Getting up an hour earlier
Wearing clothes that aren’t what you wore last night
Brushing your teeth
Eating meals on time
Preparing to answer teachers
Finishing long-forgotten classwork
But despite all this, going to school was much awaited; a break from the eat-sleep-computer. It was a homecoming; the familiar faces, gates, walls, plants, friends, grounds and the lunch area. I felt I had laughed more on that day than the whole one and a half years of online school. Sure, online school isn’t that bad, that isn’t possible with my beloved class of unruly 8th graders. But coming back to the good old school was like partying after the exams, resting after a long journey, taking a bath after working out.
When I look back on the day, I don’t feel any particularly excited feeling but that I had lived, truly and fully. A day worth remembering.
Are you excited?
Before The Day our class declared that going to school was like going for the long-forgotten field trips. List of essential items to bring. Permission forms. Information emails. No school lunch. Rules and regulations. Every single teacher asked us if we were excited. Every class someone asks if they can change the day they come to be with their friends. Everyone had excitement in the back of their minds and everyone I knew was in a dilemma as to what to wear.
A fairytale bliss
Throughout that day, I felt like I was in a dream. It didn’t seem like reality. Our classes went like normal, the new normal. Nothing different from online classes was done that day but it was as if one had put on 3D glasses. Your whole dimension changes. You were no longer alone in a quiet, sleepy room nor a room with clamorous and curious family members. Now you’re in a classroom. The teacher is still talking but now you can pass side comments to your socially distanced neighbours. Now you can actually ask questions without feeling awkward or getting a feeling you’re interrupting something. Now you giggle and laugh. Now you feel the rising tension of competition during a Quizizz. Now you feel like you belong and are in class. Each break wasn’t just a switch between windows on the computer, it was an actual break where we went outside. Just to be surrounded by people, familiar people, felt like I was holding my head underwater. But to hear the buzz of chatter, the screams from the field, to sit and eat together, was just overwhelming- and cheery. This feeling overtook me and made me a loud, laughing maniac the whole time in school. Every second was a moment of joy that finished too soon. Being on one device at the Zoom Class enhanced the feeling of how we were one class and together we learnt, together we laughed, together we lived.
Intoxicated
I want to be a writer and nothing gives me more satisfaction than to express my feelings in the right words. When asked how my day was I didn’t get better words than the usual, “It was nice.” But later I found the right word: I felt like I was dreaming or what I imagined it to be like (credits: books and movies). To put it in a more relatable way, it was like having just a spoon of very cold, chocolate ice cream. Though your head feels numb, you feel pleasure swelling up inside that makes you yearn for more. And more.
About the Author
Hey there! I’m Sasha, an 8th grader Cambridge learner and an ordinary teen: procrastinating projects for the last few days, worrying about how I look and not being able to do homework straight for five minutes without getting distracted. However, I believe words have an enormous power. I’ve seen it when I read and I love to use their power everywhere possible; birthday wishes, text messages and assignments. I’m happiest if the reader can really understand the emotion under the carefully chosen words- mission accomplished, then.