My old school buildings are getting a new destination, and today they held a open day to visit the school for the last time. It was really good to go back there and see our old playground, the classroom with the hidden hallway where we went to smoke between classes (and then sprayed half of our deodorant bottle to hide it), the window where I bought my chocolate waffle every single day (sometimes 2), the corner behind the mathematics classroom where I kissed for the first time, the smell, the exit through the monastery where we sneaked back in when we were too late. So many memories came back.
I lived very close to the school at the time, so I left at 8.22 at home to arrive just in time at school at 08.25 - I loved the walk down the hill - with a cigarette - feeling very sophisticated with my skirt and hiking shoes (that was my style back then)
It was also very cool to see all these teachers again, from kindergarten to the art history teacher - although I got a little -coup de vieux- all of a sudden (I bet they did too). It is a pity that my kid will not be able to go though her school career on the same chairs and in the same classrooms as her grandmother and I, but she will make her own memories in a brand new school.
I have to say that I look back on these period of my life with only good feelings. I made friends for life, I felt good about myself, I loved learning new things, I learned about life and myself, I took my first steps into the real world. It felt like a safe environment to grow up.
It was a happy time and I would not trade it for the world.
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