bother to celebrate even when her father insisted. Whenever she sees posts on social media about her classmates’ whereabouts she couldn’t stop comparing herself to them. “They have gone to so many countries while I was struggling to even finish college.”, she thought. She is hopeless. 

 Another message came, saying “You can’t be ashamed forever.” She was startled. She immediately looked around her thinking that someone could be spying on her but everything in her little room is motionless. The message struck her because it is true. She’s guilty - she might really feel sorry for herself until whenever.

She turned off her phone but the message keeps on repeating in her head.

 On the day of their high school reunion, Dara was just in her room. She watches the birds as they fly freely through her glass window but her mind is flying somewhere else. She wants to go to the get-together but something inside her is stopping her. She is afraid that she will be laughed at, afraid that she will be judged.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang but she didn’t move an inch, thinking that her mother might just have some visitors like she always do. It rang again for the second time... and then the third time. It keeps on ringing until she decided to get out of her room just to notice that her parents are not in the house. She saw a note on the table saying "Go out dear, free yourself! Have a blast. -Mom". She smiled and the bell rang again.

Thinking that it was just a delivery, she opened the door and was welcomed by the loud popping noise of what seems like party poppers. When she opened her eyes, she saw everyone – all her high school friends and classmates, holding a banner which says "Congratulations on you Graduation!". She couldn’t speak a word. She just stared at them.

“Hey! We missed you. We didn’t invite you because we do not want to hear your excuses for the nth time. So here we are. We decided to stay here until you decide to come with us and party.” says one of her friends.

"Yeah, right! And in this year's reunion, can you please be our special guest?", her other classmate pleaded.

She looked at them one by one. They all look happy, pleased to see her. She remembered the last message of the unknown number “You can’t be ashamed forever.”. A tear fell on her eyes upon realizing that these people have never judged her. She was ashamed for nothing and she missed all the fun because of her pride.

"Come on, Dara! Stop crying, we are not here for the drama. We are here for the fun. Go fix yourself now or we will drag you to the venue in your pajamas." her annoying best friend spoke.

She immediately ran back to her room to dress up.While doing her hair, a message flashed on her phone. It was from the unknown sender:

“Sorry, I sent the messages to the wrong number.”

She smiled and typed… “Thank you for sending it to the wrong person and yes, I will never be ashamed again.”

Unknown to Dara, her parents are just hiding in their room, and her dad replied... "You're welcome. Enjoy!"