Varghese 1

Ansu Mary Varghese

Eng !21
12/04/2018
Essay 5, Draft 1

THE DAY I STARTED MY

JOURNEY

It was a rainy day. The huge raindrops were pounding against my windows. My mother

woke me up earlier than my usual time. I felt so comfortable and warm wrapped up in my

blanket. It was a chaotic way to begin the day as everyone was getting ready. It was the time for

something new. Years and time pass but I still remember the day I started my education. That

day led me to my biggest never ending life long journey towards learning and education.

I lived in Kerala, India in a middle class family. My father was running a small business

and my mother was a teacher, which she is still doing today. I have two siblings, a brother and a

sister. That was the time my sister went to school for the first time in preschool and mine in the

elementary school for the first grade. I was so nervous because none of my friends were in this

school and my sister (Angelina), she was so excited at the time, but she was a little nervous too.

My sister and I were going to start at a new school because your father wanted to put us in a

school together.

On the first day of my school, my father took us to a school on a private bus which was

an unknown place for us. The well-known government school in our locality was within four

miles. In our neighborhood, most of the people don’t have their own vehicle so they used buses

to go everywhere. It was horrible because the bus was completely packed. There was no room

for one extra person to fit in that bus. Luckily, we got a seat although my sister and I were

squeezed in the bus. Finally, after 30 minutes, we reached the school.

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When we entered the school we felt nervous. It was a big building with a large compound

wall, lush green lawns, and flowers beds. As a small child, I could not feel stable at the sight of

the building. The atmosphere of the school was calm and quiet. I was not familiar with such

atmosphere earlier because my mother was running a kindergarten school and I studied there.

My father had been a student there in my school during his childhood. The Dean was well known

to my father and greeted him with a smile and my father introduced us to the Dean and requested

her to admit us to the school. The dean allowed us to attend the class. I became so nervous and I

held father hand very tightly. The Dean looks towards me with a great smile and said, “Don’t be

nervous. We are kind, helpful and caring, and you can ask any help as you would your mother.”

That kind approach made me feel calm.

My father decided I should go to class first and he took us into the elementary school

building. On the way he said to me, “I am not able to come pick you up. You and your sister

have to come home by yourselves and please take care of your sister,” I said, “Ok” and he gave

me one Indian rupee for the bus fare. He left me in front my class and went away.

Once I entered into the class, everybody was looking towards me because I was the new student

in the class. The teacher asked my name and my whereabouts. She patted me on my back. I

answered some questions very promptly that she asked in the class and also she advised me to

purchase some books. She turned to the whole class, and she gave some activities for us to do.

During that class, my teacher told us a very important thing. “We are going to a new journey in a

giant ship. The ship’s name is called education. Nobody knows when the giant ship is going to

stop, but also one day it will stop.” She had said so many things, we didn’t understand it clearly

what was mentioned in the class. When I heard my teacher we all were thrilled and excited.
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Suddenly, the recess bell rang for break, and we all rushed out of the classroom. A few of

the students surrounded me, and we talked about the giant ship that the teacher told us in the

class. We all raised so many questions. Nobody understood what the teacher told us in the class.

Everybody thought we were going to a field trip.

After 15 minutes a new teacher came into our class. She introduced herself and explained that

she was the Math teacher. I didn’t understand and was confused. The class teacher

told us, we are going on a journey and another teacher is teaching Math. One of my classmates

told the teacher about the journey and she replied, “I am also a part of that journey. We all are

going together to start the journey and the whole school is coming.” We all got more excited and

curious.

At noon, the last bell rang; the class was over. I packed my bag quickly and ran to my

sister’s class to pick her up. When we got home, I was quite glad to explain about that journey to

my mother. After she heard the story which was told by my class teacher, she replied “we cannot

come with your entire journey. There is a limit. We can come only at the beginning and after that

you need to find your destination.” At that moment I didn't understand. It took me a long time to

understand about the journey that my class teacher meant in the class. The day I realized the

journey was mentioned by teacher, I felt really proud. After that I started to fight to reach the

destination.

I started my journey towards the different books right from there. Throughout my journey

I faced different challenges and also had an opportunity to meet many people and make so many

friends. The journey I started 20 years ago isn’t finished yet. I am still on the giant ship, fighting

to reach the destination. For example, my goal is to achieve CCNA 9 (Cisco networking), so I

am still fighting to accomplish my goal. Ultimately, Learning is very important in each person’s
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life. Each and every moment of our life is learning something new. The quote I like to remember

by Nicole L. Urquhart is “The experience of each moment is new, somehow different from those

from the past.” Every experience teaches you something new. The learning journey is never

going to end until the last breath in human life.