Pretty much every day was rough. Some worse than others—like it was the end of the world. If I could have one wish come true then, it would have been to fast forward to the day I'd finally leave those four walls. But each day that seemed dark, and yet I managed to get to the next, I was learning something that I only realised years afterwards.
In my first year, I complained a lot and often felt the urge to report a lot of the wrongdoings I experienced. It didn't take long that I realised that I wasn't going to get anywhere complaining. There were even times there was no one able to save me, and the only way out was to persevere and keep moving forward regardless of how dark.
If I had known that's how military schools are like, I'd have protested even harder when my parents enrolled me. But it was in there that I began to fully understand that life's not always fair. It's not always going to be smooth. and you're going to have to deal with it anyway or be dealt with.
One night, I was unlucky. I was taking my academics more seriously than I had ever done. Every night, and perhaps every chance I had during the day, I was always studying. But this night's prep was unexpected. Saturday was usually for social nights when every student would watch a movie in the hall or something, but the school authorities turned it around instead. They did so in the last minute, so many of us couldn't take our books from the hostel. I chose to rather take a nap that night.
Then the commandant walked in, handpicked all of us that had no books on our table. I was one of them. Before we knew it, we were marched out at 12 AM to be punished. It was crazy, but it was happening anyway, and there was no one to overrule it.
In the middle of the night, we were made to sweep the most of the school's surroundings. It's a very large school, so it just wasn't a funny joke that night. My hands, eyes, and feet were sore that night. I felt abused. I shouldn't have been in that situation, but there I was anyway, sweeping with one eye open.
Those punished that night didn't deserve it. It wasn't our fault that we were unlucky. But that's the thing about life; it's not always fair. The only option I had that night was to duly serve the punishment and hope to be in my bed again in a couple of hours. Maybe I was livid and whined a lot that night, but it sure didn't help the situation. In anyway, I learnt life's never smooth, and I also learnt to keep a book with me every day, so I'd never experience that again.
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