Have you ever gone through a day when it seemed that the world was upside down and everything was just going wrong? It was one such day in Laiba’s world.

The poor girl had slept late at night as she was trying to cram for her final exam the next day. Naturally, she couldn’t hear the alarm which kept ringing from various places in the room. Laiba kept on sleeping peacefully. But then her mother entered and shook her out of the dreamy state.

Laiba was bewildered. For a moment she couldn’t comprehend where she was, however, her mother was quick to realise that she was late for school. Her uniform was not ironed. She hardly had minutes to get ready. And her final exams were starting that day.

Laiba scrambled out of her bed and rushed to wash her face only to realise that the tap seemed to have run out of water.

She ran around frantically with soap all over her face, in her search for water. Then she suddenly had the idea to take out the water bottle from the refrigerator and splash her face with water. It was cold enough to make her shiver, but Laiba had to get through it.

She then hurried to get her uniform ironed but the task which required patience was bound to go wrong in such a rush. Her shirt got burned from the bottom, but Laiba had to wear this only and as soon as she could manage, she was on her way to school. Her stomach made funny noises, reminding her of the consequences of not having breakfast.

This day could not get worse. Little did she know what awaited her would change her mind

As she entered the examination hall, the exam was just about to begin. Laiba scrambled around to find her seat, she had forgotten to take a look at the seating arrangement list hung outside, which automatically earned her some stern remarks from the examiner. This day could not get worse. Little did she know what awaited her would change her mind.

As she opened the question paper and tried to calm her nerves to focus, Laiba was again thrown off balance when she realised that it was her math exam and she had forgotten the calculator.

She knew the rules, she could not ask for anything. Thus, it took her longer than others to complete her paper, with her sheets full of rough work which reflected the amount of extra effort she had to put in for calculations.

She finished her exam just as the bell rang to indicate the end of the paper, so she didn’t get the chance to recheck her answers.

This was the last straw. Laiba was now thoroughly distressed. When she returned home, she was at her wits end. Laiba knew this was not her best day when she found out that her mother had cooked the most unappealing assortment of vegetables for lunch.

She ate in silence and decided to head straight to her bedroom and bed before anything unpleasant happened anymore. The trick worked for her and by dinner, she was in better spirits.

The rest of her exams weren’t this troublesome. When her result came out she found she had scored better than she expected. She couldn’t help but smile thinking for that first day of the exam.

It was a reminder to Laiba that such days do happen once in a while, but that just means a bad day and never a bad life. One should remember to smile through all problems.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 24th, 2016