Opinion: Tough 'first day' but it gets better

LOOKING back on your education, the first and last days of school tend to be the memories that stick in your mind the longest.

For many Rotorua schools, Monday was the first day back after a sweltering summer of barbecues, sun, and swimming.

While the majority of students were coming back to familiar classrooms, teachers and friends, there was a group of other students, like every year, who were walking into foreign territory.

Whether it's primary school, intermediate, high school or university, the first day is a daunting one for any student.

From the day I turned 5, my schooling was a non-stop journey until I graduated from university in my 20s.

I spent 17 years in three different schools, each of which taught me invaluable lessons about myself, about others and about the society we live in.

But nothing taught me more about myself than the transitions I made from primary school to high school and from high school to university.

While I would love to say I took to each new school like a duck to water and never looked back, that just wasn't the case.

On my first day at Papakura Normal School I sat in the corner of the classroom crying (for what seemed like hours, but was probably only 15 minutes) before my teacher Mrs Robinson told me (a bit harshly but thankfully) to snap out of it.

After my first day at Baradene, which included being subjected to a screaming house captain and getting told off for not knowing what Eucharist meant, I cried so much my parents actually considered pulling me out.

While I managed not to bawl on my first day at university, the same feeling of being overwhelmed, lost, lonely and scared was all too familiar.

At the time it always felt like it would never get better, that I would be miserable at my new school until I finished, but at the end of my time the tables were always turned. I inevitably grew to love the grounds, my friends and my teachers, just as I had at my previous school.

It is amusing to look back to my first days and chide myself for not realising the most important thing - everything was going be okay.

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