Safe Space. (Known Tales, Stories, Rants)

SCHOOL

School.

I am 18. I live in a metropolitan city. Full of commotion, people, city lights. Full of life. I have college and classes to run to.  Lets just say that, both the institutions are far apart. It takes me an hour to and fro my classes. My college is closer to my home. I go there often because the library is amazing and so is the cafeteria! As I mentioned earlier, I am in the science stream. Full of kinematical equations, gravity, integration, probability, the ultimate carbon world and periodic table. I think you get the idea. This all is on a daily basis. Once the ties from school are cut off, you seem to have fallen into the real world. College is just a glimpse of what it really is out there, for us all. Where no one cares what you are up to in the campus. Everyone is doing their own thing. There are the drama club people outside preparing skits, some dance group practicing, friends hanging out in cafeteria and students in library lost in their world and checking the world of fun outside through the windows. You have no clue how to start, whom to answer, what to wear?  It is funny how impatient I was to get out of school, to get a taste of the college life and 2 months into it, I realized how easy I had it back in school. You only value things and people when you don't have it anymore. Back in school, 10 periods felt awfully long, now we can't even sit through 4 lectures in college (highschool).

I was in a convent girl school. NO, I was not the cool kid in school. I wasn't exactly a nerd nor a stud. I was in the middle. I was a backbencher with unlimited power to eat whenever I got the chance, completed things on time, had great company and school didn't seem like a complete hell. I was more than a nobody and far away from limelight.

My school was a good one. Still is, actually. The teachers were great. A bit moody or even devil-like, but they had our backs nonetheless. Our building was a beautiful one. Old architecture but the color choice ruined the appearance of the old building, we used to call it "the pink building with the prison-like gates". We had a small garden and playground for the toddlers on the front side and a big ground shared with two other schools behind.  We had three uniforms as we got older. Toddlers had blue frock, till 4th grade was a red one and 5th onwards a clean white uniform, white shirt and white skirt. I remember it was a big deal to finally enter the white stage. Girls were taken seriously according to their abilities and responsibilities. We even had houses like those in Hogwarts, only the magic and actual Hogwarts castle missing.  All good sportswomen were in green house, the creative ones in yellow, studious in blue and disciplined ones in red house.  I was in blue house. I liked the color, I didn't care about the rest. 

Till 4th grade, I was enjoying school life. I remember most of the time spent playing sports or solving math. I participated in dance, singing, sports, name it. 5th grade onwards we started to get tangled with various subjects. hollering and fun was there amongst us, so 10 subjects didn't take a toll on us. 7th onwards, my batchmates began to change. There was alot of competiton and some sort of "high and mighty" attitude spread around. Groups were made.  Girls were sitting in their specific place for lunches. What made us unite, was the gym period. We would go out to the ground and make large groups and play with each other. Zero periods were fun too, we made up new new games and played with our partners. Around 8th grade, I witnessed many groups and friendships made on based on fandoms and social activities. Observed many fights and dramas. 9th was the same. 10th grade was a different ball game. We all were stirred in this competition to score the best in order to get the desired college and to end school life with a bang. Amongst all the tension,secrets, gossips, assignments, our school every year took the 10th graders to a small trip to a nearby hill station as a form of retreat. We learned teamwork, encouraged to speak out and share experiences, played games. One of the memorable and moving sessions we had, was to take a pen and go to anyone you feel like complimenting and write something for them on a paper given to everyone without expecting them to write back for you. It could be a compliment or a memory of them that you cherish. I sighed at the back, knowing that only three to four girls will come to write on my paper. Yeah, I had no hopes. I was astonished to see that girls were coming one by one. Girls with whom I hadn't talked to in a long time. They wrote a funny memory about spending time with me, complimented me for my accurate advice to them over some issues. I thought of four girls. By the end of the session my sheet was filled because of 18 girls.  I could not stop looking at the sheet and believe that there were 18 of them who remember things that my presence had caused. That kinda showed me that school was not all hell. There were good times with good people.  We sang to trending songs together, if one got caught we all stood for one another with a mutual understanding, we covered up for one another, talked and ran around in gym class and shared our tiffins for the last time. 

Left school with blessed rings as a memory. Walked in with blue frocks and walked out in elegant sarees. I'd be lying if I said there was not one time I felt like burning that awful pink building down. But now that I am in a college filled with unknown people, whenever I spot my school mates I don't think twice to meet them. That's what the pink building gave us, friends, crazy memories and advice to make a difference with our abilities. So, we didn't torch the building.

If anyone reading this is still in school, don't worry, you think its a drag now, but you'll miss something about the school. Enjoy while it lasts. Once you step out, there's a lot more to tackle than just assignments, projects, sports practices, and exams.