First day of school

Because of the new set of Japanese drama series I have. I have had so many thoughts and memories running in my head lately. Like my first day of school. There was this episode (1 Liter of tears... Yes I know... I mentioned in my previous post... A Liter of Tears... Well it's almost the same) in A Liter of Tears, where Aya (the main character) is getting ready for her first day of junior high, they had a family picture taken on their first day of school. I remembered my very first day of school.

I wonder how many out there can still remember their first day in school? I can still remember, I woke up at 5:00 AM, with my uniform of black pants, sando, black socks, shiny black shoes, and a crisp white polo are already prepared in a corner of our rented flat in the isolated municipality of San Mateo, Rizal. My mom was already up and was energetically preparing my breakfast of scrambled eggs and hotdog as well as my lunch for school. I took a bath and hastily got dressed for school.

It was 6:00 AM, me in my uniform and with me are a load of school stuff that I looked like I was going to war! I had my backpack with me, full of books, notebooks, a big pencil case with built-in sharpener and compartments of different sizes, I had a Casio magic diary, that I eventually brag about all the time to my classmates. I had a clear folder full of notepads from 1 whole to 1/4 sheet sizes, I had a calculator, a mechanical pencil, Stabilo markers of green, yellow, blue, and purple, and 3 ballpens. I was in full gear for school! My mom happily took a picture of me before I headed out the front door on my first day of school. I was a freshman in highschool.

Luckily, my dad agreed and can afford to send me to a private school. That was after 8 years of being hidden from him. I went to what was the school to be in our municipality. I looked for my classroom and looked up my name in the list. "Oh so this is my section1" I thought as I saw my name in the section of I-A*%##e. It was my very first time to enter an actual clasroom, it was my very first time to actually sit in a classroom and on a classroom chair, it was my very first time to be with real students and classmates. I was awestruck!

Some embarrassing first day moments were... I did know the paper sizes, although I have a 1 whole sheet of paper ready, 1/2 crosswise, 1/2 lengthwise, and a 1/4 pad... I really did not know what were those. Specially when our teacher asked for us to prepare a 1/8 sheet of paper to write our names on. I asked my seatmate on the right what the teacher was asking for, and he thought I was joking, he shouted "Ma'am! Hindi po niya alam kung anu ang 1/8 sheet of paper!". Everyone laughed, I smiled and said "hindi ko po talaga alam". Everyone became quiet. The teacher asked, "Saan ka ba nanggaling iho? Saan ka galing school at hindi mo alam 'yan?"... I frown in embarrassment and said "first time ko po kasi sa school, sa bahay lang ako nag-aral". My seatmate handed me a 1/8 sheet of paper and I wrote my name on it, everyone was still quiet. When that subject was over, everyone gathered around me and started asking questions like, why was it my first time in school? Why didn't I attended gradeschool? That I will not be allowed to do other Catholic stuff because I never had my first communion. Who taught me at home?

I was like a circus attraction, and I was ready for such attention. Where have you heard a 13 year old kid in highschool who skipped kinder and gradeschool? I just happened to pass grades 1 to 6 and up to 2nd year high of the DECS PEPT exam; that's why I went straight to secondary school. The principal and my mom both agreed that I start at the freshman level so I will not have a hard time adjusting to formal schooling. I'm not proud of it, and I am not ashamed of it either. It's just a fact of my life.

Well, that was my first day of school.