Monday, May 10, 2010

Out of routine


I went through a forest to get to school. How strange does that sound? Why did Heidi want to get to school that badly that she had to trek though soil, fallen dead leaves and tree roots?

To be honest, I did think of giving up and returning home. Twice. But since I am such a goody-two-shoes, I stuck out to the end. Now you know the end of this particular story, you might be wondering what led to it. Don't worry, you won't have to back-track far.

You see, as with all typical Mondays, I slept in. It was a cold morning (as with all other mornings of the week..) and that is all you need for an excuse to stay nice and warm under your blanket with the electric heater turned on. As a result, I was late for my bus. (though I suspect the 518 bus arrived earlier than usual- I was at the busstop only one minute late..) I took the 501 bus, which arrived 15 minutes later, an awful long time that I spent debating whether if I should return home and slumber on. I did not, however.

The 501 bus, unlike 518, brings me to the back of my school, which usually requires a walk through the meandering gardens of the horticulture faculty. I quite like the gardens actually, and would gladly take this route if I could wake a little earlier to catch the early 501 since the garden route takes abit more time. I think by this time it is quite obvious that I was late for school.

Coincidentally, the gardens were closed for a huge make-over, the entire horticulture section was walled-up. One of the construction worker, on his way out, had kindly told us the alternative route to school. Now enter Chris, my classmate who was in the bus with me. While following the given advice, Chris had discovered a little path which looked like a short-cut to school. Perhaps it was our over-eagerness to get to class, we dumbly took the short-cut. It wasn't before long that we realised something was wrong.

The short-cut itself was under construction as well. Great. Faced by a dead end, my only natural response is to turn back and continue with the advised path. Chris thought a little differently and for that I really admire him. He gave his surroundings a good scan-over and said to me: okay, now, we create our own path. Just like that, relying on Chris' sense of direction, we deviated from the stone path and headed for school.


Yes, and that was Chris' chosen path, the fastest way to get to school. He chose to climb a rather steep slope. (above) We stood there for a while, contemplating. This was when I thought for the second time: I want to go home... Then Chris turned around and said: "well, I can climb this. But I don't know if you can..." I wished I said something along the lines of: Of course I can, lead the way! But at that moment, I think I muttered: "let's go..." in a small small voice.

Clutching at dried bushes, trees and Chris' helping hand, together, we spilled onto the bright sunny school field, with lots of soil and dried twigs in my shoes and a few weird stares from passerbys. Thanks Chris. We made it to class, slightly late.

Now you ask, why did I want to get to class so badly? There was a test, duh. Who would want to go to class?

2 comments:

Bean Sprout's Cafe said...

hahahahahahahahahahaha....

still can't imagin which way u were climbing.. I normally took 501 bus and now u know it took lots of effort to go school..lol

Heidi said...

trust me, you wont want to go the way i did... but yeah, now i understand how you managed to keep slim after eating all that pastry we made in school. :P