Ravaging Currents

Day before the end.

Strangely enough, there seems to be little of what I expected to be a mass "graduation fever" that would spread. Few, or none at all, were sentimental today. Smiles were still shown in almost each one. Life for the graduating batch seemed to be normal; not standstill as I thought it would be; just plain and ordinary as if nothing were about to happen the next day. There was still the joyous, raucous laughter heard in every room, the frenzied running of those playing, and the ever-famous lack of discipline among most.

The sun may have shone brightly and unexpectedly today, there is still that clandestine loneliness buoying over the silence of the heart. There may have been no solitary moment in the throngs of students a while back, but, at the peace of one's own home, one cannot help but let the powerful currents of memory rush forward, drowning the self under a blurry stream of experiences, both fun and not.

It is still quite vivid to me the day I first worriedly entered my first year room. After two long months of tranquil rest from vacation, it was a bit nerve-wrecking when one suddenly immerses himself in an environment full of unfamiliar faces, especially if that person is not of the sociable type. Certainly, it was difficult for me to adapt to the great difference in my lifestyle from grade school to high school; we were all compelled to spend our recesses and lunch times outside of our classroom, whereas as little grade schoolers, we found idyll in the warmth of our own rooms. I actually had one recess that I spent alone, looking at all the faces unknown to me, embarrassed at myself that I had no one beside me, scared that I was going to be taunted (though, thankfully, I wasn't).

First year breezed by with a heavy dilemma settled over my mind: lack of company. Thoughts of spending the entire second year in high school in solitude frightened me, but, gratefully and fortunately, I didn't. Thanks to my former freshmen classmates, I found comfort that I wasn't alone. However, problems continued to present themselves still. Since I was going with my former classmates in other sections, they had another group of peers, and well, topics of conversation were sparse between us because of the lack of similarities in the classroom environ. I reminisce the one afternoon I vowed to myself that I would change; I will have friends by third year.

DJ. Those two letters mean a lot. In that section, I found something that I lacked for a long time. It was really new to me. I didn't expect to see myself laughing with one, united class, nor did I even hope to find myself talking and befriending more than my share of friends. We were one in giving our best in contests, winning, and celebrating. It was...great.

Now, as this chapter closes, I say "thank you" to all those people who have enriched my life in ways more than one, to those who trusted and inspired me to continue even under trials, to those who have found greatness in someone as simple as me, and...to those who have made me feel cared for for four years. Thank you.

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