Twelve years ago I was shaking like a leaf under a duvet that weighed the equivalent of a ton of bricks. Sleep refused to grace me. I was six years old, had recently moved into a house that was yet to feel like a home, I knew not a soul my age and hadn’t the faintest idea of what life had in store for me. Tomorrow I would awake to my most taunting nightmare. My first day of grade one.
Twelve years later I lay with my six year old sister who whimpers at my side and if her eyes weren’t saucers of worry I may actually chuckle at her frivolous fears. Yet I too was that little girl. Tomorrow her “nightmare” will blossom into the most magnificent adventure of her developing existence. The school she so gravely dreads will become the solace and serenity that secures her from the cruelty of every day life. I know this because tonight, on the eve of my last first day of school, I mature enough to appreciate the bounty of my education. The word ‘matric’ tastes alien on my tongue and yet it is a title that I will have to fulfill. A shoe I will settle into,despite the blisters it may give me. Tonight, twelve years later I have had a major metamorphose. The same anguish that tormented my six year old self has been transformed into an avid anticipation. This feeling is best described as such: as you’re reading a book, initially you aren’t sure if it’s your cup of tea. As you progress further, you realize perhaps you love or detest this book, no matter you’re already gripped. So far wound into the tale that you can’t shut it even if you wanted to. You realize that some moments were so phenomenal that you want to reread them. Some are a novelty that you won’t grow tired of. Others are peculiar and you’d rather skip those parts. Then you realize that you have to move forward, turn the pages even if it means bidding farewell to your favourite characters or most momentous occasions. You have to continue to the end in order to stumble upon new encounters, new personalities, unravel the intricate plot twists. It’s the only way you’ll grow… Tonight I begin the final chapter: My senior year.
_Quixotic Novelist
Quixotic Novelist 