MY LIFE AS I KNEW IT WAS ABOUT TO END
Ever the sentimental, that very last class of my whole secondary school era, I was the only one to be fussing about having to say goodbye. “What will become of us?” I kept wondering aloud in the classroom, as if our fates ahead would entail being sent to the enemy lines. “Shut up, or you’ll find out soon,” went the mildest reaction. But my apprehension was stronger than my mates’ indifference: I could not help butting in with my school-sick remarks, until the wimpiest of the guys grabbed me by my tie, pulled me close to his face and hissed “Stop it. We’re talking about having it off, don’t you see?”
It took me two or three more shoves to realise that the boys weren’t in the same mood, so I left them alone and found myself meandering along the corridor. There I found William, the guy who, in the teachers’ opinion, epitomised the industrious student, though at the same time, just a disgusting swot, depending on which side you were. He was slouching on his own, his eyes apparently lost in foreshadowing melancholy. I went straight to cry on his shoulder. Promptly, however, I was proved wrong: actually, he had been daydreaming of his University life and couldn’t wait for the following year to begin. “I might have known that you would miss this assembly-line of losers,” William snorted, leaving me speechless.
My life as I knew it was about to end in a couple of periods. The only reason why most of us remained at our desks those last moments was our English teacher. Many had a crush on her, especially a certain guy who had been bluffing about a special goodbye kiss. But she wouldn’t turn up to give us the last laugh. In her place, a mere list with our final marks arrived only. Then, upon returning to the classroom from the toilet, I found that everybody had disbanded for good.
Depending on who my interlocutor is, I pretend to concur with the coming-of-age pieces of wisdom. However, deep inside, I readily toss them into my cliché dustbin and secretly wish I could somehow recapture the feelings from my halcyon days at secondary school.
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