Rats, Roses And Paper Bones

Chapter 4:"you're funny"

I walked steadily through the classroom area, looking for the Grade 10 Science department.

As I walked, I couldn't help wondering why things were so different in my country.

Why did we have to make such a huge decision about what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives at such a young age?

At barely fourteen, we were already expected to decide which sector we wanted to build our careers in: Science, Commercial, or Arts.

I thought it was ridiculous.

What if I made the wrong choice?

My brain wasn't even fully developed yet. I was barely beginning to understand my interests, my strengths, and what I actually wanted from life. Yet somehow, I was expected to choose a path that could potentially determine my entire future.

And once you chose, changing your mind later wasn't always easy.

Thankfully, I'd known what I wanted to do since I was quite young.

I wanted to become a doctor.

I was ten when my sister had the worst asthma attack of her life.

We were alone at home.

Mum was stuck in traffic, and Dad was out of town.

One moment, Dara was laughing.

The next, she was on the floor, gasping for air, her eyes wide with fear and her lips slowly turning blue.

I tried to use her inhaler, but my hands were shaking so badly that I dropped it.

I screamed her name.

I prayed.

I panicked.

Then I ran barefoot to our neighbour's house, leaving a trail of blood behind me after I stubbed my toe on the way.

They got her to the hospital just in time.

She survived.

But something in me didn't.

Something changed that day.

I'd never felt so useless.

So helpless.

So terrified.

I still remembered sitting beside her hospital bed, listening to the soft hiss of oxygen through her mask.

And I made myself a promise.

I would never feel that helpless again.

One day, I would be the person who knew what to do.

The person who could save someone's breath.

That was the day I decided I would become a doctor.

Not because of ambition.

Because love had left me no other choice.

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By the time I reached the classroom area, I finally had the chance to look around properly.

The school was huge.

There were about eight buildings in this section alone, a mixture of bungalows and two-storey buildings, all painted in cream and wine—the school's signature colours.

The buildings were arranged in rows, with classrooms, laboratories, a computer room, and a library spread across them.

In front of each row were little gardens filled with trees, neatly trimmed grass, and colourful flowers.