Life brings tears, smiles and memories. The tears dry, smiles fade but the memories last forever. Truly, memories are priceless.

Hey everyone out there! I know it’s been really long since I have written. It’s because I was busy with my ninth grade – a nightmare for many. And it is over now. It had been a terrific year filled with lots of crazy moments, laughter, cries, shocks, surprises which have all turned into some beautiful memories now. As you might have guessed, today, I am going to talk about my ninth grade. So, where to start with….? Hmm… OK. The COVID pandemic hit us when I was in 6th. After that, we all had online classes which is something very familiar to all of us. Then for two years, I had the same batch. The offline classes started in 2022 when I was about to complete my 8th grade. So, my ninth grade from the beginning was offline. All of the students thought that we were gonna get shuffled. But fortunately, we didn’t. So, by now, you can guess how close we all are. We were together for three years.

So, the first worry of any student before his/her academic year starts, was over. We had the same class. Now, the next thing to worry about was the teachers…. I had Mrs. Fathima as my class teacher. I didn’t know her. It was my first time meeting her. She took Biology for us. She is one of the best teachers I have ever had. One thing I like and appreciate about her the most is her patience. A person dealing with a class like ours really needed a great amount of patience. Sometimes, I have wondered how she could manage it all. Especially, the lab periods. I remember the time when my class had gone to the bio lab and how we behaved there. There was no difference between a jungle and our class. But it is one of my best memories I have about my class because that period, we had to examine an onion peel and many of us couldn’t do it properly. But all of us did it with the help of Fathima Ma’am and we helped each other. I knew some of my teachers while the others were new. And the classes started. The portions were not that easy as it appeared to be. There was a lot to study and it required a great deal of patience and hard work. But I had my friends with me to have fun. Our main game was Truth or Dare. It is actually amazing. Trust me when I say this. Just try playing it once and you will love it. We used to give challenging dares to each other. Very soon, we had our first mid-term exams coming up which went kind of well. I didn’t score marks as I had expected. But, it was OK as I made it up for the next exams. Then, we had our three months long summer vacation. The last day before our school closed for the vacations was awesome. A boy in our class had celebrated his birthday and shared the cake with us.

The school reopened on August 28th. We were all excited to see everyone after a long time. We had to submit our assignments, notes and records. Some of them didn’t complete, we would distract the teachers by making up some excuses. Those were really fun moments. One thing which I miss a lot is when my partner, who is my bestie, and I used to have snacks during the lectures. It was funny and awkward as I couldn’t resist myself from answering the questions asked by the teachers with food in my mouth. But the best part is that no one ever complained as the whole class used to do it and we never took it seriously. We all shared whatever we brought and used to have a fun time. I still remember the time when Kadeeja, my bestie, and I used to have chocolates in French periods sitting in the first bench. And we were never caught.

And when it comes to helping our friends, we are always at the front. Kadeeja and I used to complete maps, colouring works and share the homework answers just before the teachers came in asking for the notebooks. And whenever someone does a mistake, it was our responsibility to cover it up and not share it to the teachers. The last but not the least, the nicknames we had…. I barely remember the times when I called my friends in their real names. We used to give each other funny nicknames which absolutely made no sense. We used to fight over petty things but at the end of the day, we are all FRIENDS. And this fact will never ever change. Now, it’s my vacation and I miss my school, my classroom, the canteen, my teachers and above all - my dear friends.

P.S: Dedicated to all my friends especially my friends of 9-D.