I may not remember the day I said my first word neither the word itself, I may not also remember the first step I took but I certainly remember my first day in school. Every moment I walk down memory lane, this has remained to be the most vivid memory inscribed in my mind. That first day when I walked through that gate and it seemed like the whole world was revolving around me, I was excited to go to school, I was going to spend the day away from the house which was usually boring when everyone else goes to school because that is what was the talk of the house every evening at home and I felt left out though I really didn’t understand. Thanks to my nagging and loud cries in the morning when the rest of the family is preparing to leave, I was taken to school. Little did I know that I was actually jumping from the pan to the fire, which is what I later learnt after my first day in school. This is how my first day was like, and please don’t laugh because I think of it now and it actually was funny! At that time it was no laughing matter but a  matter of life and  death, anyway, what are memories made of if not such situations in life.

11^th January 1994,

07:00 hours, I am already up and crying, this time round not because I was being left behind, but I was being ignored. Everyone was dressing up and it seemed they were forgetting that I also need to dress up, and of course my dress was new. The previous night, as far as I can remember, I had gone to bed in full uniform from head to shoe only to wake up without it but at least it was lying beside me.

I finally get the attention I was looking for and within minutes I am ready to rush out of the house only to be stopped half-way, apparently because I was suppose to have my breakfast, but that was contrary to what I knew or rather, have seen. People in this house seldom take breakfast especially on school days and when I asked my mother, she simply said she was running late and I wondered because it was so early in the morning. Now it was my turn to skip at least one meal, I was running late for school!. To be honest, I had issues with food and so this looked like my breakthrough and I was not going to let it slip out of my hand just like that, actually this was one of the reasons why I looked forward to school. Of course, I did not get away with it, my first day in school had begun at home but I was still optimistic of the rest of the day.

08:00 hours, a tall man walks in to what I later learn was our classroom and literary orders us to go for assembly or was it called parade, at that time we had no clue what that was nor what he meant. We silently followed  him as sheep going to be slaughtered as his voice had sounded more like life taking than giving, this was to be true for me as the morning unfolded.

We end up finding ourselves in a large crowd of people others much older than me but I was offended because they had all bought the same dress as mine, they were dressed like me and I wondered why their mothers could not buy them a different dress from mine and even worse, their shoes almost looked like mine, actually there were others with the same shoes as mine. “Copycats!”, I thought to myself, but I really did not care, mine was new and I would tell my mother to get me a different dress so I don’t look like the rest of the girls in school, yes that was me at the age of six (6), I had girl pride. Do not look at me like that, I was just being what every little girl wants to be, the center of attraction, to feel that her and only her mattered in the entire universe. Is this even realistic or does it just happen in the land of dreams and fantasies, a land where castles are built, only that they are built without any foundation or pillars so they technically hang in the air.

What I forgot to mention is that my mother was a teacher at this school and this boosted my ego even more, I was the ‘madams’ daughter. By the time I was getting myself back from day dreaming in to reality, the assembly was already half way and it dawned on me that my mother was not in the teachers line up. It was at that point that I realized that no one around me was familiar, all of them were strangers. Everybody was quiet apart from one lady talking at the front, i became tense, I could not hear what she was saying, the world was literary spinning and I could hear loud voices screaming at me, I simply was not concentrating. I thought of my usual simple way out, cry. It was the one thing that had never let me down, it could get me out of any situation and out of the assembly I went. I was led to the staffroom and asked what the matter was, and even if I was to give you a thousand days to guess what my answer was, you wouldn’t because it was beyond ridiculous. I said I was thirsty and I only take water from home because my father had warned me of taking water elsewhere apart from home. They tried to sweet talk me into drinking their water but on the contrary it was my catalyst in crying, definitely I was not thirsty, I wanted to go home. That is how I earned myself a ticket back home on the second hour of my first day in school, and that was my first day or is it hour in school. To this day I am proud that I at least took that first step which has taken me a thousand miles into life’s journey. A woman who is now proud of herself and her achievements so far.