28/05/2025
LITERARY | Ten Months Later
โItโs the first day of school,โ someone said.
You were half-awake, holding onto your iced coffee like it was the last drop of motivation you had left.
And then someone joked,
โGraduationโs still ten months away.โ
We laughed.
Because back then, ten months felt like forever.
We thought we had time.
Time to fix our projects, catch up on tasks, and submit that one requirement we still donโt know how we managed to pass.
Time to hang out โnext time,โ to finally go to that group dinner weโve been planning since Grade 11.
Time to rest, breathe, and live a little before the real world started knocking.
But time had other plans.
Suddenly, we were swimming in deadlines, buried under drafts, juggling defenses and deliverables.
Some days, we barely even talked. Just tired nods in the hallway, sleepy smiles across the room, half-meant โkumusta?โs during breaks.
And yet, somehow, we were still here.
Still showing up.
Still together.
From hallway tambays to last-minute cramming, from low quiz scores to sky-high coffee tolerances, from tiny wins to silent breakdowns no one else sawโwe went through it.
Not perfectly.
But genuinely.
And now weโre here.
Counting the days, the lasts, the almosts.
Last requirements. Last submissions. Last tambay.
The last time youโll hear someone call you by your nickname in that classroom you always complained about but are slowly learning to miss.
And it hurts, in that quiet, lingering way.
Because now you realize, it was never just about graduating.
It was about everything in between.
The people who stayed.
The little versions of you that grew in ways you didnโt notice.
The life that happened while we were all just trying to keep up.
Ten months ago, we laughed and said, โThatโs so far away.โ
And now, weโre blinking, asking, โThat was it?โ
But maybe thatโs what makes it special.
We didnโt just survive as senior high.
We made something out of it.
We made memories.
We found friendships that felt like home.
We made this year mean something.
So if your chest feels a little heavy and you donโt know whyโ
Thatโs okay.
Thatโs how it feels when something matters.
Weโre graduating.
And itโs okay to be a little sad about that.
It means it was real.
Ten months felt longโ
Until it became a memory we wish we could stay in
Just a little longer.
๐๏ธ: Glen Axel Asis
๐ธ: Ashton Maminta