Page 225 - Demo

CELEBRATING GOD%u2019S GOODNESS 225Third grade saw assemblies in the Centenary Pavilion, which has since been divided into three or four classrooms and taken over by toddlers. I remember the old basketball court, a sacred boyless haven for us ancient, pre-pandemic junior schoolers. It was our cherished kingdom, a spot we girls called our own, with not one khaki uniform in sight to interrupt our laughter and dreams.Fourth grade came around, next, marking the abrupt end of our carefree days and the beginning of our mountaineering careers. Each fourth grader went through and still goes through the rite of passage%u2013scaling the steep, tall Mount Library every day in order to reach our classrooms. Everest, you have nothing on our library stairs. Who needs gym memberships when you have school infrastructure doing the job for free?We escaped the Mount Library torture in fifth grade, courtesy of a tiny package delivering a massive disruption %u2014 unfortunately, it didn%u2019t come with a gift receipt.I would thank the one who saved us (and our legs and backs) from all the pain, but if you knew who it was, you would agree on my decision not to thank it. Yes, it was the coronavirus, the very thing that sent lives globally into a complete 180%u00b0 tailspin. And yet, it%u2019s so tiny you can%u2019t see it. That%u2019s a lot of power in one tiny package%u2026 unfortunately for mankind, it%u2019s a virus that%u2019s excellent at hide-and-seek.The pandemic gave our school life a plot twist we never saw coming. It%u2019s like someone switched genres on us%u2014from a coming-of-age story to a dystopian drama, minus the zombies. Little did we know then, the pandemic%u2019s arrival would mean a whole two years of sitting at home in pyjamas with the enthusiasm of a sloth in a marathon, trying to navigate online classes and missing the school we once dreaded. The library mountain, though treacherous, now seemed like a nostalgic relic of simpler times.So, that way, fifth and sixth grade made all of us a little more techie, trading textbooks for tablets%u2026 and becoming a bit more cautious. Face masks turned us all into masked superheroes, minus the capes but definitely armed with an arsenal of hand sanitiser. Zoom calls became the new classroom, where %u2018Mute yourself.%u2019 was the anthem and %u2018You%u2019re on mute.%u2019 the chorus. Truly a symphony of modern education. But even through all the struggles of completely switching to online classes, Clarence has prevailed.Clarence 1, Corona 0. But first, a quick shoutout: Thank you, coronavirus, for giving us two years of pyjamawearing, screen-staring, brain-melting bliss. If only Netflix had given us a diploma for bingewatching skills.Seventh grade was a fresh start. It was time to get back in uniform and get serious. It felt like we had passed through a teleporter in the middle of junior school, travelled two years forward in time and found ourselves walking through the very same corridors again%u2026 except now, in the middle of middle school%u2026 so was it the middle of school itself?