Just two years out of high school and already, I find myself holding that
"reminisce moment" look you catch the alumni members do when they come by school for the fundraisers. Now, as an alumni myself, I find myself gazing out at the white buildings of my high school whenever I happen by. Sometimes I think,
"They upgrade the school AFTER we leave!!? What kind of sick joke is this?"
Slight exaggeration there.
High School would definitely be one of the most trying periods in a person's life. I'd describe it as a a bowl of half-cooked taro leaves. They make you stronger but man, they leave your mouth with that long lasting itch.
There are so many things going on when in high school. Most of us were still trying to find ourselves and the pressure to fit in kicks up 500 notches when you start high school. Throw in puberty, school work and amateur socializing skills.
I was and still am a socially awkward person. High school life had it's torturous moments for me but there were, as I expect for everyone, those fond moments you wouldn't trade in for lovo roasted chicken and pork with raw fish in miti..................actually..........................
just kidding. High school either built or killed your esteem but luckily for me, we didn't have much of "cliques" and if we did, they were very inclusive ones.
Making friends wasn't too hard, and in my case I kept close to my friends in primary school.
Personally, I regard everyone I knew from my first year of high school to my last, as a friend. Some of them, I have no idea how we even became friends in the first place. Others, I could recall vividly how we first met.
The first impression people got of me was that I was a quiet bookish braniac who didn't eat. Bookish, correct. Didn't eat? Maybe. Braniac? NO. I'm flattered people think that though.
One thing I remembered in school was that our mentality went something like this...
After high school, we looked back and remembered rainbows, sunshine, butterflies and singing. There were no detention or evil teachers or d grades. There was just heavenly bliss.
However, when I do seriously look back, I had to laugh at the things we got up to during school. We had a slightly rigid institution, where uniform and behavior was everything.
No nail polish, no make-up, stand up straight, watch what you say, how you walk, who you talk to and for heavens sakes wear your uniform right!
Of course we had those group of girls who deemed breaking the rules cool, and though it did give me a slight thrill when I did sometimes...most of the times...well, I tried my best to abide by the rules.
Half way through high school, the head teacher got sick of ranting over the intercom about tucking in our blouses...some of which we actually heard before we lowered the volume for more interesting music. She had had the last straw and bham! We were fitted with new uniforms the next year.
I pretty much hated the uniform because I was thin and the uniform in no way complimented my figure. I looked like a walking thin rectangle with a tie to match.
The tie! Oh man, the latest addition to the already dreary looking uniform that horribly contradicted the stifling summer heat of Fiji.
They hadn't even bothered to change the skirts to actually match the blouse so I looked like a rectangle with a flowing long skirt sheesh.
However, after leaving the school, the uniform seems to somehow transform before our eyes into a regal representation of pride and love for our school. The tie looked smart with the blouse and the skirt, to showcase the examples of modesty and lady like behavior of the women of that school. How could I have ever thought different??
One of the funniest moments of high school was detention. If you could call it that. Basically detention was physical education, and not even the ground-breaking kind. We were expected to run circles around the ENORMOUS school ground a few times and return to class as reformed students, vowing never to repeat the crime again.
Ofcourse, we'd end up back out there but all in all, everyone benefited. Our class time was cut short by our disciplinary marathons and our teachers are satisfied with the knowledge that the lesson has been learnt...once again.
Another form of detention was cleaning up. Notice that they punished us by improving our health and our surroundings.
In my first year of high school, during class once, we were taken aback to see students filing out in-front of the school building. Whatever the teacher was talking about fades out, because what was happening outside seemed a bit more interesting. We watched the students, red-faced, stand in a single row facing the main road during traffic rush hour.
The teacher by this time had stop talking, noticing no one was looking her direction, and she too turned to see the spectacle. The students outside held onto their ears and stood there for about five minutes.
Being juniours, we were gob-smacked and terrified that we'd be embarrassed like that when we misbehaved.
Then came cutting class. The only classes I'd skip out on was either music or P.E. Either I passed the time by writing or we'd have a round of cards with friends. P.E classes consisted of a game of volleyball usually and music class was "catch up on notes" time.
As a result our class was musically talented and not lazy at all.
Another rule that was always broken was selling things in school. We had "the black market" at the back of our class where the girls who would sell sat. Most of the treats sold were things like "jodi", "chinese lolly", "packet of bean", "joki joki", "brownies" and "prunes."
The illegal activities began as soon as teachers were absent. The students grapevine was such that the whole school would know where the things were sold. Sometimes, teachers bought from students.
Students who sold had a hilarious tendency to call out whatever they were selling in a long dragged out matter, that it became a funny sort of tagline for our class.
"PRRUUUUNNNNNESSSSSSSSS"
It was especially funny when someone called that out randomly.
There are also those legendary run-ins with the head teacher that you tell your grand-children about. When you're in the situation where you will go head to head with the principal, remember every detail...even the colour of the sky, so that when you're out of high school you can tell it something like, "The sky had darkened slightly and I looked up a little confused. Then I saw the beautiful blue sky and realized....it was a shadow that darkened the area. Oh yes....the head teacher..was behind me."
The staff was nice and I got along with most of my teachers. I'm not saying I had a smooth journey with them, because in the last years of high school, I slacked off on academic work.
There were those teachers who attracted the need for a nickname, some by how funny their names were or others how they were dressed.
Imitating our teachers was a fun past time. We had teachers who looked more like they belonged in the military rather than in a school. Some who seemed to love the colour black. Some who used the same phrases over and over again. Those who couldn't control the students and dreaded having to come to class.
Honestly though, I admire these guys. Being a high school teacher must be one of the hardest occupations out there. My respect, they will forever have.
Anyway, it's just been two years really, and it's funny to see how much people change. I think for everyone, we'd remember people for how they were in high school. It was a place where society impacted us the most in molding us, our friends, our teachers and our subjects. It's a time of our life that we would hold most memorable either for being torturous, fun or having rainbows and butterflies.
Fiji: A Novel by Lance Morcan
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