First Experience

Well yesterday was the first day back to school for most kids here in Toronto. As a result my bus ride is now about 5 minutes longer and I get to watch the high schoolers smoke herb in the bus shelter for another year sigh!

Anyway was talking to some fam the other night and her son went to his first day of school yesterday and I got to thinking about my first day of school way way way way back in the day.

Now if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you know Barbados I man a born an raise right. Must be proud of my heritage and dem sorta tings denn!!

Anyway I can barely remember anything about that first day of school except that I was the youngest kid there since most of the kids started at 5 but because my dad was a friend of the headmaster of the primary school and I apparently was a precocious little tyke (I've always wanted to use them there words) I got to start at 4 and a likkle bit. (It came back to bite me in the butt cause I had to repeat a year so that I could do the 11+ with my peer group. What's the 11+ ah that's another story for another time)

So there I went off to school, a tiny little thing, my little afro combed and greased properly, holding mommy's hand all outfitted in my new 'criss' pressed khaki shirt and pants. With the khaki socks held up by an elastic garter and the dark brown leather shoes polish off nice and shiny. Cause all the schools in the Caribbean when I was growing up had a school uniform and for most primary schools khaki was the boys outfit. So imagine how dapper young Jdid was looking that day, all bright and bushy tailed, ready for the school world lol.

My school was less than a 10 minute walk from home so we reached there rather quickly and I settled into a line in the school yard where assembly was held for the infants classes. I don't remember why assembly was outside because the school had a huge hall that was used as well. Assembly consisted of singing, a prayer, announcement and reciting the Barbados pledge of allegiance while standing at allegiance: I pledge allegiance to my country Barbados and to my flag, to uphold and defend their honor and by my living to do credit to my nation wherever I go.

Not sure we actually did all that stuff on the first day but that was the usual way things went. It was interesting standing there in line that first day though as I was pretty much surrounded by other boys and girls in the same situation as myself. Meanwhile anxious parents mostly mothers stood by on the side proud yet worried about their children as they made this leap to primary school.

So this first morning when assembly was over and the teachers started to lead us away there was a lot of crying as some kids ran back to their moms or resisted following the teacher. And me? Nope none of that for me apparently. I don't remember it but my mom says that apparently even back then the ice water ran through my veins and I didn't even so much as look back much less cry. I just followed the teacher and was off to class to find out what all this school stuff was all about. See even back then I was emotionless. Memo to wife lol.

So any of you remember the first day of your school career?

Next: First day at University.