A Place Nobody Wants To Go
Since 1918, “Nuestra Señora Del Rosario”, which in English means “Our lady of the Rosary”, has been one of the most prestigious high schools of Chiclayo (Peru). My story at this place began when I finished elementary school and my grandmother decided to change my plans. As a very catholic family, my grandmother wouldn’t let me go to a high school were boys could attend. I used to live in a place which was really close to the beach, “Pimentel”, which was about 40 minutes away from the city “Chiclayo”. My plan was to attend some high school pretty close to my house because by that time I already knew I wasn’t a morning person. I found one that was amazing with pretty good people, lots of classrooms, the best of everything, and it was just 10 minutes away from Pimentel. But there was a huge problem, the high school was for girls and boys; as a result, I spent my whole last year of elementary school thinking how I would convince my grandmother to let me attend that High School, but I couldn’t. By the summer of 2009, I was already attending “Nuestra Señora Del Rosario”. There were so many things that made me hate this place such as the hours, the distance, how it looked, but at the end of this phase I ended up loving my grandmother because more of my best memories takes place in “Nuestra Señora Del Rosario”.
The first thing that came out of my mouth when I looked at my high school was: “ What a creepy place, it looks like a jail”, and let me tell you I wasn’t the only one who thought that. The place looked old, but it was well maintained. All the walls were painted pink, remarking that the school was just for women, and at the outside it had bars all around, that’s why the “jail” comment. However, there was something nice that caught my attention; the school had a little park that is located just in front of it. In the middle of the park, you could find a statue of the virgin of the rosary which was surrounded by lights that at the nights they would turn on and give to the park a beautiful view. This statue helped the school to don’t look as bad as it was.
When I got inside of the school I started to look at everything; the classrooms, people, how the school was divided, how many floors it had, and even though the school didn’t look too big from the outside, in the inside it was huge. The school was divided in two sections. In the first one you could find twenty-two classrooms between the first and the second floor, a huge dining room for all the students and professors as well, a chapel where you could go to pray, it wasn’t as big as the other rooms, but it could help you a lot in bad situations. One of the memories that I had from this was when my great-grandmother was at the hospital and the doctors said she would have just hours to live. I received the call and I went to the chapel to pray and cry too. I remember it as a safe place to go, where you could find peace and talk to yourself. Nobody could bother you in there, because everyone knew that if you were there was because you really need it. On the other hand, in the second division of the school, you could find the bathrooms, the pool, some rooms for the instruments of the school band, a big kitchen where we were supposed to have cooking classes, which to be honest, we didn’t learn anything from them. Indeed, it had a big coliseum, which we barely used . I always thought that the pool and the gym were a waste of space, during my five years of high school I don’t remember myself using the pool or the gym.
The first day of classes, believe it or not, was one of the most exciting because I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. It was! This school used to admit so many people that each grade had eight different sections from the A through the G, from the 1st grade through the senior year which was the 5th grade. They used to put the people according to the first letter of the last name, and as a Rodriguez, my section was the ‘’E”. Each section had at least forty students, and my section wasn’t the exception. I was the number 39 at the list, the last one. At first, I thought it would be something good because when the teachers asked for the homework, they would start from the first one, but it wasn’t like that. Sometimes the teachers started from the last one, and this included presentations, too. I wasn’t a number, I was “the last one”. As a matter of fact, the school has two shifts because of the number of students. The 1st, 2nd, and half of the third had the afternoon shift, from 12:30 until 6:20 p.m. That’s why at first, I said it wouldn’t be too bad, but by 4:00 p.m. I was half asleep.
Even though I’m not good at making friends, I started to do it. There was thirty-eight people from different places around Chiclayo. The first girl I talked to was Andrea, who later on became my best friend. Andrea looked always happy, really calm and excited to meet new people. She was slim and tall, we both wear glasses and we used to have a similar life. Since the first day we became inseparable, we used to go together everywhere, even outside the school. I was getting comfortable in the that place, I was feeling like it was the place I was meant to be. After 1 month, the school became my second house. My friends made me want to go every day because I knew we would do something different and it would become a new memory in our life’s.
By the end of the senior year, my mind was full of beautiful memories from the place I used to hate. “Nuestra Señora del Rosario” taught me that nobody can judge just by looking at the exterior of someone or something. It’s been almost 5 years since I finished High School and sometimes I’m still waking up feeling like it’s time to go to school, to my beautiful “ Rosario”. If I had the opportunity to choose where to study, I wouldn’t doubt going there again. It will always be” Mi Rosario, mi Rosario del alma” (My rosary, my rosary of the soul).
