The last day…

That day, I remember waking up with a jolt. A funny jolt, asking me again and again what the approaching hours had in store for me. We had to appear for two tests that day at school, and honestly, I wasn’t prepared at all. The day we all feared was finally here, and we all hesitated, but stepped in nonetheless to see what was in store. I tucked my white Saturday school shirt inside my bag, not forgetting to include my memo and slam book, got dressed and headed towards school. Ah, I remember that last day of our school.

As soon as I entered the school campus, I noticed that the atmosphere was sombre. I could see the tenth graders filing in through the two gates with the same kind of expression that I was wearing. I knew we were all thinking the same thing. Climbing the staircase seemed much easier than it usually did, and I didn’t realise that I was standing on the threshold of the classroom where I had made some of the best school-life memories. A few seconds later I found myself walking into a crowd of classmates, busy writing on each others’ shirts, trying to gather as many memories as possible. A few of them headed towards me and I too joined them in the act. After attending a long morning assembly, with lots of wishes, optimistic words, blessings and nostalgic stories, we all sat down to deal with the very last portion of Chemistry. I remembered how we devoted the last few minutes of the class to an impromptu photosession. A short break followed. Well, we were all pretty serious about our Computer Science theory test in the very next period. But once we sat down to write the test, we realised we were not at all interested in what the question paper carried. We kept jotting down answers until we got fed up. It’s impossible to appear for a test when your mind is going through the memories of a decade. In the lunch break that followed, no one seemed to be fighting over each others’ tiffin, in a way we usually did. The air around seemed very different, and I tried to smile even though my heart was pounding faster than ever.

We then sat for the Yoga theory exam, and this time, even the teachers saw that we were only pretending to write. We submitted our papers much before the actual time. Well, what remained was only the last period of the day, the last 30 minutes, and we all knew what we had to do. We grabbed all our shirts and memos and roamed around each and every nook and corner of the school. Passing through those much loved corridors where we walked, talked, laughed and created much of the memories, we felt an ache in our hearts. We called out to our teachers from the classes they were taking and took their blessings and wishes. Whenever the juniors saw us, they gathered around and talked to us, even jotted down something on our shirts. We passed every classroom and felt nostalgic about those times when we used to sit there and study.

Well, things continued like this for the next few minutes and sharp at 1:25 p.m., the first bell rang; the warning bell. It was a sharp pain that stabbed my heart. We all stood up and I could see many of my friends shedding tears. The previous day one of my good friends had asked me, “Are you going to cry tomorrow?” I had replied to him, “Of course, after all, ten years!” But it was really strange how I stood up there; trying to console my sobbing friends and making them smile. Much like my very first day at school, my mom said that instead of crying, I was telling other kids not to cry. She said it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. And now here on the last day of my school life, I was doing the same thing. It was, indeed, funny; it brought a broad smile on my face. Our class teacher entered the classroom and as the final bell rang, we all started to sing the national anthem in unity, something that we would never be doing together again. And then the school became chaotic. Students streamed out of their classes and our class teacher led us out of the classroom to the corridor. We were hesitant to leave. But then, he locked the door behind him, turned toward us and with a weak smile said, “This door never closes for its students... visit again!” We will surely miss our dear school, lovely friends and wonderful teachers.