My name is Lily. I was born into a family of four people: my mom, dad, sister Jolly, and me. Since I was a little child, I never liked sleeping on the bed but preferred sleeping on the floor. My mom used to put me on the bed, but in the morning she would find me sleeping on the floor. My parents used to ask me how I got down on the floor, and I could just tell them that I like sleeping on the floor rather than the bed. This surprised them—how a little child like me would feel good sleeping on the floor and not on the bed.
When I started school, my friends would come home to visit me, and they would enter my room. But when they saw that the bed was empty and I was sleeping on the floor, they would laugh at me, thinking that I’m not normal. It’s not usual for a person to leave the bed empty and sleep on the floor—not because he/she doesn’t have a bed, but because they feel comfortable on the floor. My friends would tell people at school that I don’t sleep on the bed, and everyone would ask me a lot of questions about it. I would just run into the class to avoid it.
My parents tried everything to get me to like sleeping on the bed, but there was no way. I would just go to sleep on the floor, and I would feel very happy and comfortable. When I slept on the floor, I felt more excited and had a nice sleep, better than sleeping on the bed.
My mom used to complain about me sleeping on the floor, and I tried explaining to her that the floor made me feel more comfortable and calmer. Even friends and relatives always asked about the same thing, and I would explain to them how I felt about the bed. They could not understand me because they thought everyone likes sleeping on the bed, while for me, it was a different situation.
One day, my mom tried to scare me by putting a fake snake on the floor where I slept. When I was sleeping, I felt something beside me, but I didn’t know what it was. When I turned on the light, I saw a snake and screamed really hard. That’s when my mom came and said, “Do you see the bad things that can happen to you if you continue sleeping on the floor?” But I knew she was trying to make me stop sleeping on the floor.
As I grew up, I continued sleeping on the floor and was really happy with this. I even finished high school still sleeping on the floor, and everyone knew that I never liked sleeping on the bed. They started to understand me. A few years passed, and my sister Jolly joined me in sleeping on the floor. She also said sleeping on the floor is not that bad. It is easy and more comfortable than the bed. I was super happy hearing that from my sis! I was lucky to have someone who could support me, and I had finally found one. I never became bored on the floor again because I had someone to chill with when I’m on the floor.
This experience made me so happy, and it made me love sleeping on the floor more. We continued sleeping on the floor, my sister and I, until we grew up and even after we moved into an apartment. We didn’t have a bed in it; we just arranged our floor very well and beautifully so that even our friends loved our floor-sleeping arrangement.
I went to college, and in the hostels, there were beds, but I made my sleeping arrangement on the floor. My fellow students were surprised by me, but with time, they started getting used to my sleeping arrangements. Sometimes I found that they had changed my sleeping arrangement and told me to just sleep on the bed for once, but I couldn’t manage it. I would just return to my usual sleeping arrangement.
The time for me to get married came, and my parents were afraid that I might not be able to sleep on the bed with my husband. My mom advised me to start getting used to sleeping on the bed before I got married, but I told her that I would convince my husband to sleep on the floor with me.
One day when I went to visit my fiancé, I found that he was also sleeping on the floor, and he loved it. This relieved my heart, knowing that I wouldn’t have to struggle with sleeping on the bed. Luckily enough, I found a husband who understood me. Before he proposed to me, he heard that I never liked sleeping on the bed but on the floor, and that was why he changed his sleeping arrangement—because of me. We got married, and there was no day that my husband complained about sleeping on the floor. We were happy together, and he supported me in everything.
I also came across other people who also liked sleeping on the floor, so I knew that I wasn’t alone in this situation. This showed that not everyone can like what the majority of people like. Some few people can just like different things apart from the majority. What matters is that everyone has to rest or sleep in a way they feel comfortable. It shouldn’t be just because the majority does this and everyone must do the same. One can prefer this way, and the other one can prefer the other way. We should learn to respect every choice in everything.
14 August, 2023
