POKENOSING

I might have shared this story a thousand times already, but I guess that experience is something I still relive to date. It’s been almost 15 years since I had that experience, and sometimes I wonder why the picture of the whole incident is still clearly engraved in my memory. I think it’s fair to say something happened to me that day and even after the experience I knew my life would never be the same again. When I think about it, my life wasn’t the same after that day. My thought process, the events that followed, the way people saw me, my visions and ambitions in school and a few other things I would rather ignore changed after a five minute experience.

I had just entered Senior Secondary School, and my parents thought it best to send me to a public school. I can remember being very ecstatic about it, reminiscing about all the experiences I have heard people talk about Public schools. I thought about how I would handle bullies and unserious teachers, I thought about how I would handle the hard labour for which the public should were known for, and mostly I thought about how I would handle competition from more than 500 students in a class. The thoughts were very scary for me then, but one thing I don’t like about me is how curious I get out of anxiety. I would want to know and experience everything at the same time, not giving myself the room to learn adequately.

How was I to know that this curiosity would make me look like the stubborn fly following the corps to the grave. On my first day of school, I came in quite early and my form teacher who happened to be a house mistress told me to not worry about it but stay in my class until the assembly bell rings. But my curiosity would not allow me to obey simple instructions. I had always heard that the school was so big that no one had ever seen the end, and there was a popular pit that had claimed the lives of a number of students in that school. I also had heard rumors of kidnappers lagging in the forest areas of the school and I wanted to see them all.

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I felt those stories were too good to be true and every fiber of my being was just telling me to stand up and try to find all those places by myself. The thought was really scary, but it also felt like an itch in my back that my hands could not reach. It was as though I was controlled by an external force that needed me to experience something I was missing out on. I decided to give in to my curiosity which led me to a group of old buildings. The school was over 40 years old at the time and those buildings looked like they were built in the 70s or 80s. After walking for about 30 minutes I started hearing noises of people laughing and talking and I decided to go check it out not knowing my curiosity was about to be the death of me.

At the end of one of the old buildings was an open field, And I casually walked there thinking I would meet students like myself and check out what they were doing. I did meet students like me, but it was never what I was expecting. How was I to know I was entering into the middle of the girls hostel where they were bathing on the field. Immediately I saw what I had walked into, I literally felt my heart stop and only started racing again when a girl sighted me and screamed. Some of the girls were shouting that I came while others hid in embarrassment, but I couldn't help it but run as fast as my legs could carry me away from that scene. I felt my curiosity was satisfied and I never imagined stepping outside my class after that experience. I never even got to see the pit I was curious about because I was scared I would walk into something worse next time.

THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL CREATIVE NONFICTION PROMPT #135