Hello there everybody! 

Hope everyone is doing good! 

We are already into the second month of February and I'm still stuck in 2015. How time works is something I'll never understand. 

Some might tell you that it was just a golden badge but to me it never was about the badge. Winning the elections last year gave me an ultimate nitro filled boost to my self confidence, which was at the time at an all time low. Throughout my time at my school, at every investiture ceremony I'd look at the captains, with their sashes and the house flag and wonder what that would feel like, standing on that stage, representing all the members of your house. I just had to know what that felt like so when I got into the tenth grade the first thing on my mind was the Vice Captain elections and I lost it. It kind of broke my heart because it was something I really wanted to do for years but nevertheless I tried out for another post on the student council, which I lost again. Tenth grade came and went and a lot of things happened that year. People who I'd known for what seems like forever changed and just other things that I'd rather not get into happened, and all of it completely changed me. I probably didn't show it but I kind of broke on the inside. Eleventh grade then came along and the post of Vice-head girl or any post on the student council was on my mind again. As I said, my self confidence was at an all time low, so I felt like I had no chance of winning anything and guess what? I didn't win anything. The captain elections were still left but by this point I didn't want to put myself through that again, because when you lose an Election, it gets you thinking, like why do people not like me? Am I not good enough? What did I do wrong? Etc etc. I still ended up making a speech for the Captain elections though. I decided to give it one more shot. And here's how it went-

"Good afternoon everybody. My name is Sanjana Ramesh and I have lost three elections so far. So you must be wondering, when there are so many worthy candidates before you, why should you elect the girl who has lost three times and is wearing a sweatshirt in this heat. Well, something that I've learnt is that people will not remember what you did, they will not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. So if you elect me, then I will not try to inspire you to have confidence in me. No. I will try to inspire you, to have the confidence in you. Now everyone look around you. Each one of these people around you have a dragon inside them, waiting to be unleashed. Each one can paint their own spectrum of colours, each one has their own thoughts, each thought is like a star you cannot fathom into constellations, and if you elect me I would be honoured to help you unlock that untapped potential. Now, people might say, "Red House can't do this, Red House can't do that" then by all means, let's work together, side by side, hand in hand and take Red House to the top and then those voices will be silenced. So I look forward to going on this journey to the top with each and everyone of you, whatever the result of this election may be and let's try and bring the House Cup back to its rightful owners, The Hoysalas. Thank You."

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the speech was done. People were clapping and cheering but I still had no idea what the outcome would be. Had I done enough? I hoped for the best and expected the worse. The next day our headmistress was announcing the results and I heard her call my name. For a second I thought she'd called somebody else. Did I actually hear my name? And just like that, I'd finally done it. I'd honestly love to relive that moment again. The investiture ceremony then came and I was holding the flag up high, I was wearing the badge and it was the best feeling ever. It felt like a childhood dream had come true and it just made me feel that if I put my head to something, then I can do anything I want to. It changed me for the better because now I felt that I had to prove myself, I had to remind the students of Red House that they had made the right decision and I felt a new sense of responsibility because now I was representing about a 100 students. 

Just this whole experience has been absolutely amazing. All this being said, I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for a couple of people I'm honoured to call my best friends, Pamru, Vits, Nita, Manu, Sammy, Just Thank you for believing in me when I didn't. Also Thank you to everyone else who supported me along the way! 

So yeah that was my post! I'll probably not post again till the end of this month because I have my finals coming up. :/ All the best to all the 11th graders! Hope you liked this post! 

Auf Wiedersehen.