The End Of This Chapter

'Oh my god! Could this class go any slower? I swear if i have to hear the words 'skill aquisition' one more time... And if that little creep looks at me like that one more time... And what the hell is 2a x 5b? Oh i don't know! Who cares? I can't wait until i can leave this crap-hole of a school, life will be so much better... it can't come soon enough...'

That was two years ago, in year 10 and oh so over school. Fastforward to now and twelve days to go... it's pretty much over and it's scary. YOu don't think about it ending until it happens and then you shit yourself. You regret the time you wasted wishing that the class would end, that the day would end. You regret all the classes you skipped, all the days you had off, all the things you did or didn't do as you realise... This is it, what the last 13 years olf your life has been about, it has all come down to this... a few exams and a whole lot of tears.

Yes, it's exciting, the prospect of starting something new, a new chapter of your life, but it's also very scary and unpredictable... all your life has been about school, school is all you know and now... all of a sudden, just as you're becoming comfortable with your life, your surroundings, your place in the world, its all ripped out from underneath you... so suddenly... all those thoughts of being so overschool and ready to get out become a distant memory and the panic sets in 'I need to get a job! I have no qualifications! How will I survive without school? It's all i know! What will happen to me?'

You cherish every moment you have left and ever class, every joke. But in the back of your mind are the niggling little feelings of sadness, loss, fear, the thought that it will all too soon be over and that you shouldnt let yourself enjoy the rest of your time, that way it won't hurt as bad when it has to end, and you know it has to end... but you grab for every last little thing you can hold onto in your hands that have changed and grown with you throughout your years at school, from the little handprints imprinted on a card for your mother in pre-school, to the hand print left 13 years later on a wall in the school that was your last.

It isnt just your friends you will miss, but your classmates, the ones you know you'll never see again; all the crushes (past and present) even the 'bitches' who did nothing but make your high school experience a nighmare, you'll miss it all... just the atmosphere and safety of being at school. In all your years at school the bonds you have shared with your fellow classmates are somewhat surpassed by the socail cliques and the 'who hooked up with who' at that party on saturday night. Some of these people you have known since pre-school when you were still in nappies and sucking your thumb, and although these things fade, the people don't, they have always been there... even if you were never close... the point is that they have been in your life in someway or another for the past 13 years. And then there are the ones met along the way, not necessarily known for the longest time but nonetheless a part of your life.

You have grown up with these people, shared so many things along the way... this was your life, but now, it's all coming to an abrupt end, it's being taken away from you and you don't know what to do. But through it all you remember that one thing can never be taken away from you, what you have in common with your soon to be ex classmates is a bond, a bond that will never be broken... no matter where life takes each individual. The memories that have been made, they're the things that count, they last forever and hopefully this thought will get you through the las few days you have left, as well as wherever life takes you. Memories that are made in school, they are there until the end.