The First Day: A Flashback

Hello, people of the blogosphere! :)

I’m a new addition to the blogging crew, and thought that my first post could be about the first day of school.

Yes, I know it’s already mid-January (but that’s what procrastination mixed with a busy schedule gets you, people! (more on the former though, I admit.)) Once again, I have been duped by Father Time. I thought he got me good when he snatched away my year-end holidays, but now it seems he’s surreptitiously taken away the first month of my 2013 as well. Oh well, I’ll have to turn the cogs in my noggin a little bit to bring back the events of the first day and all the emotions that came along with it!

It's six o'clock and I’m staring at my alarm clock, grumbling because I know I can no longer hit the snooze button and be done with it. However, I have to get up. I wish I could say I was looking forward to the first day of school, but I’m only human, and getting up at six in the morning after a long stretch of holiday spent sleeping in until noon was definitely a downer.

I remember my first day in school as a first-former being scary, yet exciting. Now, coming back as a senior, it actually felt like I hadn’t even left in the first place! There were throngs of students as far as the eye could see: inexperienced first-formers rushing about with no direction, laid-back seniors making their way to where the students were assembling, and of course, prefects all diligently doing their duty to keep some form of order amongst the chaos students.

There was one thing different about the school this year that everyone could hardly miss though: The long awaited roof above the basketball court! As most students would know, the school had been collecting donations year after year (five years to be exact. E.Q.K) in order to pay for the expenses of this roof. Now after all our hard work badgering people for asking for donations, the roof had finally been erected, and we could sit under it in all its glory. I have to admit, I do miss sitting at the old assembly point but I suppose the basketball court is more suitable as it can accommodate more students.

And my, the amount of new students this year! During assembly, after the teachers had welcomed us back to the school and reprimanded the students for seemingly forgetting the school's entire dress code over the course of the holidays (as there were some who sported dyed hair and improper school uniforms), we were told that there are up to 60 first-formers a class. I’ve shared a class with 50 students before, but even I thought 60 was overdoing it. Of course, the problem was resolved a week later by creating a new class, but that didn’t stop me wondering what was with the surge in amount of intakes this year.

As a fourth-former, the first day of school was also tantamount to no small amount of heartache, as most of us were torn apart from our friends and put in separate classes. The streaming had begun, and students made their way into arts, accounts or pure science classes, depending on where they’d been sorted into (Penilaian Menegah Rendah examination results, more likely. E.Q.K). I comforted myself with the fact that there was always recess to meet up with my dear friends, but still, it isn’t really the same, is it?

The first day of school marked the beginning of a whole new year, ripe with responsibilities and challenges.  I was crying for mercy by the time I was done arranging all my activities in my schedule, and I still have more to add down the road! It seems a new school year always marks the start of a packed and hectic schedule. Hopefully, we can learn to relax amidst the fast pace and give ourselves some time for recreation. Remember, being too busy just leads to unnecessary stress, take a chill pill everyone! (No, I'm not saying do drugs, it's a figure of speech. Obviously)

Hope everybody has an awesometastic school year! :D