The nail didn't hurt anymore

 

As soon as Fatima entered in the exam hall, she began to search for her assigned chair. Walking through the aisle and carefully examining the roll number on each desk, she felt her eyes being blurred by the exam anxiety. “Where is my chair? She said in frustration.

“Here, let me help you” The invigilator beside her offered. He was a towering, lanky figure and Fatima had to struggle to look at him. He had deep black hair and was dressed formally in a white shirt. There was a badge that he wore, indicating that he was not a candidate. Fatima trusted him with her documents. After scanning it calmly, He said “You are in the wrong row, you must be in the ninth”

Thanks to the kind invigilator, Fatima had successfully found her spot. The seat seemed to be comfortable and spacious until her foot touched one of the front legs of the chair. She felt an excruciating pain in her ankle and noticed some drops of blood appearing out of the wound. Quickly, she stood and started wiping the blood on her ankle with a worn-out tissue that she had been carrying since morning and had now lost much of itself due to the recurring episodes of hyperhidrosis.

While Fatima had knelt down, she had noticed a pointed nail stuck at the right leg of the chair. Her foot had accidentally met its tip.

The exam had started. The first few questions, she felt, were a piece of cake. However as she proceeded toward the second part of the exam, her eyes began to widen and her chest became heavy. In all this while, her wounded ankle was injured multiple times by the unforgiving nail. The nail was quite long and pointed. A mere touch could pierce the skin to deep layers. It kept hurting her every time she went in search for some support for her foot and invited further discomfort.

“She sighed heavily to herself: why can I not be a bit more mindful about this?

The pain continued to disturb, but was there any time to lose? Was any nail in this world worth her attention at such a decisive moment?

Once she was done with the first two parts of her exam, she realized that the third part would perhaps be more focus-demanding than the first two. She became further engrossed in writing and her mind could process no excess information.

The nail didn’t hurt anymore.

This was an analogy created by sir Salman Asif Siddiqui-founder of Educational Resource Development Center- in response to a question “How do we ignore the not-so-important problems in our life?” The analogy aimed at explaining how a big and meaningful purpose to work after makes you immune to small problems in life, no longer affecting your mental health. I aimed to incorporate this into a story-which I am not very good at-and I am aware that my words and style haven’t been able to do justice to it. Nevertheless, I hope it may play some role in conveying the concept.