Memories don't go away

Dear Reader,

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

1.

This morning, I was in the kitchen, trying to figure out the best way to wash these plates when my mind traveled back to my time in boarding house.

You see, after our exams, we had about two weeks of play. During these two weeks, our teachers utilized the period to mark scripts, record scores, and basically fix our results. While the teachers were working, we, the students, were kept busy with different kinds of games. The social prefect will make sure that games were distributed to each hostel. We had Scrabble, Ludo, Ayo, WHOT, Monopoly, etc.

Aside from these games, we played all sorts of others among ourselves: Tenten, Suwe, "I Call On," etc. There were actually so many games. I never played Tenten, it was too much for me.

Tenten is like the Nigerian rock-paper-scissors but with legs and more energy. My first friend, Zainab, enjoyed this game a lot. While she played, I cheered her on. During my first three years in school, I was pretty much a silent kid, so I rarely participated in those games.

But as I grew older, I fell in love with JACKPOT. This is a card game played in pairs, and it requires you to be very discreet. When playing, we would pass one card at a time, with each person taking turns to pass. When you had four cards of the same shape, you'll give your partner a secret sign. If you were lucky and no one caught you in the act, then that was a Jackpot. If not, you’d lose the round.

This game was usually played for hours, mostly in silence, but I loved it a lot. There was a senior (now sister) who also enjoyed playing it. Her name is also Zainab (haha). On the days she played, it was always fun. She had every decoy and tactic to communicate with her partner and usually won the game.

While we played those games, there were seniors who hunted for juniors who could dance the best. I had a friend who did breakdancing and another who could really, really dance. So, the seniors were always after them, chasing them here and there solely for their own entertainment (smh). For a socially awkward kid like me, that was a suicide mission.

If you walked into the school compound during those two weeks, the sight you’d behold would be that of students knitting as they walked in their pinafores. Students laying under the trees, telling stories.

PS: the school has lots of trees.

I have to mention that narrating films was so much in style those days. I had a classmate who narrated a whole season of My Eternal and Mara Clara.

We didn’t have access to TV except during these two weeks, and there was a timetable for that. Once it was time, we all marched to the TV room to watch Mount Zion films, always under the supervision of the housemistress.

This play period was a total irony compared to the previous weeks, where we were subjected to rigorous learning. We have afternoon prep, night prep, and still faced the seniors in the hostel.

Let me share this scenario (she’s probably going to read this, sorry in advance for sharing your story).

The seniors in her hostel were stricter than the others, and every night before lights out, they’d ask all the juniors to bring out their books and start asking them questions. The only way to save yourself was to answer correctly.

Unfortunately for my friend, she couldn’t answer the questions. The seniors took out her box and asked her to put it on her head and start walking to Lagos. (Note: My school was in Kwara State)

But during those two weeks of play, the seniors were more lenient.

And to me, it resonates with a verse in the Qur’an that says, “... surely, with hardship comes ease.”

2.

Memories are a big part of what defines us as humans. It’s been almost a decade since I left secondary school, but the memories of my formative years are etched somewhere I’ll never forget.

That’s how it goes, time will not take it away, be it painful memories or joyful ones.

3.

Allow yourself to feel those memories again, the ones you’ve kept hidden somewhere inside you. I’ve come to realize that if you keep them locked away, you’ll never find closure where it’s needed.

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I'll like to hear from you. What's your fondest memories from school (any level/grade).