My Journey To An Indian HighSchool

{The Last Day}

This is it! The end of my time at Indian High School. The feeling of contentment is gone.

Despite having completed my last exam one hour earlier, I do not feel the joy I should feel.

I never expected to feel so uncertainly downhearted at this moment.

Here I am sitting on a not-so-comfortable wooden desk. My head was flat on the desk, and I blocked out any light that might disturb my eternal peace.

Having just completed my last exam, today is my last day in India as a student, as I will not be enrolling for the next academic session. The past three months have been so frenetic for me.

After the winter carnival, I expected a relaxing and long-lasting winter vacation, but instead, I got a holiday on Christmas day and a week off starting on New Year's Eve, and then boom. Following our pre-board exams, I had our boards exams, also known as final exams.

Even though I had the exam date lined up in front of me, I did celebrate Christmas and the new year the best way I could have at that moment.

Christmas morning was spent with Ahujha's family. We bought Titan watches for everyone in Ahujha's family. The evening ended with our first night out in Delhi. We visited a mall. We shopped, watched a movie, went ice skating, and won prizes from the gaming zone. It was a fun night.

We went to Connaught Place, one of the posh areas of Delhi, for New Year's Eve with the Ahuja family. First, we visited the famous Hanuman temple, then the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, and then the Sacred Heart Cathedral. I also saw a mosque on my way to the temple. These all places were located in a square.

I had too many firsts in my life at that time. To be all irritated at having to remove my shoes and walk barefoot to the temple, to help in the gurdwara as one should always do when visiting a gurdwara.

Dad and Arnav give prasad to the people whereas I helped uncle Karthik give water to the people. Mom and Aunty helped put people's shoes on the shelves.

It was funny to watch Arnav's reaction in the cathedral since it was his first time going there. The wait at the famous restaurant was too long for us, so we ditched the place and had a picnic at the India gate instead. As we roamed around, we ordered pizzas from Domino's.

We had a lot of fun ditching the rich restaurant for the picnic. We took many pictures and did the countdown at the India Gate itself.

Not the ideal way to spend new year's eve, but I guess it seems perfect at that moment.

The new year was spent snuggling up in my warm blankets at home with a good book in my hand. Delhi is so cold that you have to wear at least four layers of clothing by the new year.

Afterward, I didn't do anything but study. I was so stressed out that it affected my mental health, but now that it is over once and for all, I am relieved, but there are other feelings that will have to be dealt with.

Although I am sitting in a whole different school, in an unknown classroom, I just want a light blanket to cover me so that I can feel the warmth in this dreary room.

Even with the classroom full of students writing their final exam for the year in complete secrecy, the silence felt eerie, or was it just my heart, who felt strange? There was something cold about the air. The tranquility felt so unwelcoming.

My journey from the moment I entered the class to now, sitting here, made me realize how far I had come.

As much as I wished to get kicked out of this school and take the easy way out, I didn't realize when and how, but this place ended up growing on me. Getting too familiar with people makes me explore new aspects of myself. I became an easy-going, candid person, not a hard-core individual.