20th July 2022
I awoke suddenly at 5:15 a.m. for today was my first day at the OP campus! I woke up Nana (my dad) and we went to the washroom to brush our teeth. My mom was preparing my snack for school when I went in. I startled her by jumping in front of her. Nana sniggered (I knew it was just for fun) and I grinned wickedly. I then proceeded to drain my milk in one gulp and rushed to take a bath and change my clothes. Mum said ‘Hurry up, hurry up!’ and so we did.
My stomach churned with excitement and my head whirled with thoughts as Nana began repeating a lecture that he had given me twice yesterday. “OK! I KNOW, I KNOW”, I whisper-yelled. Nana shook his head and said, “You’ll be the death of me one day’’ and gestured for us to jump into the car.
I jumped out of the car and climbed onto the pavement. “Oy! You’ll win a medal at rushing! PICK UP YOUR BAG’’ yelled Nana. I tore back for it and waved goodbye to him. I finally saw the KC bus stopping at McDonalds and hugged mum goodbye. When I did this, I was a mixture of all the emotions ever to exist. There was the usual Covid test and then I climbed the steps using the bus handrails (supposedly). I sat next to a boy named Dhruva who was kind enough to let me sit next to him and waved one last time to Mum and Dad. The bus ride was splendid and I felt excited and nervous as we neared the school.
Once I entered school, I was immediately lost in a crowd of swarming children. It was my first day in a big campus so I felt small and lonely for a minute and then it was all swept from me and I was filled with happiness and excitement. Wow! I was in the second grade, Leaping Lions.
I took help from a teacher called Vidya Aunty to find LL Royals and entered. There were two teachers in class. One was Megha Aunty and another one whose name I did not know. I was searching with the other teacher for my cubby but we did not find it so the teacher asked Megha Aunty. When she heard my name, she looked around wildly, finally spotted me and hugged me. I was so surprised for a minute that I was speechless! I felt really happy at that moment when she hugged me. Someone was actually there for me! She then pointed me to my cubby, which was the first one in the row. Finally, she asked us to line up, starting from the first cubby and ending precisely at the end of the row of cubbies.
I was walking past a CC classroom and bumped into Krithika Aunty. She squeezed me and then continued with her class. I was ridiculously glad to see her, for she was my first grade teacher.
When I reached the cafeteria all I saw was steel. Steel tables, steel chairs etc. and thank goodness the food was not steel! A man with a blue tee shirt was hurrying us up. The comical thing was that he hurried me up without even my pancakes and was annoyed when I went back for the pancakes. I sat next to a girl called Samishka and we chatted amiably. Next we washed our hands, picked up our water bottles and went to LL Royals. I literally got lost and had to ask a teacher for help. Today, as it was our first day, there was no learning happening so we did our fun first-day things, such as drawing. The people, who finished early, went to the reading corner (games included) and played, chatted and read there. Megha Aunty clapped her hands after ten minutes and announced that it was time for snacks. I opened my box and I found what I thought was …… Spiteful letters! But then I saw that it was a note to me from Mom and Nana. After reading the notes I felt a mixture of courage and cheerfulness. The next period was art class, which was taken by Diana Aunty. That and a few other activities and it was lunchtime. I sat next to Krithika Aunty, eating my veggie noodles.
We then looked at a chart, named:
ON MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, I FELT…
We had to choose some labelled emojis, draw them on circular pieces of paper. Mine was a happy one, of course. Soon it was time to go. I can never explain what I felt on the bus home but it was a good feeling.
I jumped down from the bus and hurled myself into Mum’s arms and we embraced. I just couldn’t wait to drone on and on about my first day at school.
***** The End *****
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