This is not a random story with a happy ending. This is my story, and it’s not as pleasing to many of you as you might think it would be.

I had a tough childhood as I grew up alone. I was five when my cousins left me and for six years, I never saw them or had them as a part of my life. The boys in my class would team up and humiliate me, even though I was the brightest student in my class.

Despite my school being popular and having many locations, my dad would pick me up and we would walk to his office as it was nearby. Others would think that we couldn’t afford a car.

Everyone thought I cried for attention, but I cried for help. I would get hurt, but others would hesitate to help. I was called hurtful names, which I would smile through. Empathy wasn’t common in our school. I would be accused of stealing, which I would never do, along with many other horrible, unspeakable things.

One day, I hit my head while playing basketball and woke up to something that made me relive one of the worst moments of my life. I saw myself injured, with my knee bleeding, people walking by and me, as a nine-year-old in Grade 4, lying there.

I walked up to my younger self and whispered, “Hey there!”

She looked up at me and exclaimed, “Wait, you look so familiar. Are you my older self?” she asked with interest.

I nodded my head and looked at her bleeding knee. Without hesitation, I rushed her to the sick bay while she asked questions about me and her future. I stopped her questions, wiped her knee and bandaged it.

My younger self asked why I wasn’t there in class when everybody bullied her. She told me she didn’t have a friend. Her story reminded me of what had happened, and I was able to recall everything except being helped.

So I decided to teach everyone a lesson and followed her to the class. As I entered, her classmates were surprised. They began taunting her, saying that she needed her big sister.

It was enough for me to teach them a lesson. “All of you are so ignorant, selfish and failures in your own lives. You bully someone because this is the only solution you find to get the upper hand, whereas you avoid real struggles. Complain about my younger self all you want, but remember, she grows up to become better than you lot.”

Just then, I got a jolt and found myself on the floor. It had all been a dream.

But I felt so relieved and happy, with renewed energy to see my life differently.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 26th, 2026