I used to think that my experience of middle school and high school was pretty banal. As I wrote the following memory fragments, however, I realized that perhaps it was far from normal.
The Prefect
I was 11 years old and it was my first day in secondary education. I stood at the front row of the hall where we assembled each morning to listen to one of the academic staff talk to us. There was a line of prefects, older children who had been entrusted with some kind of authority, who stood facing us with their backs to the stage.
One of those prefects walked up to me, grabbed my school tie where it was knotted in front of my throat, and lifted me off the ground. He held my face in front of his face and looked at me as I quietly choked. Then he placed me back on the ground and went back to stand at his post. To this day, I have no idea what the purpose of that was. As I think about it now, I wonder if that was some form of bullying or an attempt to instill fear in the new students.
You Can Do Anything
After I took my 11-plus exams at middle school, before I went off to secondary education, the teacher I saw every day and who took attendance in the mornings called me up at the end of class to have a private conversation with her. She said, “You can do anything you want.” It was…
