Living in a boarding school for eight years\ncan change anyone\u2019s perspective of \u2018normal.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Normal kids plan on what movies to watch\nover the weekend, while we plan out our next laundry day. Most kids looked at\nme with pity the second I mentioned \u2018boarding school.\u2019 Some even asked me what\nI did to make my parents send me away. They\u2019re expecting metal bunker beds,\nnon-stop fighting and a whole lot of crying after watching \u2018Taare Zameen Par.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How am I supposed to explain that the\nplace, in all it\u2019s cliched-ness, became a home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could list the place\u2019s shortcomings for\ndays on end. The bath water alternates between lava-hot and bone chilling cold,\neveryone is loud or everyone is quiet and pissed because you\u2019re<\/em> loud. It\nmay not be easy to make friends because everyone is so different, leading to\nclashes between groups. You can\u2019t always do things your way, because someone or\nthe other will call you out if you’re wrong. Even if you are right, people will\nstill be against you. You are also faced with the fact that if you want to be\nset apart from the rest, you\u2019ve got to fight tooth and nail. It\u2019s a savage\nplace in that way, because it\u2019s students pitted against other students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds frustrating? Well, it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But a fact that I keep repeating to myself\nis that these are obstacles you can face head-on. You can still find people who\nyou fit in with, you can still excel in different fields if you have\ndedication, and that you can always learn from your mistakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can\u2019t do much about the water, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to remember all the good things, but at the end, you see them\u2014the victory hug after a stressful match, a walk on the football field right before a teacher catches you, the smuggled chocolate that you end up sharing, the chorus of good-nights as the lights go off. The frantic study sessions, the secrets between unlikely people and the feeling of crying into a friend\u2019s chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drawback of a boarding school is that\nit\u2019s fixed in nature. You’re there and you can\u2019t do anything about it. At the\nsame time, though, you become a stronger person. You learn to deal with them,\nto focus on the good, because there is a lot of it. It is human to focus on the\nbad. Boarding school makes you notice that, and helps you move away from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The benefit of a boarding school is that\nit’s fixed in nature. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living in a boarding school for eight years can change anyone\u2019s perspective of \u2018normal.\u2019 Normal kids plan on what movies to watch over the weekend, while we plan out our next laundry day. Most kids looked at me with pity … <\/p>\n