Proudly through life we shall go forth
Honour’s Shield we’ll bear.
Firm as the Cross our hearts shall be
Faith the Crown we’ll wear.
Beauty and Truth shall be our stars
Jewels radiant rare.
Good Deeds shall make upon life’s harp
Music ever fair.Presentation Convent School (School song)
As promised, I am back with Part 2 of my amazing experiences at a convent school. I am assuming that you have already read Part-1 because obviously you are somewhat a part of the convent family. And if you haven’t… (side eye emoji) I am hoping you will do the needful.
Anyways where were we? Oh yes, we left on an amazing and joyous note of Christmas and a beautiful church. If you read Part-1 carefully (this is literally your friendship test) I had told you that the sisters live inside the school. Let me tell you about their house in a little more detail. It is straight out of the fairytale.
Besides the entrance of our playing field (we called it “lower field”) there was an iron gate that led to a beautiful garden. There were a lot of paths that lead to this garden. Our library and health room were on the left side of this garden. At the end is a big house with a cross on the entrance entirely made of red bricks, with a wooden door. That was where Sr. Martha and a few more sisters lived. In 13 years I have gone close to that house only once. That too I had to sneak past the trees and bushes.
This literally looks like the entrance of a castle (you can’t tell me otherwise)
I peeped through the glass on the main door and saw the vintage floral decor of the house. Thankfully it was empty coz otherwise I would have to create a lot of lies of why I was there. We couldn’t even look around that garden until our class 12 farewell photoshoot. That was the day I got to observe all the beautiful flowers and the lettuce that was grown in the entire garden. All we had to do was pose awkwardly in our school uniform standing in the middle of the garden. The good old days!
The best and the worst part of being in a convent school was that the sisters were teachers too. My vice principal (who was a sister of course) taught me History in class 8. Although this helped us to notice and learn from them, we can’t deny that it was hella scary. And when we thought it couldn’t get worse we got to know that the principal teaches English to class 12 students. Luckily I didn’t have to suffer this much.
Introducing Sr. Hema (the Vice Principal and my history teacher), loved her but was extremely scared of her!
Talking about teachers, a lot of them were christians. I have had four christian class teachers and a lot of Christian subject teachers. So naturally we picked on their way of talking, their manners, their behaviors and most importantly- English. It was mandatory to talk in English. For speaking in Hindi we used to get a sign from a teacher in our school diary. Just 3 signs in the diary and the teacher called our parents (felt like a nightmare back then). No wonder I can’t make Instagram videos in Hindi now (laughing emojis).
I have learnt from each and every teacher. Everyone had so much class that that was the first time I came to know what luxury is! My kindergarten teacher was my first admiration and then my 2nd grade teacher and then my 11th grade class teacher. Ok, ok I will fangirl over my teachers in another blog maybe. For now let’s stick to my beloved presentation convent.
To teach morals, ethics, poise, class and etiquette was the motto of our school. And how can I forget- Kindness and the act of giving. And all this wasn’t just bookish knowledge, we saw living examples of everything so we indulged more and more into it. We used to visit orphanages and old age homes on Christmas. As kids we prepared carols to sing in front of the children and old people. We also collected food, soaps, clothes and a lot more things that would help them. This habit has left a mark on me and I still feel the need to help anyone and everyone I can.
Nano Nagle was the founder of our school. She started in Ireland by teaching a few kids on the streets. Every year on 21st November we celebrate “Presentation Day”, the day when our school came to life. So to honor the mission of Nano Nagle our school runs a small community called “The Nagle school”. It caters to all the underprivileged kids. The sisters fund their entire school education. We used to donate our old books to those kids. This habit of empathy is deeply rooted in my bloodstream because of all this.
I have seen this photo on all my school diaries and magazines. Honestly it represents Nano Nagle and her mission the BEST!
Because my school was actually founded in Ireland, we have a lot of branches in the foreign. Every year students from these branches came to our school to interact with us. Luckily since 6th grade my Science teacher picked me and the topper of the class back then to take those kids around to show the premises. As we grew older we prepared presentations on the features our school had and answered all their questions with full confidence. No wonder all my life all I wanted was to go abroad (laughing emojis).
We were also given a lot of opportunities to go on stage. To teach us confidence, our school did its best and organized uncountable debates, elocutions, poem recitation competitions, regular assemblies. But in total all I ever participated was in max 6-7 events. I was pretty confident back then but don’t know what went wrong but I now might faint if I had to speak on stage.
Me, after my mom forces to get on stage like she always has!
Now that I feel that I have bragged enough, I can say that this was the most amazing time I had and wouldn’t change it for anything. These were the best 13 years of my life and I would definitely (maybe forcefully) put my kids in a convent school, coz there is nothing like it. It is just another Universe-calm, peaceful, soothing, relaxing and a learning experience.
Journal time: Today bestie, I want you to write the best memories from your school. I want you to go down the memory lane, reminisce, cry a little and note down whatever comes to your mind. We don’t realize but a lot of our habits have been built in school. And if we want to change some of them, we need to visit the roots. So start your homework and I will see you next week with another masterpiece.
Until next time, Adios Amigos.
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I really liked your post, you’re doing a great job, keep up the good work.
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