End of tenth....

"The end...of another year"

-Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

[And to anyone who's reading this, I would highly recommend my friend Nil's story as well.  You can find it here]

Or at least, the official end of my tenth class.
Yes, yes tenth class really ended more than a month ago, when we stopped going to school. But for me and many of my class mates, our tenth academic session wasn't really over until yesterday, the last board exam.
We had our MCQ (Multiple Choice questions) paper, and I'm glad to report that I wasn't the only one who thought it was confusing or tricky (And to all the others who had a great paper, congrats!). But what really set the seal in on the occasion was the end of the paper,when, after some general discussion about the questions, students began discussing their plans for the afternoon. Most of the people I talked to were heading off to malls, movies and even amusement parks. I had no particular plan myself, but I had fun listening to others grumbling about the questions, autos, time, heat etc. I went back home in a neutral frame of mind. To be honest, I wasn't exactly whooping, cheering or feeling ecstatically happy. The event I'd looked over to all year was over and done, as I knew it would. Good. I don't have to keep re-reading my textbooks. Good. I don't have to sit at home and get bored. Good. The new academic session, rumoured to be one of the hardest, where I don't know half the teachers, where I'm practically guaranteed to have the stuffing knocked out of me, will start soon. Uh huh.


For many reasons, tenth was one of my best classes ever, an unforgettable milestone. I was able to really build relationships with the important people in my life, reconcile the different sides of my own personality and last, but definitely not the least, tenth was like one huge lesson; An interesting one, that I'm sure we all enjoyed. I'd heard a lot about tenth: the stress, the fear, the competition, the slogging, but I have to say, NOTHING in tenth was like what I heard. Most of the kids were chilled out, studies were interesting, teachers were a lot more fun than usual, we were left to our own devices and even the oft-repeated jokes had a new flavour. The joys, the triumphs, the friendships, the lessons, the hard work....all were unique, and non-transferable. So today, when tenth really is over, there's a lot I remember, but I still feel quite happy moving on to 11th. To all who've finished tenth, did you have fun too? To all who're going to start it, believe me, tenth will be as wonderful as you can make it. It's really not all that bad.