Skip to main content

"Memories of Dalat" by Dharrshini M Yuva Raja

By

Dalat holds memories in my heart that I will carry with me through my next journey. The journey from middle school days, when survival during the global pandemic was the focus, to now, the end of senior year, has been long, but looking now it was going to end in a few days. A tight-knit community is about to disperse to different places, bringing new challenges. 


Middle school, a time of immature chaos, was a time to cherish. Within the classroom, Jonathan and Soniya would steal my shoe pencil case and hide it among my favorite erasable pens. The romance in middle school was unique because there was so much drama over who liked who, and I just thought the guys we liked would chase us around physical education class in the name of tag and run. Secret spots, like sitting under the old middle school staircase for lunch and at the Hut every morning before school, are things seniors would remember. There were weird moments in middle school when Ms. Kong would make Zavier Buckley dance to Baby Shark once, make us do wall sits, and I will never forget spitting water at Zavier Buckley in class. 


Moreover, the wedding games, eating magnets, and nobody believing me would be quirky memories to be distinguished. Emphasizing memories more, Dalat girls' group chat blew up over a silly reason: people not being admins, which is amusing to look back on in senior year. 


Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and schools moved online for years. Soniya Peters, 12, states, “We all bonded together and went through Coronavirus Zoom calls. We tried to make it fun even though the whole middle school relied upon it.” This reveals that, through Zoom, middle school had to rely on the weirdness, especially in the PE workout videos that Ms. Schultz made us do. 


Before long, high school got more complicated, with a focus on academics and extracurriculars; however, there was a lot of relationship drama that entertained many. I would never forget the Spanish classes in 9th and 10th grade, because Mr. Guerrero would give us relationship advice and warn us that boys shouldn’t be giving out promise rings. Focusing on relationship drama. Many have known the wedding guy drama, which was popular throughout 9th grade. 


Sneaking out traditions to leave amid class to raid Nurse Nancy's cookies would never be a forgotten memory that bonded classmates and teachers. Chavelle Thorton, 12, revealed that, “My favorite memory in Dalat was watching PB straight up eat decorations and when Nurse Nancy called him a boy."


Lastly, senior sneak holds a large part of my memory where we bonded as a senior class. The water rafting, the class bonding around the bonfire, and me falling off the ropes will be a memory missed.


In the end, the 7 years I was at Dalat held perfect memories because they were ours, Class of 2026. Whether there were good, weird, dramatic, or nostalgic moments, they didn’t need to be flawless memories to be prime. Every single one of them mattered just as much as a single puzzle piece, and showcased how school memories will be memories missed whilst stepping into a new chapter. 


As the Class of 2026 moves forward, I hope we will hold onto the memories at Dalat. Many of us grew up together, survived the rollercoaster, and it should be marked as a memory to carry with us wherever the future takes us.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DINGBAT DALAT STUDENT SPENDS PRECIOUS TIME CONJURING UP SELF-REFERENTIAL SENIOR SCRIBBLE RATHER THAN GATHERING LEGITIMATE WORK

By Anonymous
Yusoof Monawvil PENANG, MA - As the deadline drew near and the stars aligned in the night sky above the majestic waters of the Strait of Malacca, one particular Dalat student—Yusoof Monawvil (12), despite a plethora of school events to select and report on—opted instead to spend a remarkably well-wasted 24 minutes staring at a blank Google Docs page, fruitlessly drawing up and shooting down brainstormed ideas.  In a moment of sheer and undeniable epiphany, Monawvil deemed it only fitting to self-referentially satirize his own ingrained incompetence and dingbattery. Commenting on the flash of insight, Monawvil quoted himself, saying: “It all just kinda made sense. I went on DISCourse to look at the little rubric thing Ms. Grad and Mr. Hieber posted, and I checked if I was following all of the guidelines... And I technically am/was; [N]ot like there’s any specific direktive [sic] prohibiting self-quoting.”  In a turn of events, Monawvil did come to find his self-quoting en...
6 comments
Read more

“I Miss Her” by Nikhil Pillay

By
While most people had a fun week for mid-semester break, whether it was spent with family, or with friends on impact trips, no one had a more emotionally confusing week than Judson Kenneth Robert Nosker (12).  In the light of recent events, Judson, despite all odds, had gotten in a relationship with one of his classmates, and as the break started, he had started to spend a lot of time with her. While with her, he started to experience a new level of joy and completeness that he had never felt before. In the words of Judson Nosker, “The first half of the break was good, but the rest of it was horrible.”  The reason for such a quote and the roller coaster of emotion was because half way through the break, disaster had struck. Judson’s girlfriend had gone on a trip with her family to Thailand, leaving Judson all alone. For the rest of the week, Judson was in a state of longing for her presence.  His friends have reported numerous occasions when Judson would be sitting with t...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Spikeball, Swimming, and Sickness: The Remnants of Senior Sneak" by Ee Rynn Ong

By
“Guys, I think we’re here,” said Jonathan Ooi (12) as he peeked out of the lorry to catch the first glimpse of our Senior Sneak location. This year’s Senior Sneak was held in Nomad Adventure, Gopeng, and the organizers planned many activities for the Class of 2026, ranging from traditional games like congkak and batu seremban to adrenaline-pumping ropes courses and whitewater rafting. These scheduled activities proved to be some of the best highlights of the trip, but top of that, the seniors were also given some daily free time to chat, explore, and relax. Josh Stevens (12) had come prepared for this with two spikeball nets, which immediately attracted attention from people eager to spend time in the outdoor sun. The next five days saw spikeball veterans and newcomers alike, spending their precious one and a half hours daily around the unassuming circular net, smashing the yellow ball in hopes of a victory.  Caleb Evans (12) was one of the newbies to spikeball, learning how the g...
Post a Comment
Read more