You can’t force your brain to remember anything if there’s no real connection. All my life, I had been procrastinating on pretty much everything. My parents blame it on my social media usage, but I say it’s just the world continuously giving me tasks to complete in order to ‘level up’. From assignments to chores, and just everyday life, things felt heavy to a point I gave up questioning why I even did that task in the first place. Maybe it was the world sucking me into its box and I was becoming regular like everyone else, would this be considered Koinophobia? Maybe to some, but I was okay with being regular.

Brrriiinnnggg!! The sound of notebooks and laptops being slammed shut echoed throughout room 114. The minute hand just ticked 2:17 PM, dismissal. “Sientate”, yelled my Spanish teacher. “The bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do,” the classic phrase we all knew too well. While others, ranging from grades 6-12, were storming out the building, the 34 of us were held incarcerated in the squeezed room with no windows. My friend and I exchanged a look of pure annoyance. The familiar bland slides with, “AGENDA”, in all caps, everything was always in all caps. Don’t get me wrong, I never hated learning another language, it was more so me not getting anywhere. The last two years consisted of the basics grammar exercises and recycled assignments, and this year the cycle persisted once again. But maybe, just maybe, I was being bitter that my precious three minutes were being stolen. I guess the extra minutes of high school meant way less than they do now.

The class finally ended after what felt like an eternity. My friend and I quickly grabbed our 8 lb backpacks and speed walked through the empty halls and out the building. Our clubs were canceled due to it being Valentine’s Day, but why would such studious teenagers go straight home?! We somehow ended up in Captain Tilly Park after grabbing a quick bite at Natalie’s Pizzeria; the classic $1 pizza became $2.50–talk about inflation. The walk up to the children’s playground in the park was full of laughter from remissness of hidden jokes and old memories. The pond once filled with ducks was now cold and frosty. 

We jumped onto the toddler swings and took turns pushing each other till a little girl, dressed in all hot pink, came along. She had two pigtails and was a third of my height. Even though I go around claiming I despise kids, I still find myself having a soft spot for any that come around. Anyways, she was trying her best to sit on the swings, from using her feet to get up to holding the swing in place. My elder sibling instincts kicked in immediately as I asked her if she needed help while pointing at the swing. She nodded and a smile appeared on her rosy face. I helped her sit on the swing and pushed her gently for a couple of minutes. After a while her mom came along, and I realized a lot of time had passed by as my friend was laughing at me for giving mother vibes. We decided to leave when the mom was asking her daughter if she was having fun in their native language, and the girl said, “Gracias” (thank you) out loud. And without realizing, “De nada, ¡adios!” (you’re welcome, bye!) came out. That’s when it hit me that the 2 years of recycled assignments from my high school Spanish class was worth the extra minutes all along. The mom smiled and thanked me in English, making me feel proud of my communication skills. It was a small moment, but enough to reveal that I wasn’t living a mundane life. 

What I never chased became a part of my identity and I became someone with special skills after all.