Get ready, I'm Outside

The Kind of Life I Want to Live

Somewhere between attendance calls and last-minute homework,
there’s this random little voice in my head 
saying, “Yaar, I just want to live like a Taylor Swift song.”

Not anything fancy or dramatic.
Just something simple and sweet.
Something that feels like butterflies.

You know, like when the sky looks extra pretty,
your playlist just gets you,
and your best friend texts, “I miss our lunch break rants.”

Indian schools are... a whole different vibe.
We don’t have lockers or wild cafeteria gossip.

What we do have is:
– Announcements we don’t listen to but still somehow follow.
– Teachers who know we’re talking without even turning around.
– Bag checks. Surprise tests. Birthday chocolates.
– Tiffin smells that call out your entire class.

And best friends in different classrooms.
Like literally, they're solving for acceleration while I’m figuring out accounting equation.
Science and commerce living two separate lives under one roof.

But we still find time,
Lunch breaks.
Free periods (if our class teachers are in a good mood).
Even just a wave from the staircase feels like a win.

And it’s not just one person.
It’s them.
The entire group.
The ones I laugh with, cry to, vent about classes and crushes with.
Each of them 
They’re all a part of this little universe I carry in my heart.
Our moments may look different with each other,
but the love? It’s loud and equal.

And the dream: after school momos.
Every Indian teen has this sacred plan in their head:
“School ke baad momos khaane chalte hai.” ("Let's have some momos after school") 

We all make it.
Very few actually go.

Because 
School ends,
Coaching starts,
Parents call,
Energy crashes.

I do see one of them in coaching.
But it's not the same.
We’re not sitting on a random bench laughing about teachers.
We're calculating marks, running late, solving doubts.

Still, the idea of after-school momos?
It stays. Always.

Maybe I just want that movie-feel life.
Not for the glamour, just for the feelings.
The deep, butterfly-kind ones.

Where a moment feels full.
Where you walk home with music in your ears and the wind feels like a friend.
Where your best friend just knows what’s up without you saying anything.
Where you take blurry photos and save them even if they’re terrible.

Because you know… this is your now.
And one day it won’t be.

We don’t have lockers. But we do have stories.
Like:
Sitting with your head on your best friend’s shoulder in the bus.
Secretly sharing food during lectures.
Laughing so hard during free period that even the next class hears it.
Walking past the staff room like it’s a horror movie scene.

We don’t have movie moments.
But we have our own kind 
Unplanned. Messy. Real.
And somehow... more perfect.

Maybe we’re not living a Taylor Swift song.
But maybe we’re writing one.

A desi, chaotic, school-bag-swinging, silly, sentimental one.
Full of undone homework, cancelled momo plans,
and memories you don’t realise are memories until months later.

This isn’t some big, dramatic high school story.
It’s just ours.
And it’s enough.

Actually, it’s everything.