by Rinisha Ganga
When you find yourself sitting under the gazebo and hear the bell ring at 7.30. You realise that you have the first period free, so you give some of your friends from different classes a fist bump and even say hello as some teachers pass.
This usually happens a lot on Thursdays and Fridays because I have the first period free. Sometimes I take out my notebook to do some homework or make some notes. It is way too early for music so I decide to reflect on what’s happening around me.
Then, after a while, I could hear footsteps shuffling on the floor and scooters slowly making noise on the floor. That’s when I met them: the little children from the primary school.
Those adorable children, carefree, walking with their shiny little backpacks on their backs. Girls holding their father’s hand and some of the boys stomping down the lane. Then there are the younger ones who come to drop off their older siblings at school.
Among them, I noticed this little girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and a bright smile. She usually wears this white polo shirt with blue shorts and her hair is always in a ponytail. One time she walked past me and I could just hear her deep in conversation in Spanish with her mother as she escorted her big brother to school. Her fluency in a language I’d been learning for three years left me in awe.
As the days passed, I found myself looking forward to these encounters. I began recognizing the regular faces and even knew who was absent. My brain goes, “Wait, I haven’t seen the boy with brown hair and the funny backpack and the girl with the Pikachu sweater?” It was as if this morning ritual had become a part of my own life story.
Last time I even saw Miss Natalia with her daughter, who joined school this year in her Elsa T-shirt. These moments filled with their innocence and warmth speak about the simplicity and beauty of living in the present.
In the middle of our busy lives, it’s easy to overlook the quiet beauty that surrounds us each day. The gazebo, the morning bell, and the children remind me to embrace these moments, for it’s in the everyday that we find the extraordinary.
“What’s your Gazebo story?”