I Inspire

It was the last day of submission. Rita didn't know how to make time for the most important thing in her life. Work had kept her so busy that she forgot what her life looked like when she was in college, being able to multitask everything, as though born effortlessly to do so. 

Today was the last day to make an entry to her dream. 

She wanted to participate in StoryMirror's "I inspire" contest. 

Though word count of two thousand wasn't really pain for her to write, she was running out of time. 

She wanted to write a simple and yet creative story so that people are inspired to follow their dreams. 

She couldn't understand that how could she preach that teaching in her story when she seemed to have failed following that herself. 

"If something was important for me, I would have made time for it", she thought to herself. 

She was starting to get so demotivated with everything around her. She started doubting all the things that she had been able to achieve back in time. 

Today, when she had her chance, she was falling short of some luck and time. 

She counted on her hours, she still had some juice in her left to stay inspired. She wanted to fight for one last time, against time. 

She very well knew that there were still few more hours for the contest to end. She reminded herself again, "31st October 2019 and it is 10:20 am now. I still have the whole day with me. 

Even if I am busy at work, I'll try to squeeze in time, and I'll give it all it takes to...at least give a try."

She understood the basics of taking part in a race and enjoying parts of the whole journey. It didn't matter to her if she won or not. Wanting to make atleast a submission did. She had never missed a StoryMirror contest in the past. She tried to participate in all the contests that she could participate in. This time, work and time weren't in her favour. 

She didn't lose hope. She didn't want to lose hope.

She began thinking different angles to the story she had in mind. She wanted it to seem like a conversational style of a story. The longer that she thought about it, the more ideas she got. She had about two thousand and five hundred words with her and that was the word limit. 

She felt if she were to pursue this story she would have to go on... beyond a 2500! 

She started to rethink on how can she make an impact in long run with these many words with her. 

She knew that anything she'd write would take time and effort. 

And all that she now at present had was 13 more hours. Out of which she could only afford to write in her break time. 

She tried to quickly calculate her writing speed. 

She wasn't great but she beat the general average typing speed. She had a spike in her confidence. With other of her twitter friends also participating in this contest. She felt all the more enthused to participate. 

She concluded that she'd write about fighting for your dreams. She wanted to convey it to the world that it is never too late to follow your dreams. And it is essential to, always, to run for something you care about, something that makes you feel alive. 

And for Rita, it was writing and making a submission to StoryMirror's "I Inspire". 

Rita opened her fresh notepad and started scribbling her thoughts. She wanted to put all her thoughts down. She understood that collating all the thoughts would help her draft her story well later. With time being so less, she wanted this futile attempt of hers...atleast worth a try. 

She pitched in for herself, "Don't worry Rita...you have to trust yourself. If you don't trust yourself, then who will?"

Kashish was Rita's best friend is office. She knew how important it was for Rita to make a submission today. She offered to help Rita out and take her tasks for today on herself. 

Rita was thankful to her for doing such a huge favour. As much as she felt grateful, she was also guilt. She couldn't accept the favour. She told Kashish that her offer to her means a lot to her but she didn't want to have her burdened either. She said, "I am sure to wind the office work sooner Kashish... your moral support is enough for me. No matter what I am making this submission before 12 Midnight today!"

Kashish replied, "You are a high spirited one girl, go for it. If you think I can help you anywhere at all, just let me know. I am just a call away..."

"Thank you so much Kashish. What would I have done if it weren't for friends like you..."

"Arree...stop being so formal about this. I know how important this is for you. Now, stop wasting time talking to me. Wind up your work and get writing!"

"Yes, yes! I should. I will. I'll have an early lunch. Wind up work early and begin writing."

"I'd rather suggest that you wind up your story now and work later. You have the whole weekend with you to do overtime and finish up work!"

"You make absolute sense...yes! Let me do that. Thank you so much Kashish."

"Thank me later when you are done submitting. Now, go!"

Rita went back to her desk. She made a quick to-do list of her tasks for the day so that she's aware of the things she had to wind up before she gets started with writing. She also wanted to clear her mind because she knew that with work on her mind, she wouldn't be able to concentrate to write. 

With the to-do list done, she was confident that she could finish work well within time and if things went overboard Kashish was always there to help. 

She wanted to start writing, right away. She picked up her lucky pen - with a shade of purple, the one she received as a gift from her mother for making it to the top five ranks in her 10th class. She was glad that she still had it with her. Although she changed a lot of refills but the sentiment was still alive and fresh. 

She knew in her heart that her mom was proud of her writing too. 

She always felt this urge for writing, anytime and anywhere. She didn't want to lose the charm of what writing meant to her. As much as this submission, any chance to explore her writing skill was like a boon to her. As though, she didn't want to lose any chance that she got with writing and explore what her writing had to say to the world. 

As she gazed at the plain white paper, she felt super charged to start writing. As though some guiding light was helping her with the flow of her thoughts and writing speed. She wanted to finish the writing soon, so that she'd type it out later to make an online submission.

She always preferred writing down her thoughts in a conventional way, with pen and paper. 

Her thoughts and ideas flew flawlessly. Perhaps she want to make a submission badly was helping her after all. She trusted god and her faith increased multifold as she felt the positive energy running through her when her aim was very clear to her. 

That day she understood one simple thing. If you really want something, chase it, give it yourself, the best of you, and the whole world will come together to make that happen for you. 

She was very close to completing her 1500 word count mark. She felt like she was born to do this...writing her heart out. All that she wanted to do was to inspire people, motivate them to follow their dreams. Now, she could proudly everyone to do so because she fought her last battle too, when she had almost lost all her hopes of making a submission today. 

She wanted to remember this day. She wanted to write her today's experience in her diary as well. Before all of that, she had to login to the StoryMirror portal and make an entry. She didn't want to wait until she got home. Thanks to the StoryMirror app that she downloaded from the playstore. She could submit her story write away. 

She immediately logged on from our account, opened the contest page and searched for "I Inspire". 

And there she found it under the "English" section.

After making the submission, she wanted to write a mail to StoryMirror, to thank the team for coming up with timely prompts and conducting these contests, to keep motivating aspiring writers to fulfill their dreams of being published one day. 

She made the submission and she felt content. What she thought she wouldn't be able to do, she had done it. She thanked God. She called up Kashish immediately and told her about the successful submission. Kashish asked Rita, "So...when can I read that story of yours?"

Rita replied, "When it goes live, you will be the first person I share my story with... thank you Kashish for everything!"