School bell is ringing

How many times have you woken from sleep, jumping out of your bed hearing the school bell ringing and you are late only to realise that it was just a dream.

A dream - when ever we go through hardship we often think why wouldn’t someone wake us up out of the nightmare. But our realistic perception tells us, that is our logic nudges us by reminding us that this is just our subconscious mind still carrying out the scenes and experiences that left such deep impression on us.

In our school days we would often envy others in the family who did not have the responsibility of attending school, study and write the exams and get stressed out marks.

Little did we know our teachers were shaping our minds and we were shaping our future.

The beginning of new academic year is just not about new books and new uniforms, it is also about meeting new teachers and making new friends.

In adulthood we see new faces so frequently but in school the new faces were equivalent to new books.

How often do we recollect the corridors that led to the school library or the path to the playground? The hours we spent playing and the amount of water we could gulp down our throat straight from the running tap. We did not shun the sun then. It was part of our childhood.

A sun flower had taught me the journey of the sun. This was way before even attending the school, when my grandfather had explained why the sunflower in the garden changed its directions. It was fascinating to outline the shadow of the trees that was cast by the sun. As a child falling asleep in the car, I was under the impression that the moon was running along with us. It stopped when we stopped and continued when we started again. Sometimes it hid behind clouds and just when I thought it has gone, it rushed out and we continued the chase all over again.

The journey we begin on the first day of school will continue year after year from school to college to work and the only difference is the missing teachers after years of education. The education continues but now we have to find our own mentors. There is no one assigned for us. We have to focus on self development on our own. The wisdom we now learn is from life’s lessons.

There is no one to grade us we think, oh but we do. The only difference is that the evaluation is not just by an educator but the whole society. Exams will continue, but there is no one to explain about the exam portions in advance and how to prepare it. Most of these are surprise exams. No one had taught us the theory for the practicals.

Maybe we should reflect more on case studies and reflect on possibilities and potentials and most importantly prepare and safeguard with plan B and Plan C.

Whatever said and done, the days of education are some of the most beautiful years of life. Let us not waste time by comparing ourselves to others, instead let us spend time on finding and knowing ourselves and understanding the career path we want to take in our life.

Of course there would be time in life when one would have to reinvent life, but now the young students have the comfort of parents, the elders and the teachers to groom and guide them. The journey need not be smooth, but if it were to be, we wouldn’t learn much.