A College Seeress' Diary

My Roomie Vibes

Dear Jesus,

Early the next morning, Nurse Evelyn removed my bandage and cleaned my eye with a cold, ticklish salve. She was a pro doing the caregiving thingy; I'd give her that. Way to go, nurses!

Indeed, when I took the first blink and opened my eyes everything was smudged and blurred like a splatter of multiple faded paint, just as the doctor had predicted.

I went to the doctor's office, guided by Nurse Evelyn, John and Kathy. The doctor gave me my spectacles and everything came into focus. It felt kinda awkward carrying the glasses on my face though.

He scribbled my medications on a note and I took it to the pharmacy to get them. I couldn't fathom how the pharmacist was able to see the handwriting that resembled patterns made by the earth-scratching of a chicken. I was given Ciprofloxacin eye drop and Diclofenac tablets.

To while away time, I asked permission for me and my friends to go about the hospital, checking out the place. I don't know how I was pulled by that magnetic force to the children's ward. My buddies had no choice but to tag along; Kathy was absorbed with the layout and structure design of this huge hospital facility, while John was obviously into the electronic gadgets.

It was a bit heartbreaking to see these cute kids battling sickness. It wasn't like they deserved it but I was sure that you knew what's best. Watching them made me remember Lydia and other children in Arrows Children Home, as well as Cat and her allies at the church's children department.

By noon, after a long while of dilly-dallying around the hospital premises with my friends and trying to get accustomed to my new spectacles which Kathy insisted made me look more mature and intelligent (I know she was just being nice. Nerdy was the right word), McCheyenne officials were back to fetch us.

Off we went to McCheyenne College in a chafeured Sienna that had full AC blasting at us and a sweet silence only interrupted by Mrs Wendy's unnecessary information dump on us poor kids.
I even saw Leonard, the guy escort, sigh quietly and roll his eye, obviously exasperated by his pair.

"The McCheyenne is a college of class, dating back to the early ninety's," Mrs Wendy said in her french accent with pride. "The campus is a well planned site having in its residential area the four female hostels, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond and Gold; the four male hostels, Phoenix, Leo, Anaconda and Stag; and the staff quarters at the farthest end. And this is up north. The official area is the first place you'd hit at the central location. The academic area is to the east. The bank, mall and what-have-you's is to the west. Don't worry. You'll be told more and even taken on a tour during your orientation program."

After a fit of internal panic, I gathered courage to interrupt her and ask about our luggage.
"Oh! That's taken care of, Radiance. We already settled it with the airline company. They promised that the package would arrive at the school Administration building this afternoon," Mrs Wendy replied.
That eased my worries.

McCheyenne gate was humongous. It took all in me not to gape in open-mouthed awe at the pristine sight of sky-tall, steel and concrete work of 'barricade and portal' working in simultaneous unison.

There was a lively hubbub of activity there, making it more obvious that freshers were still resuming.
There were all categories of faces: Lost faces, fresh-as-a-cotton-wool faces, entranced faces, innocent faces and nerdy faces like mine, clustered in groups, some with their parents or elder siblings.
They were dressed in a splatter of bright colours. Their brows glistened with sweat as they plodded their mountain of school survival kit.

The Sienna drove us in sleekly. The security men at the gate recognized the officials by their ID cards so they let us pass without the usual scrutiny.