At the end of the semester,128Please respect copyright.PENANAYSGRnuK5mR
when the books were closed,128Please respect copyright.PENANABnivWBUVca
and the codes had settled into the silence of completion,128Please respect copyright.PENANAdbtg9S62lF
we were handed something new —128Please respect copyright.PENANAZkYkiwmva7
a task beyond classrooms and labs.
They called it the CSP —128Please respect copyright.PENANANHL0JgWXlA
Community Service Project.
It was meant to connect us with the world outside —128Please respect copyright.PENANA7PznMGLz7i
to give back, maybe.128Please respect copyright.PENANA3oIfqoHsbg
But for me, it felt more like a pause,128Please respect copyright.PENANAiXiOAOHFTa
a breath before the next rush.
I didn’t choose my team.128Please respect copyright.PENANAaQZ3V8fRTz
Or maybe, the team chose me.
It was me,128Please respect copyright.PENANAIE4EipK5Ag
Merry and Bettie — two girls from my class128Please respect copyright.PENANA8cOx0OgNHI
who shared more smiles than words with me,128Please respect copyright.PENANA8LeB6IOsBr
and Harry, my friend —128Please respect copyright.PENANAvVLXI3NYma
more chaos than calm, but a comfort all the same.
We were a team.128Please respect copyright.PENANAww7elfUFsz
Somewhat random, but real.
Our project was rooted in Rajahmundry.128Please respect copyright.PENANAeSaJLT32ov
A place far from our usual walls,128Please respect copyright.PENANAqQJCwB4Yt4
where we were to explore farming,128Please respect copyright.PENANAsLWTu0nWWQ
to understand flowers, roots, and the earth itself.
It was poetic, in a way.128Please respect copyright.PENANAjr9JssY54r
After all, hadn’t this year been about blooming too?
But there she was again.128Please respect copyright.PENANARVYoOBABgb
Forevermore.128Please respect copyright.PENANAQeISMRC7iU
And she had her own project, her own path.
With Ren, of course.128Please respect copyright.PENANASTJ3Kb35sP
And that girl I met during the festival.128Please respect copyright.PENANAgheZ2KRtAU
A few others I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter.
They were a team.128Please respect copyright.PENANAKbzuDIGCAR
Separate.128Please respect copyright.PENANAGFh6EnVg8T
Like two parallel poems written in the same language,128Please respect copyright.PENANAN09jcq790n
but never on the same page.
We left the city on the same day,128Please respect copyright.PENANAEFJVnfSNjN
as if chasing the same sunrise from two different windows.
She took the bus.128Please respect copyright.PENANAoydak2rdjp
I rode a bike.
Same roads, different rhythms.128Please respect copyright.PENANAJkRAwqoWJl
That was how it had always been, wasn’t it?
May ended in sweat and soil,128Please respect copyright.PENANAd3VHI57LZy
laughter echoing in quiet villages,128Please respect copyright.PENANAhT3QZyPNK3
us pretending to be farmers, observers, volunteers.128Please respect copyright.PENANAv9oj77Tn0Z
Somewhere in between the heat and haze,128Please respect copyright.PENANA9Mcdtb4pYx
we completed what was asked of us.
But more than the project,128Please respect copyright.PENANAxwa8uievNY
it was the people.128Please respect copyright.PENANA7qYegcdLfv
The little moments.128Please respect copyright.PENANAX02rJ7jqPN
The jokes, the long walks back from fields.128Please respect copyright.PENANAXhH5RDeK8g
Not everything has to be profound.128Please respect copyright.PENANAoaXoMyspjh
Sometimes, simplicity leaves the deepest roots.
And then,128Please respect copyright.PENANAKOiDMcfAoK
came the results.
By late July,128Please respect copyright.PENANA57FVtCuaBt
we were handed the truth of our first year.
CGPA: 8.88
Better than I expected.128Please respect copyright.PENANArZViYQvt57
Worse than I pretended I didn’t care.128Please respect copyright.PENANA0JLOIizERb
It was a number, yes.128Please respect copyright.PENANA4WFSdpgrhh
But also a weight lifted.128Please respect copyright.PENANAvsQ2Mi6ylo
A reminder that despite everything —128Please respect copyright.PENANAtHloTHmu5v
I survived, I coded, I lived.128Please respect copyright.PENANAMyzVI3TxCV
And maybe even bloomed a little.
The second year wasn’t knocking.128Please respect copyright.PENANAtKvnxa9iZI
It was already breaking in.
A whole new chapter —128Please respect copyright.PENANA9dKLDOfNtd
new faces, maybe some old ones too.128Please respect copyright.PENANA0ClTZrwaSL
But more than anything,128Please respect copyright.PENANArIfUIbPCxA
new choices.
And I...128Please respect copyright.PENANAduoXpDiRvm
was still carrying the echoes of a name I carved softly into my soul.128Please respect copyright.PENANARL2Gude7Po