The Best Years of My Childhood

It was mid-September. Again the songs of expatriation started to play from the broken window opposite. I didn't know why everything was so real. The only thing I knew was that I was a wandering traveler without an instrument. I took my quilt, mattress, pillow and my clothes in a small old suitcase and got on the bus. I had not yet fully recognized the love of mother, father and siblings and wrapped it around my soul. That's why I couldn't take it with me, but I wanted to wrap it in a silk cloth and take it with me. I was leaving my father's house at dawn. Three years had passed in the blink of an eye. The sparks of desire to read jumped out of my heart and mixed with the song of a swift bird. It never stopped singing. Green was waiting for me with open arms.

Both my uncles lived there. I was going to stay with my younger uncle. My older uncle was the principal of his school. My younger uncle was a civil servant at the monopoly factory, living on his own. Their houses were very close to each other. They were two very different people.

My younger uncle was compassionate, did not know lies and deceit, and had a clean heart. They lived in peace with his beautiful wife and three children. My uncle was very similar to my father in structure. When I joined the family, we became a crowded nuclear family.

On the first day of school I was very excited, my heart was pounding. I had a tailor sew my brown jersey over my white shirt and had it ready. I put on my ironed and clean jersey, combed my hair, put on my brown socks, put on my black shoes and headed to school early. How was it like a new school, new place, new friends. There was some anxiety, fear and excitement in me, I didn't know why.

My school was then the second modern high school. Most of the young people who went to university were graduates of this high school. On the front facade of the school there was a huge sign that read "High School". It was a four-story building with a large garden in front and back. I had heard that its discipline and education were excellent. When the bell rang, we entered the classrooms.

The first lessons were usually teacher-student introductions. The students were long, probably close to twenty years old. The shouting and mischief of the students could be heard across the street. I shared a desk with a girl in the front row, she was about my height, brunette, sweet, talkative.

A tall, dark-haired, swarthy man with black hair, dressed in a gray suit, came and sat down at the classroom table. He was flipping through the notebook in front of him with a slightly sarcastic smile.

Occasionally he grinned and looked at us, but he didn't look serious at all. Since it was the first day, I didn't know the students yet.

"Who is this guy, why is he sitting at the table and laughing?" I asked my desk mate.

She shook back her lightly braided braids and said she didn't know and didn't recognize him.

The man at the table heard what I said and turned his annoyed gaze to me. He was still laughing like a cooked head.

After a while he said, "I'm going to your math class."

I was so embarrassed. My cheeks were flushed red. Not knowing what to say, I bowed my head and silently listened to what he was saying. At that moment I wanted to be alone and get lost in the rivers that flowed beneath me. Although I loved math that year, I didn't get any good grades. My math teacher didn't neglect to feed me his silent little grudge. And I felt it until the end of the year.

Now I think, when you enter the classroom, don't you introduce yourself first. Does he sit at the table and laugh like a cooked head for minutes?

But most of the class didn't know he was a teacher. It was a strange surprise when he introduced himself and said he was a teacher.

Since it was my first test for me to be patient and not to rush, it entered the class of unforgettable memories.

I have always remembered this feeling of extreme embarrassment that I experienced in the first days of school, even after many years. When I thought of it, a clownish smile played on my lips.