Ink your Introspection -Journaling Joy: How One Girl Found Her Voice, One Page at a Time

                         “ Sunday Stories: The Success Secrets of Extraordinary”

In a quiet village near Nashik, lived 13-year-old Kamal, a quiet girl who always had a storm of thoughts swirling inside her. Her parents were loving but busy with their farm and household chores. Her classmates talked a lot—but Kamal never really felt heard.

She often sat alone during lunch, beneath an old Neem tree near the school boundary wall. The leaves whispered to her in the wind, and she found comfort in its shade. But no one knew that every day, Kamal  carried with her a plain brown notebook—her “Thought Friend,” as she secretly called it.

At first, she only scribbled her day:

“Ma scolded me for no reason.”

“I didn’t get picked for the dance team.”

“Why do I feel like crying when I haven’t hurt anyone?”

But soon, her pages began to fill with dreams, doodles, questions, and hopes. She wrote poems when it rained. She made lists of things that made her smile. She drew mehendi designs & created mandal designs when she was bored.

Over time, something amazing happened—Kamal  started noticing patterns in her feelings. She realised she felt better after writing. She stopped bottling up her anger. And she started thinking of solutions, not just complaints.

One day, when her best friend Priya was upset after failing in Math, Kamal  shared a simple idea:
"Why don’t you try writing what you feel and what confused you everyday? Writing helps to find solution. Start thinking on paper. It helped me."

Priya tried. Then another classmate. Then another. Eventually, the headmistress heard about it and asked Kamal to speak in assembly. Nervous but proud, she shared:
"When I started journaling, I didn’t know I’d start understanding myself. I didn’t know I’d become my own best friend."

Soon, the school launched a new activity: “Neem-Tree Journaling Hour.” Once a week, children would sit with their notebooks under that very tree and write without judgement, just honesty.

Aarti’s One More Step : A Story That Teaches The Power of Tiny Efforts

       “ Sunday Stories: The Success Secrets of Extraordinary”

Aarti lived in the quiet village of Kalipura, where green fields danced in the breeze and everyone knew each other’s name. She was known for her big dreams and even bigger smile. Her dream? To win the district-level long jump championship.

She had a scrapbook where she’d pasted pictures of great athletes, and in bold letters across the cover she had written:

“Even slow progress is progress—Don’t stop.”

🚶‍♀️ “You don’t climb mountains in a leap—just one sure step at a time.”

Every morning before school, she trained herself. She marked a line in the dust and jumped over it again and again. Her coach, Master Chintan, a retired athlete with kind eyes and a serious moustache, always said the same thing:

“Aarti, don’t worry about jumping the farthest. Just jump a little farther than yesterday. One more step every day.”

Some days Aarti felt tired. Some days the line barely moved. But she still pushed herself: one extra jump, one deeper breath, one more step.

Her friends didn’t always understand.

“Why don’t you take Sundays off?” Meena asked.

“Because the finish line doesn’t rest,” Aarti replied, smiling.

When the competition came, her heart raced. The field was packed with students from bigger schools, with fancy shoes and flashy uniforms. Aarti wore her old sneakers and her lucky red hairband.

She closed her eyes and whispered, “One more step.”

She ran..... She leapt.....

And she soared.

Not just farther than the others—but farther than she ever had.

She won the gold medal. But more than the medal, what stayed with her was what Master Chintan whispered as he held back tears:

“You didn’t jump far today, Aarti. You jumped far every day before today. This was just where it all added up.”