The release of the Netflix film ‘Skater Girl’ changed the distance between Asha and me.
Not emotionally — but in how I began to see.
I hadn’t stepped out of Asha’s life.
I was away because of Covid.
She was in Janwaar.
I was in Portugal.
The distance wasn’t chosen.
It was inevitable.
And it was just enough to notice something I hadn’t noticed before.
From close up, her development had always felt gradual — layered, incremental, shaped by time.
From a distance, I suddenly saw how fast she had actually moved.
The film didn’t create that movement.
It made the difference in perception visible.
I noticed a lag in myself.
I was still relating to a version of Asha shaped by shared years and proximity — by having walked alongside her becoming.
She, meanwhile, was already negotiating a different terrain: visibility, expectation, projection.
My first reaction was protective.
An impulse to explain. To add context. To soften what might be misunderstood.
I recognized that reflex as familiar — and no longer accurate.
What I was learning had less to do with her readiness, and more with my own timing.
Growth doesn’t wait for shared adjustment.
Transformation doesn’t arrive evenly for everyone involved.
The film accelerated external attention around her.
Distance showed me that she had already begun adapting — not without friction, not without effort.
My position shifted.
I intervened less.
I listened more.
What remained wasn’t withdrawal or indifference.
It was respect.
Distance didn’t reduce connection.
It clarified it.
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