With the matric results due out on Thursday, Quraisha Ameer Saib from Southlands Secondary School told us about her matric experience.
Durban – Matric was many things. It was a crazy series of blissful moments, tastefully decorated with great friends and phenomenal teachers who served as an inspiration, a rigid foundation – a drive, but above all, matric was helpful.
With its challenges and bitter lessons, it moulded us accordingly. It gave us a sense of ambition and focus, harnessing our inner brilliance all through the way.
There were amazing friendships renewed, new ones forged in the name of love and trust and never forgetting friends lost, both to death and life.
The final stretch was one that took most of us by surprise – it was pretty flat – and that means one of two things: either it was a courteous gift from our DOE, wrapped in pretty ribbons and bows or we were just doing everything in complete contrast to what was expected of us.
But leaving that to the Lord God himself, we will continue to persevere and build our own fortresses and just, keep it LIT.
At the beginning of matric, I was unwillingly placed in another division which I initially detested the idea of, but it wasn't quite long before I came to realise that change is inevitable and imperative in its entirety – diversity is magic, fellow comrades. It was from then that the goodness of life began to unravel.
I relished in the company of people with profound character and shared life changing experiences with them. Truth be told, matric was definitely not an amalgam of good things only. In the light of happy times, there were also the mind-breaking and infuriating moments which when I now think of it, was a mere preparation for the "big, bad world" we often hear our folks chatting about.
Bidding farewell to everyone was not as emotional as one would think – I think I expected more from my emotions. It takes an awful amount of time before I am shocked into the reality of anything and I think it's the same thing that happened here.
I fear the time when it will finally dawn upon me that, I AM DONE and that there's going to be no more engaging with the same kind of people – the better people. I'd have to spread my wings and journey though different tides soon and I hate to think that it's going to be a mission, because it will be.
It's an exquisite kind of joy when you end a chapter, but it's also a special kind of nostalgia when you have to start the next one.
Matric starts off as what one would see as impossible to manage, but I promise it only gets better. You'll see new flowers sprouting from different soils and you'll wonder which one to choose for your garden because all of them look so gorgeous and that's just the hardest part. They're not all beautiful, it's like the time the apple looked so red and it called your name to be eaten but tough luck, it was rotten? Yeah, same story here.
Opportunities will come, and go, people will throw you under the bus and you may feel defeated, and I did, but throwing in the towel at one point was something would live to regret. It makes you weak and we're amongst the strong, us matriculants.
Matric was flames, it was everything one would associate with a joyride. Teachers who dare to treat us as they would their own children, make this world a better place. I can safely say that my schooling career was saturated with those teachers. It made going to school a lot more meaningful.
To a great year with great people. Go make this world a better place class of '16 and keep shining.