School Story:
This is a little something I wrote at the end of my fifth form year.
"Alpha Biography"
As I reflect on the past five years I have, spent at Alpha - September 1994 - June 1999, I can recall both good and bad memories, some of which will be forgotten and others I will always remember.
Alpha opened up her gates to me in September 1994 with orientation day. It then dawned on me that it would be a long time before I would be able to see any of my friends from primary school. This journey would be one of the longest journeys of my life. Being new to the school and subjects, my classmates and I had to be prepared to face all the challenges that were ahead of us. Even though this was hard, we all tried our best. I failed four subjects on my first report card and my parents were called in. On Parents Teachers Consultation Day I cried. As the year progressed, I got better grades.
Sister Colette our Form Coordinator at the time, was one of my most painful memories in first form. As far as I was and still am concerned, she is a little racist. She at one time made a racist comment about my class, that I will not even talk about right now. We were told that we should be in our classrooms at the end of the lunch period, but as you know this is not so with high school students. We would loiter on the stairs, balcony or in our friends’ classrooms. We would always be on the look out for Sister Colette and if any girl happened to see here coming down the walkway, she would send out the alarm “Colette Alert” and we would all dash down the stairs or into our classrooms before she arrived on the block.
Second form was the next rung on the ladder and it too was full of challenges, but by then we had gotten accustomed to the school environment. Going to chapel once every week was enough to drive everyone crazy. From first to fifth form this man's main topic has been “sex”, I think he is obsessed. Second form grades were horrible compared to first form.
Third form was the bomb. It was as if a real bomb had hit me. All the subjects exploded in my head, my grades were deplorable and Mr. Dowdie was a pain the students could hardly bear. You couldn't play or sweep the classroom during lunch break and if we happened to be making noise and some one saw him coming that person would say “Dowdie ah come”. He would call you to his office for the silliest of reasons. I really found him to be someone who I could not possibly understand
Tragedy struck when I got to fourth form. Contact with Lex the “Mad Scientist”. I spent one week in form 404 where I had Mr. Campbell everyday for Math. He drove me crazy. I then moved to 401 where I did the business subjects. My form teacher was Miss Laidlaw and she taught me Accounts and Office Procedures. I did not like her and I hated Accounts with a passion. I failed the January exam and suffered a week of detention with her. After the detention, I started to really like her. After that I maintained an A average in Accounts. In June of 1998, she told the 401 girls that she would not be teaching them in fifth form and we all got upset. I was so mad at her that I could not eat my lunch nor study for my History exam in the afternoon. But guess what the little lady was lying and I felt much better.
Fifth form bloomed bright with the "Big and Mighty", Miss McCLeod. She had us at the tip of her fangs, ready to devour us with her wrath. We were selected for the various subjects and we all settled to the business of completing our SBA’s. We conducted the businesses for Accounts, did the report, OP and POB SBAs, but the computer SBA was the tornado. It sent me into a whirlwind of headaches. I had headaches and a seven day school week. Anyway I suffered through it all and I made it.
With CXC’s just around the corner we did some last minute catching up. We allowed ourselves to relax for once, as we spent Wednesday May 19,1999 in the swimming pool. Oh what fun we had. With CXC finished I was free as a bird and guess who had a last laugh? Me ofcourse! The class trip to Apple Valley Park was cancelled, I got my money and even better, I went to Apple Valley Park. Well, I guess here ends my life at Alpha. What an experience!
