I still remember the look painted on a girl’s face when she first set a foot on the high school where she’d spend four years of her studying. The sunlight was beaming and the rays drew slightly upon her innocent appearance as she walked down the pathway in the morning of her first day of class. Different thoughts, expectations, and feelings had wrapped her that day that made her venture a portrait of a freshman with so much wonderings in pursuit of the answers she needed with questions she had in her mind.
What could be my life in here? Who will I be with for those years? Will I be better in here? Will enjoy my stay in here? Will I meet new friends? Will I have more learning about the complex battle we call life? Will I be able to know myself and my wants better? Should I befriend our teachers? Or should I impress them instead? Will I flunk Math? Or will I excel in English? Will my teachers be greedy with grades? Will they be like dragons? Will I have a best friend? Who would it be? These are the questions one will ask somehow.
I was once like her. I have portrayed a picture like that before, way back four years ago…
In high school, you wake up early for a 7:30 class in the morning and a flag ceremony earlier than that. If you’re late, you pick up garbage around the campus; do your own flag ceremony together with your co- late comers under the extreme heat of the sun. You complain, but in the end, you realize it’s your fault. You have daily quizzes, a bunch of homework to do that cause you to stay up until late at night. Here comes the next day, you submit your assignment and you turn green and blue knowing that you have answered the homework that is not given by your teacher. (Good you have your own teacher in mind!) Your teacher reprimands you and throws you those sickening evil eyes.
Then you have Math class before lunch, your stomach starves to death, and you look at the board. The numbers seem to be the delicious and mouth-watering food… like the nuggets in number shape! Slowly, you begin to imagine eating while a serious discussion is going on, then poof! Quiz right away! How would you do that? Have your tongue hangin’ with your mouth wide open.
After you have a very fine lunch, another class follows then. What exactly do you do by that time aside from listening to your teacher? Well, let’s exclude “listening to your teacher”, cause most probably, we don’t really listen. You can hardly concentrate because your eyes want to shut… drowsiness strikes you down. Body position, lazybones, get started! Fire up for an expedition into the world of dreams! Muse about your crush… about you being a rock star… or eating again that delicious food… or a dream about you being chased by some dogs and trolls in the jungle! That’s quite exciting.
When you finally get back into the real world, you get sweat all around your face and everyone begins to laugh at you for making somewhat a pond in your arm chair. (You get what I mean?)
Lastly, after dismissal, you get a hold with the witch’s broom and start sweeping the floor, apply floor wax, and arrange the chairs because you are one of the cleaners assigned for that day.
That’s high school routine… but that’s not high school life.
High school life, in many ways, is one of the best parts of anyone’s life. It’s when you try to unfold the gifts given to you by the Almighty. You begin to discover many things about yourself. You begin to unleash the talents you’ve been hiding. It’s when you begin to become independent in a way, become a little snotty girl and boy no more. It’s when you get to involve yourself and share secrets to life’s colors we call friends. It’s when you begin to have swoon-worthy crushes and tell yourself that, beyond doubt, you are finally falling in love! And somehow, it’s when you gain half of your freedom form your parents; you turn out to be accountable of yourself in some instances and you become a responsible individual in so many ways.
In the morning, when you’re late and you have a friend who is one of the SSG officers, you speak through your smile for a friendly favor, and then your punishment gets lighter. (Way to be a friendly government, uh? *Sorry guys!)
When you have tons and tons of homework to do, friends come over and help you whether in group or pair. And sometimes, you get so lax about Math headaches ‘cause the Math wizard’s sitting beside you. (What if gossip witches are beside you?) And during quizzes, you’re not facing the battle alone. Take glances to the right, left, front and even side views, and you get a share of someone’s overflowing brains which then boils down to the term, “share your blessings” and not “cheating”.
In your class before lunch, don’t worry about your hungry tummy. You can tell you’re your teacher you need to buy a pen or whatever in the canteen. On your way back to the class, make sure you eat the snack you bought or keep it your pocket so as not to get caught if you can’t finish it. When you’re inside the class already, be ready to show a pen of a kind of newly-bought look. Then you can start eating food secretly during discussion. (That’s what I used to do before but I’m not telling you to follow my tips all the time!)
No teacher around?
“She’s on a seminar!” “They have a meeting!” “She’s got a headache!” “He’s handling a case between two students!” These are little good news to students that make them yell “Hurray!” It’s senseless but yes, it’s true. Even if you go to school to learn, somehow you’d wish you won’t have a class even in just a subject so you can while away the pressure over something in school.
Then, in no time, you start making your classroom a playground. Some play hand games, some do spelling on the board, some sing, some talk about their future, some run and throw crumpled paper to each other, some eat, some listen to music, some tell and listen to scary stories, some chitchat about Hollywood and Disney teen stars, some go over texting or calling on mobile phones, some watch movie in their laptop, some read, some write, some laugh out loud over a hilarious joke, some quarrel while some try to fix love problems, and some just choose to go to dreamland in a deep sleep with all the noise around. Then the president stands up to command for silence, but then she sits back to where she is seated because no one can hear her. You all get happy together and do crazy stuff together, be it on a clique or with yourself as long as you’re in one roof and in one same room. You look like families stuck in one house, different attitudes, religions, personalities, but you still get along with each other. You do all these together and you get punished altogether.
During dismissal time, you get busy asking for face powder, borrowing combs or hair brushes, mirrors and all. And then you race to the back part of the room to get brooms and buffers with your friends and you clean the classroom together as if you’re playing. And again, after the whole cleaning thing, you put powder on your face; comb your hair and the likes. Then you go home together … laugh in the cab on your way home, you sing and the driver smiles for having a free radio with local artists singing out of tune. J
That’s high school life… Though I have not experienced all of those, I came to see and witness them… And it’s funny reminiscing how we made all those stupid yet memorable things. That was US… Me with Friends.Classmates.Batchmates in our dear Alma Mater. That was my high school life.
High school life, I became a lady finally… but not totally ‘cause even now, I still act like a kid. I have had a lot of first-times and first this and that in there.
It’s when…
I first know how to write.
I wrote my first story.
I made my first song.
I had my first girl best friend.
I had my first dance in Prom (Of course!)
I had my first time to join some kind of beauty search? (hahaha.lol)
I first met my first Hollywood idol!
I first met my first Hollywood crush!
I had my first boyfriend.
I had my first heart break.
I had my first time experience to ride a boat!
And where I had first experience the “real world.”
Some of you might have the same first and first-times in life… and to some; it all starts in high school. You might even have had in here the first time you tasted a shot of that bitter-sour-sweet-strong drink we call gins and alcohol. But hey, I have never tried that. Honestly, my friends, specifically my classmates, told me once to try a glass of wine, but when I tried to see/read the label, it contained some percent of alcohol so I refused to drink it. I drank two glasses of orange juice, instead. Well don’t take me as an ignorant or kill joy; I just have made promise that I wouldn’t until the right time comes. When is the right time? My answer? I will know when it comes. xD
We can’t deny these things… whether inside or outside the campus experiences, because basically, they are part of the high school world… the high school life reality. Things become memorable when they are done with happiness, love and fun… And soon they become part of the history… our history. Eventually, your yesterday lingers up to the day you read this, and then, it befits your today. Memories link us to our past, ‘cause it’s the memories that bring back life to our experiences, clear, and sometimes… colored.
In high school, you don’t just get tougher and competitive, nor knowledgeable and responsible, but you become most significantly, one’s glistening colors in life as a great friend, as a piece of one’s heart.
High school life, though short-lived in four years, becomes too long for great and wonderful memories shared to one another. And with hopes, may the friendships built through those years bloom as we embark into life’s long journey in our own destinations and roads to take.
And then, another journey awaits ahead of us... the life after HIGH SCHOOL.
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