I didn't mean to stay on that post for too long, but one graduation photo was enough to pull me back to a place that once felt like home.
I had been mindlessly scrolling through my social media when I suddenly stopped my eyes lingering on a graduation photo posted by a student from my old school.
"Ha… this brings back some memories," I murmured, glancing at the framed graduation picture on my desk beside me.
Seeing their photo felt like reopening a door I had quietly closed, one that led back to a version of myself I thought I had already left behind.
Two years earlier
A student ran down the hallway, breathless, before abruptly barging into the room.
"It's time!" he shouted.
Everyone immediately looked up, panic and excitement flashing across their faces as they rushed to finish preparing for the graduation pictorial. Some of the boys hurriedly changed their clothes, while others focused on fixing their hair, running gel through it with shaky hands. On the other side of the room, the girls were just as busy helping each other with makeup, ironing and curling hair, laughter echoing between nervous chatter.
The room buzzed with energy, a mix of excitement, chaos, and anticipation, moments before they would freeze time in a single photograph.
"Everyone! This is urgent! Did any of you see my phone?" a girl shouted in panic.
"Hey, bes! Help me with my hair!" another called out.
"Who took my things?" someone else complained.
The room quickly filled with overlapping voices of laughter, shouting, hurried footsteps, and frantic searching. Despite the chaos, there was comfort in it. No one was truly alone. Everyone helped, teased, and panicked together, bound by the shared excitement of the moment.
"Madam is calling us," someone announced. "She said we need to hurry to the studio, or we won't get our pictorial."
Everyone immediately rushed downstairs, fixing collars, adjusting hair, and checking themselves one last time as they prepared to face the camera.
By the end of the day, everyone had their own piece of memory to keep individual portraits, group photos filled with silly poses, snapshots with close friends, and even a few couples who couldn't resist capturing the moment together.
We lived in those moments as if they would last forever, never realizing how quickly they would slip through our fingers.
I chuckled as I remembered it. "Immature, chaotic… yet still one of the most memorable experiences of my life."
My gaze lingered on our class photo, a soft smile forming as happiness mixed with longing in my chest.
I turned my chair the other way, leaning back to rest my neck, a small smirk tugging at my lips.
"Still… I hated my graduation picture."