regret not paying attention. Despite her high standards, she was great fun and treated me like one of her own children.. Secondary School First day at Ghana National College, and I felt a combination of elation, anxiety, and fear. Elation because it was my first time wearing shoes, and it felt wonderful. I looked down every now and then to admire them and kicked my leg a little farther forward than usual so everyone could see them. Anxiety, because my uncle and aunt were the ones who took me to school, but it soon became evident that they were going to leave me there, and I was going to be in a strange place with strange people for the first time in my life. And fear, because somehow I had heard tales of Form One students being bullied by seniors for no reason, and the sight of the giant-looking seniors that I had seen so far caused my stomach to somersault several times. I could only imagine the kind of punishment that awaited me and my mates. If this was anything to worry about, then I was not prepared for what awaited me during dining. For no sooner had the bell rung and we had been ushered into the dining room and served our meals, than we were told we would not be eating with our hands. Trouble. Instead, we had been advised to bring along with us cutlery sets, three little implements, of which I had used the spoon before. Now, the seniors began the arduous task of demonstrating to us how to use the cutlery set. Intently, I dug my fork into the plantain with my clumsy left hand, then with my right hand I tried to cut it, but the plantain had a mind of its own and kept threatening to slip off the plate. It took quite a few visits to the dining hall to perfect using the cutlery set. Being in a mixed school like Ghana National made me very self-conscious. For instance, if someone made a mistake answering a question, the boys would laugh. So we just bottled things up. That is why some of us never came out of our shells. Besides, my mother had given me a stern warning about getting involved with any boy, so I kept very much to myself. Picking up my pen and a sheet of paper, I wrote out boldly, “I didn’t come to school to plait hair. I came to study,” then I pasted it on my bed. That was it. “ The Birthday Journal 9
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