Kites, growing up and reminiscing

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”. – Oscar Wilde

Usually, like any schoolchild, I love the holidays. Two weeks to stay home just lazing around? Can we get another two week’s extension on that? But this holiday, there was still school on at QC for the entire upper school. And so, I had new-found enthusiasm for the (already passed) four-day weekend. I guess I never realised what a big deal this four-day weekend could be since, I’m usually at home anyway. Usually, I wish the four-day weekend could be moved to some part of the year more convenient- like in the middle of the school term (what? We all need a break). But, seeing as school wasn’t really closed, I was singing praises at the top of my lungs for the four days off. Also, I feel suitably remorseful about scoffing at workers who don’t get the entire two week Easter holiday that schoolchildren get. Needless to say, I’m full of sympathy (and self-pity!) now that we’re in the same boat.
And while I know that I’m not some ancient fossil (yet), I can’t help but sigh (a little jealously, if the truth be told) at the primary school kids still running around carefree, their biggest worry being whether their kites will stay up flying high or get drowned in the salt water of the ocean.
It’s the beginning of the end of my high-school life and I can’t help but feel that the last few seconds I have at school are slipping away, running ahead too fast for me to ever catch up. Pushing me towards the inevitable – that I’ll have to leave school and grow up. That I’ll have to be an adult and talk about the weather and have to know how the washing machine works!
Maybe my CAPE physics will be of some use!  It’s probably in that spirit that my friends and I took to the field to fly kites on the last day of school. Might as well be children while we still can, right?
There’s something to be said for just laying in the grass staring up at the clouds lazily drifting across the blue sky. Almost everyone has memories of flying kites, and most of those memories are childhood memories. Childhood memories, already bathed in that golden nostalgic glow. So it’s no wonder we enjoyed flying kites so much. It’s nice to hold onto something so familiar when we’re about to be pushed into a world with so many unknowns.
On Monday, seawalls, community centres, parks and basically all other open spaces were filled with families and friends celebrating Easter. For many, Easter has become a secular holiday, with persons of all religions using the day for a fun day of relaxation with their relatives and friends. For Guyanese, this means kite flying.
I guess even though loads of people use the “bird kites” now, the skill of kite-making won’t be lost, since grandparents and parents keep passing down the secrets and tricks to eager children. And let’s face it; we only really use the bird-kites because we might be pressed for time, because given a choice between a bird-kite and a fully-assembled traditional, kite most of us would choose the traditional kite.
I remember when I was younger and I would just lie on the ground, the wooden catch for string clutched firmly in my hand, and watch my wooden multi-coloured kite (made by my father) flutter as if it were reaching for the clouds.  Kites not only make you look upwards: they also make your imagination soar.