And Just Like That… High School ❤️

Dear KuierKos friends,

On 19 August, Paul starts high school, and I honestly cannot believe my baby is old enough for this next chapter. He is super excited, although also a little unsure about everything that comes with a new school, new teachers, new classmates, and, of course, more homework. For the first time, he will also be able to ride his bicycle to school, which is something he is really looking forward to.

For us, this moment is extra special. Paul has been in special education, and we are incredibly proud that he will now be going to a mainstream school. He has come such a long way, and seeing him ready to take this next step makes me one very proud mom.

With all the preparations for high school, I started thinking about my own first days of high school. Because we lived far from town, I went to boarding school in Warmbad. Things were certainly different back then! As a Standard 6 student, you shared a room with a senior and were assigned a matric whose bed you had to make, shoes you had to polish, and school case you had to carry. And yes, we had proper school cases, not backpacks, filled with enough books to make that walk to school feel very long!

Then there was the eetsaal, or dining hall. Six of us sat around each table, and the food would be placed in the middle for everyone to share. You quickly learned that where you sat, and especially who you sat with, could make quite a difference to how much ended up on your plate!

The weekly stew is one memory I will never forget. The rugby players would dish up first, and somehow they managed to find every single piece of meat in that pot. By the time the dish reached the rest of us, there was usually plenty of gravy left, but not much else. And there were no second helpings either.

Now, I grew up with brothers, so you would think I had some idea of how much boys could eat. But my brothers were still too small at the time to prepare me for the appetite of a matric rugby player! I quickly discovered that sitting at the nerds’ table was a much better survival strategy than sitting with the popular rugby boys. When I look at Paul today and see him finish a whole bag of biltong, I finally understand just how much growing boys can eat.

And no boarding school experience would be complete without the ghost stories. The matrics loved terrifying the new Standard 6s with stories about the ghost of the old Matron. She walked through the corridors late at night. The story was that she used a washcloth to wipe the faces of sleeping students. Needless to say, every little noise in the corridor sounded very suspicious after that! There are a few other stories I remember, but I think I’ll save those for another newsletter.

Of course, there were also consequences when we were naughty. The prefects and matrics had plenty of ways to keep us in line, from “gangstaan” (standing in a long line with your nose against the wall) to polishing everyone’s shoes if you had done something wrong. It didn’t always feel funny at the time, but looking back, those years taught us discipline. You made your bed, kept your room tidy, looked after your clothes, and polished your shoes. There was a routine, time for Bible study, and even a compulsory 30-minute nap after school, something I would happily volunteer for today!

But what I remember most is the time we spent together. We didn’t have mobile phones or social media constantly competing for our attention. We talked, laughed, got into trouble, made memories, and formed friendships. Boarding school wasn’t always easy, but there is something very special about the friendships and stories that came from those years.

And now, all these years later, I’m preparing my own child for high school. Paul’s experience will look very different from mine, but I suppose that is part of watching our children grow up. They have their own stories to write, their own friendships to make, and their own memories to create.

Warm regards,
Marnella & Andreas