A Trip To Naran – From My Eyes – The New Kid In School
I entered the school, 5:30 am sharp, and almost everybody was there, in their groups, while I stood alone, in the dark, rethinking of why I signed up for this trip. There were a hundred people in total, and I knew just one guy, my childhood bud, Sheru. Trying to console myself, I said, well, at least there’s Sheru, but the moment I said that, the seating plans came in. We were on different buses. An 8-hour journey with complete strangers. Whattay start.
The bus I was on was a lively one, not going to lie, and luckily, I sat just in front of a really, really chatty group. It did seem annoying at first, but then I realized. Why wouldn’t they be like that? It’s what everybody’s supposed to do on a long journey with friends, you soulless piece of crap. Just because you had no friends there, doesn’t mean you got the right of being a killjoy.
After four long, tiring hours, we reached Balakot, our Pitstop. Sheru came and forced me to join his group. Because he knew I wouldn’t do anything on my own, and bore myself to death, eventually. That is when I met them, the amiable group. I comfortably sat in between them while they chatted about weird stuff, they even tried to pull me in their conversations. You know, it’s not easy, making new friends, when all you can say is, “hmm”, “yeah”, and, “haha”. But those guys didn’t give up on me. A sigh of relief ensued.
The buses were lining up, and it was time for me to return to my dead side. But not yet, the amiable group made room for me on their bus, and invited me there, on the party bus I heard stories about. And now, I was ready for it, the nonstop raving, the chanting, belting out till I lost my voice, I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my body. I fell asleep. Why, you might ask. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
Well, I didn’t sleep the entire time, I did wake up, chatted a bit with king Sanan, hummed some songs with Kaleem, and shared Marium’s excitement as the snowy peaks of Naran neared us.
We reached our destination, went straight to our rooms, and prepared for the night’s main event, the bonfire. I was in the lobby of the hotel with my camera, when a member of our school’s admin came to me and asked to cover the event. Which meant taking pictures of random people, socializing. I seized the opportunity, without giving it a second thought. I took countless pictures of random people. And now, a lot of strangers have my mobile number.
After I’d burned most of my camera’s battery, I went back to my room, to rest, because we were going to visit Lake Saif-Ul-Mulook, the main attraction of our trip, early the next morning.
No school trip is complete without misfortunes. Sadly, ours was not being able to see Lake Saif-ul-Mulook; due to blocked roads, at least that’s what I was told. We went hiking, instead. That made some people a little salty, at first, but everybody turned to their normal selves once the snow fights began. We trekked our way to a point where we’d get good pictures. While I was busy taking pictures of everybody, Aliza and Adeena were kind enough to take mine.
The departing trip was like the first one, except this time, guru Zartasha, who’s apparently a pro at socializing, was bullying me while Zoya was telling me about how joining this school was a mistake. Plus, all the rave environment died, and got replaced by discussions relating to depression, college acceptance and SAT scores. Our morale dropped with the altitude. We reached our school dropping here and there, due to exhaustion, and that’s how our trip came to an end.
Some would say what was the point of going, but honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
Remembering the people, not the place. Love ya’ll. X
RCI Millennium Campus, Islamabad.