Last night I went to bed quite early but woke up after a while. I went out on the terrace from where I could see thousands of stars shining in the sky. There was silence all around with just the stars twinkling high above. It was beautiful as if God had decorated the whole sky selecting stars that twinkled the most.

Then I heard a voice inside me say, “The stars want to say something to you.”

I could feel my soul had heard what the stars were trying to tell me. I understood what the mesmerising, glittering stars wanted to tell me.

The stars wanted to make every creature on this earth realise that it doesn’t matter how far you are from your destination, the only thing that matters is how much effort you put in to cover that distance.

Your effort will cover the distance between you and your destiny.

And like the faraway stars that shine so brightly, even our efforts will make us shine like that in everyone’s eyes.

— Pushpa Palanchoke, Class X, Vidhya Sagar

Secondary School