IT was that time of the year again. Rania sensed the feeling of excitement accompanied with fear, as she entered through the gates of her school. It was the ‘Annual Result Ceremony,’ and last minute preparations were going on.

The stage was set, the table decorated with prizes and the podium ready for the most awaited announcements. The students were requested to assemble in the ground, the queues would then walk towards the hall where the ceremony was to be held.

Following the instructions, Rania walked up to her grade’s queue. She could feel her heart pounding heavily against her chest. As she tried to maintain steady nerves her friend Areeb walked up to her.

“Oh Rania! Why do you seem so worried? Of course you’d get the first position. It’s people like us who should worry, I merely scrape through with B’s.”

And with that started the usual comments: “Oh the girl with As is fretting away”; “Look at Rania she is actually sweating”; “She always carries these expressions, but mind you she’ll take away the position this time as well”; “She is such a drama queen, of course she’ll have the highest marks”; “That’s fake worry, she knows she’d top again”.

Rania wished to disappear into the thin air. Comments like these were what Rania’s ears had been hearing since many years now. Every result day was the same, her classmates knew that with her being in the class nobody could even dream of getting the top position.

Rania’s success was the result of her continuous hard work. She did get worried easily but that was normal because everyone got the jitters on the result day. However, her classmates took it as pretence. They wondered why a person like Rania should be worried. They simply could not understand that. Thus they gossiped, Rania did not usually mind these remarks.

However, today the situation was different. Rania knew this time her result would not be up to the mark because she had not done well enough in her exams. The reason was that she had had influenza during exams due to which her preparation as well as her performance suffered. With a lot of competition in her class, she knew she wasn’t anywhere near receiving the first position this time.

Rania waited patiently for the ceremony to start. When the positions for her class were announced, she could feel the ground vanishing under her feet. She could clearly hear the gasps, the “ooohs” and “aahs” were louder than the claps as the first and even the second positions were not bagged by Rania. She stood third this time.

Putting a brave smile on, with an unsteady pace Rania walked up to the stage to receive her prize. She didn’t know what really was happening, like a robot she shook hands with the principal, thanked her and walked back. She had to brace herself to reveal the news to her parents. The gossip continued, but everyone was surprised how Rania secured the third place instead of being first like always.

For the first time, Rania felt hurt. Her silent tears weren’t seen by anyone. While Rania’s parents were waiting for her at the school gate, expecting the beaming face of hers they witnessed every year at the result day. With her eyes turned to the ground, she walked up to her parents and the next moment they could hear her sobs. However, by the time they reached home Rania was feeling perfectly fine!

It was because her father explained to her one of the most important lessons of her life, “You’ve done it way better than many others my dear,” he went on, “We know that you weren’t well during the exams, but look with your hard work you still secured a position, what if it’s the third position? We are proud of you. Not everyone is capable of doing what you did in spite of being ill. You must learn to appreciate your efforts. Let others talk, the talks do not matter, what matters is your effort. And we are satisfied with that.”

That night, Rania celebrated with her family by going out for dinner. And after returning home, she had the time to reflect upon her year, her result and most importantly at what she had learnt today. She realised that people’s talk do not affect you unless you let them do so. The world will keep on talking, in front of you and behind you. You just have to ignore negative things because you’re the only judge of your progress and all you have to do is to continue with zeal and determination.