On the very first day of school, some of us were crying, some were sleeping, some were

disinterested and some were curious about this new place we were stepping into. Holding our
parents hands we walked in through the large gates of the school, we climbed down those
humongous stairs, and we stopped in front of these large, menacing doors. The place we now
know as nursery hall, is called nursery hall for a reason, it was where we started our school
life in.
We entered through the doors, and we saw so many new faces, so many parents trying to
help their children to this new place. Here we were starting our school life, clad in our blue
uniforms, seeing this new world, a new world where we would spend the next 14 years of our
lives in. Fast forward to about 13 and a half years later and here we are. The last day of
school. Soon to bid farewell to our alma mater.
Soon, from nursery and prep we shifted to the junior building. We started wearing our white
uniforms along with our rubber band ties. We had our assemblies right in between the middle
and the junior school buildings. And slowly we grew, our journey of education continued. And
we transitioned into the middle school.
With the beginning of the middle school came this big change - for the previous three years,
the students of the junior school had their assemblies in isolation. That is, the junior school
had their separate assembly with their separate prayer. Now in class 4 we were a part of the
big school because we were a part of the main assembly.
Being a part of the main assembly had a feeling of its own, but boy did that feeling come with
a huge learning curve. The prayer had changed! And Im sure that the difficulty Im going to
talk about now is one we all had to face. So every morning the prayer began, Oh lord help us
to be gentle and we went on smoothly along with what sir was saying on stage. But as
soon as sir finished with the line As we are to ask forgiveness all of a sudden the assembly
would go into utter chaos. Prosper with thy blessing, we beseech thee oh lord, the work of
this our school and grant that those that serve thee here may set thy holy will ever before
them. And do that which is well pleasing in thy sight and persevere in thy service until the
end. And in that ridiculous fast pace the whole school would finish praying before even sir
finished. We the class 4 students would just stand there wondering what just happened. And it
would take months, for some, the whole year to learn the Morning Prayer.
We kept growing, we went through class 5 and 6 and we finally reached the big leagues, the
senior school, the main building! Through all these years, we made countless friends, lost
many of them too because our classes were shuffled randomly till class 8. When we reached
class 9 there was no more scope for randomness - same interests, same class, and same
subjects. And from class 9 we started preparing for our first big examination, the icse
examination!
We went through our unending syllabus of class 10 and we gave the examination. We lost
more friends as they migrated to different schools, the numbers became lesser and so did the
sections. We were told that once we give our icse examinations wed be able to relax. And we
relaxed till the time we brought our books for class 11. Everyone had the notion that going
from 8 subjects to 5 would make it easier for us. We couldnt have been more wrong.
Physics and chemistry books weighing at least a kilo each . Each with more than a thousand
pages to study. The sight of those books was enough to traumatise the child who had just
faced the gruelling icse exam. The promise of relaxing was now a joke, one subject now had
more to study than all the subjects combined in the previous years.

What seemed like an impossible task, we trained our minds to adapt, to grow and soon, we
became used to the pressure and the load. We gave our seniors their farewell and then it
dawned us, we were the seniors and next year itd be our turn!
Class 12 began, in everybodys head were 3 things
1) isc examination
2) competitive examinations
3) days left for our school lives to get over
Through an even more gruelling syllabus, we trudged and by December we completed it in
class. We made our final outside board and realised that this was the last month that wed be
sitting in these classrooms. Not just for this year but forever. We exchanged our sheets, we
shared our personal thoughts with all the friends we made during our school lives and finally
we are here. On farewell.
After today, well come to school for our pre boards, a ptm , our board examination , our
results and then its over. That would be the end of our school lives. One door of our life would
be shut forever. One thing that everyone at FAPS, through experience has learned is that
sweet are the uses of adversity. After weve our results in our hands the doors of our
classrooms would be shut forever but with that one shut door will come countless new doors,
to take us to our next journey. A journey which will not be without challenges, but challenges,
weve learned to face. The thing weve learned from FAPS is that we dont succumb to fear,
we face it and we conquer it. So I ask you my fellow FAPSians , are you ready ? Are you ready
for the life that awaits you after you leave school today? The challenges that will come your
way , are you ready ?
Yes! Because that is what being a FAPSian is all about. What weve learned from FAPS apart
from our academics, is how to be good people. All the teachers whove taught us from nursery
to class 12, they all have shaped us into becoming what we are today. It is here that we have
learned that courage is destiny.