Do you look back at high school and think that it was the best time of your life that you would trade for? For most of you, the answer would probably be in affirmative but for me, it's quite the opposite. I had a miserable time in high school...well there were good days, I'd give you that, but whenever I go down the memory lane, I only remember the bad times and it's not because of fellow students- hell, they're easier to forgive but grown up teachers and house/senior mistresses. My senior mistress might have been a very charming woman to those who she favoured (I was initially her 'star') but if you find yourself on the wrong side of her book, she'd find excuses to make your life living hell. She'd wait till the iron gets hot, only to break it into half. I was given three punishments for one mistake; an illegal cellphone. Demotion ( I was a prefect- against her wishes, I am sure), I was not allowed to go for an IPSC Hindi debate which I probably would have won at my hometown and I was not allowed to represent my ever so prestigious public school in Pakistan. And all through this, my housemistress, who claimed to love me as her own child, was not satisfied with these three punishments for one mistake. After all, tears made her happy. Yes, my school is the best of all in the way alumni often treats each other; it's like a big family outside of the 169 acres of concentration camp where teachers suffocate you with their politics and victimize you. I think I feel blessed I am from that school only because of what you get when you finally step out of that green big school gate but other than that, it just teaches you how bad the outside world is going to be. And who is better to teach you that than teachers themselves? They make you ready for the outside world by not protecting you but actually quite the opposite. Those three punishments did not teach me to not defy rules but actually taught me this feeling of resentment towards my own teachers. One, who taught me Geography and the other, my used to be favorite subject- Political Science. Is it a good school if it teaches you hate? Is it a good school if it teaches you how to resent your teacher that you would never want to see or write to her again? But yes, it is a good school when it gives you strength to deal with all of it. Remembering that I went through so much when I was only 17 makes me hopeful and strong that I can deal with anything that life puts ahead of me. But will I ever thank these two teachers if I become successful in life? Maybe, for making me strong through their torture. Maybe for that.
