The end of an era

We’re done. High school days are officially over. There’s no turning back the clock. Trust me – I tried.

Even though I still fit perfectly into my third form tunic, I was still stuck in 2013 instead of being teleported back to 2009.
I’ve had the best seven years of my life at Queens College. It’s just been two days since my last day ever at Queens and already the past seven years are being bathed in that warm, nostalgic glow. I always assumed that I’d have to be at least 70 before I started to fondly reminisce about math classes.
So far, the thing that’s hitting me the hardest about this whole ‘being done with school’ thing is that ever so often I would see something interesting or hear a funny joke and I would think, “ I have GOT to tell _______ or ____________ about ________ when I see them next week.” And then I realise that there’s no next week, no more seeing those exact same people every weekday. At the end of the summer we’ll be off to university, some of us will be flung to various corners of the world, separated.
When I was in first form it seemed like I had forever at QC. Seven years seemed like ages. Time seemed infinite.
But we graduated the Friday before last, and it’s traditional for the graduating class to do a musical item as a group. So in the week or so before graduation, we had another chance to pull together as a group to select a song, to plan rehearsals, and basically to do the things we’ve always been doing at QC. With so many of our clubs, with our student-run activities, programmes and shows, we’re pretty familiar with the whole concept of organising ourselves to do a cultural item.
So with the leadership and organisational skills we’ve learnt from our years at Queens along with all of the textbook knowledge, I’m sure we’re ready to take on the next stage of our lives.
We formed special bonds – beyond the ‘old school tie’ – bonds that I am sure will last our lifetimes. And now we’ll soon be the adults that you see in the bank or at a bookstore. We’ll look at the tie of any QC student that we see and try to identify their House and attempt to strike up a conversation about what Queens used to be like in our days.
We’ll most likely still keep up with what’s going on at QC on some level, even if it’s just to celebrate Queens doing well at CSEC or CAPE. We have collected our certificates, we have signed our uniforms, and we have sung our school song for the final time. It is now time for the next chapter of the rest of our lives.
Fideles Ubique Utiles.