Yesterday Once More

Even though I like to stay forever young at 17 years old, I reminisce a lot about the past like an older person.

When I was at school I played truant by skipping lessons occasionally, but when I left I missed my carefree student life and the memories kept coming back like a flood that never dried up. School seemed like a paradise to me once I had left its iron gates behind forever.

Warm and silent as the classroom had always been, we were sleepy but still managed to pretend that we were focused on what the instructor said and echoed like half-awake birds. We blinked automatically to cover up our inactive expressions while he wrote on the blackboard. We played poker under the desk with our spines being upright as if nothing happened. We kept on putting up a fake appearance in front of our instructor and were never bored with that.

Students outside of China would be shocked to learn how many exams we had to write in order to pass the college entrance exams (you will be shocked by the pictures) in arts and science. It was not unheard of to have classes from seven o’clock in the morning until nine at night. We were always overloaded with assignments which forced us to stay up till midnight and the following day it was the same.

However with the passing of time, the bitterness we had to swallow became sweet memories because no matter how hard life was, we had friends along with us.

Everything seems just as if it happened yesterday and I can remember every detail clearly. I miss the glare from the reflection of the blackboard, the fragrance of the Gardenia tree and even the naughty fat cat who used to pounce unexpectedly on my lunch.

I miss that time of my teenage years as I can never go back.