An Afternoon Walk to The Past (Elementary School Memories)

A beautiful view of the sky that late afternoon

Let’s start it with the cloudy sky that afternoon. It is almost dusk at my place when the sky suddenly turned into a calming view and felt so nostalgic. Sun light crawls below the clouds. There are spots where the light makes its way through the cloud and made some beautiful scene. At that very moment an idea to walk to the places of my elementary school memories crossed my mind, the memories written under the very same yet different sky. So, I left the house and moved my feet.

First of all, I went to the place where my friends and I used to spend studying. My very elementary school, SDN Mekar Jaya 8. It is not the same as it used to be a long time ago. The openings were replaced either by new buildings or covered by ceramic floor. The white and red paint of the class rooms were replaced with a bright orange color. I still remembered the time when I was sitting on the chair, studying, and joking around with my friends as if it had just happened yesterday.

My late elementary school building

In contrast of the fresh look of the class rooms, the field looks not so different from the old days. The flag pole, the net pole in the middle of the field, and the cracks on the ground brought back the memory when we used to hardly stand still in the flag ceremony every Monday, playing football, galasin, marbles, bentengan, 7 stones, and the other traditional games, when we cried in front of the north wall of the field when our P. E. Teacher assigned to another school, and when I made the last pass for my friend who made the spike that brought our school winning the volley ball competition. The sensation of spikes and passes that day won’t be able to leave my memory easily.

The bell house we used to prank

From the school, I went to the residential area near the school. It was the place where we used to run around to see who’s the fastest. I also went to a big house which bell we used to ring-and-run as a prank. The house changed a lot but the bell remained in the same place as it was. I also visited the crossbar where we used to play-head. It was a game we made ourselves, the goal was to stand on the crossbar as long as we could.cIt was called play-head because we could ask a friend to stand under us and hold his head once to help us balancing.

After that, I went to the place where my friends and I used to spend our after school time ‘till the drowning sun called us home, the small forest-like place that connected the back of our school and the main road. It was the place where we used to catch grasshoppers, bugs, lizards, and small iguanas bare handed. Its area had desreased a lot and the walking path had covered with wild plants, I bet no kid ever went anymore. I also remembered my friends, Oby and Alvin’s fight there which caused Dimas “Emen” got pee showered accidentally by Oby whose about to shower it to Alvin. Hahaha...what a kid fight.

The small forest-like place's road-side end which became dirty and covered with wild plants

Finally, on my way home, I went to a small river which has two water pipe crossed it. It was a place where we used to sit around and talked about lots of things, including the future. Standing on the pipe, I imagined myself as a kid back there and my friends, Deka, Alvin, Emen, Oby, Ombin, and Reza were beside me talking about the present while looking at the sky that turned dark. At that moment, I realized that time really flows but the memories of the past won’t fade away from people experiencing it. I am not someone whose unable to move on or someone who live in the past, I am someone who live on the past. The past is my ground, the future is my sky, and the present is my life.

The blue pipe river

Post note:

This post is dedicated for all my friends who made me who I am. "Happy National Friendship Day!"