Late Night Thoughts on Growing Up, Overthinking, and Living in Bhopal for Girl at 21

  Hi, I’m Aarohi (not my real name),

but a name that feels close enough to who I am here. I’m 21 years old and from Bhopal. I don’t really have too many friends, and even with the ones I have, I’m not always able to share every thought that comes to my mind. Some things sound funny to them, some turn into arguments, and some make people think I overthink too much. Maybe they simply don’t see things the way I do, and honestly, that’s fine.

So I decided to create this small space for myself.

A place where I can write freely about everyday life, random observations, social issues, feelings, experiences, and thoughts that usually stay inside my head longer than they should.

Most days, my life is very normal.

College work.
Scrolling endlessly on my phone.
Adding things to shopping carts I never buy.
Trying to make decent content with barely 400 followers.
Watching people in cafés while pretending not to.
Overthinking simple conversations at night.

Nothing extraordinary.

But sometimes I feel ordinary lives contain the most honest stories.

I notice small things a lot. The way people sit together but stay busy on their phones. The pressure girls quietly carry about appearance. The strange competition social media creates without anyone openly admitting it. Even while walking around Bhopal, I keep thinking about how differently people experience the same city.

For some people, the city feels peaceful.

For others, it feels unsafe after sunset.

For some, cafés are places to relax.

For others, they are places to click pictures just to prove they went there.

Maybe that’s why my thoughts never stay limited to one topic. Sometimes I want to talk about being a student in your twenties. Sometimes about online culture. Sometimes about loneliness, beauty standards, shopping habits, friendships, public behaviour, travelling alone, or simply how exhausting modern life feels even when nothing “bad” is happening.

I’m still figuring life out myself.

Some days I feel confident and independent. Other days I question everything — my future, my choices, even my personality. I think many people our age quietly feel lost, but everyone has become very good at hiding it behind filters, captions, and perfectly timed stories.

This blog is not here to give life lessons.

I’m not trying to sound wise or motivational. I don’t have all the answers, and honestly, I don’t trust people who pretend they do at 21. I just wanted one corner of the internet where my thoughts could exist without constantly being interrupted, judged, or turned into debates.

Maybe people will agree with me here.
Maybe they won’t.

But at least these thoughts will finally have somewhere to go.

And maybe someone reading this will realise they think about these things too.