Ever since early childhood, I’ve always been a happy child, but then came lockdown and I became a slave in my own home. I tried to tell my family how I felt about staying with another person’s child when I should’ve been studying, but none of them listened. I struggled for months as a child looking after someone else’s baby. I got sick, but they didn’t care, and I cleaned their house, but they weren’t grateful!

I asked God what I had done to deserve all this. I couldn’t study or raise an opinion, and not even my mother could speak for me. What had I done to deserve all this at such a young age?

Now I am no longer the happy child that I used to be. I am always sad and angry, and sometimes for no reason. Could it be because I have somehow bottled up all the anger I got as “a babysitter and cleaner”? If I had a voice, I would speak for all the other kids facing the same problems I was facing. Throughout all of it, I prayed hard for the Lord to hear me because I felt forsaken. Today I live because I have to. I try to push hard, but sometimes I go back to that dark hole. I am still a happy soul, though, even when I cry. I know my tears will be wiped away soon and I will find peace in the end.

I want to promise you that I’ll fight this demon because, not so long ago, I was diagnosed with depression at the age of 13. But, like they always say, this too shall pass.

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