Page 160 - Eucalyptus 2020

Liya Benoy

Kodai was my home for three years and I'm so sad to be
leaving it on such an abrupt note. I've had the most
amazing memories here that I'll never forget, met the best
people, and had the most life-changing experiences.
Whether it was watching the view from the spot, being
impulsive and reckless, going for cheese naan at punjabi
dhabba, or sleeping on library lawn between classes, it
was fun.
Even if we didn't get as much time as we thought we
would, we still made the most of it. All the times we stayed
up talking about too-deep-to-be-healthy stuff, arguing
about buffalos and butterlies (we're definitely buffaloes :),
KNDY girls/jungle gang/hippies for life), running around
dorm getting ready together for every event, SP (don't
forget hygiene), "love that for you" (maddie and benz circa
2019, with mon plon-qu, zaza, mongla arhanyu, shaniqua
eera, and shrutts: "smh"), "church", bad hair dying, sai son
marguerite, f*ckboi tutorials with raehan, and crying,
laughing, ogling, doing everything together. And let's not
forget worshipping the purple pill packet.
Even the small things left an impact. Like lemon tea on the
roadside, trying to row without drowning in poondi , binging
kdramas, trying to cook ramen right (and failing miserably),
running in and out of dorm cause we're always late for
KUSHAAL MATHEW everything, trying to make it on tiktok so we can forget
about exams (that worked out), and our failed PPs, . Even
having tiny picnics, and singing karaoke, spilling tea and
I watched taare zameen par right before joining kodi school, so that painted a picture of what boarding school would be like in India. I was actually spilling tea, playing basketball with invisible
reluctant to leave my friends in Bangladesh, especially my best friend Azaan, who is the reason I play football. opponents, fighting over which movie to watch and never
end up watching it, dancing in quad-shot, having
The first person I met was my roommate, Manav Patel. Ngl I was very surprised but later I found out he’s truly the nicest guy in the whole sleepovers that took weird turns, beat-boxing how much
school. He didn’t know English very well and I didn’t know Hindi well, so my first impression of Kodi was that I would not fit in. I further backed
wood would a wood chuck chuck. Whatever these three
this impression by meeting Aydn, Micah, Jakob and Dominik on the first day of school as they laughed at me when I cried (Domi didn’t laugh).
Jakob mockingly took me to the washroom to wipe my tears. Little did I know that these guys would be my best friends for life. years were, I loved every minute of it.

In 7th grade I met some special people. Ishan followed me from Bangladesh to Kodi, I hope he doesn’t follow me in the future. I consolidated
my friendship with Rohaan and Jake through sleepovers where we’d hop on roofs and hide from the guards with the rest of the boys. I met
Oshir, who was patient with me and never failed to put a smile on my face. I met Mr. Sarthak who inspired me to use my imagination and
never grow up. I met Pranay the dripster, it was very convenient being his friend. Football at kodi was made special because of Awad, who was
also my ACL-Meniscus injury buddy.

I got to be a part of the U-14 team that got thrashed against Lawrence 4-0. I also got to be a part of the A-team that won Ooty for two
consecutive years. In 8th grade Ayush POPATLAL joined. Idk why, but Jakob insisted that we all become friends with him. We made a lot of bad
decisions as friends but letting Ayush join the squad was probably the worst one yet. Gakhael joined and I hated her on her first day of
school, but she ended up being one of my best friends on the last. Sohan soon graduated and finally no one was asking me, “how aren’t you
as big, handsome, or strong as your brother?”

Time flew by extremely quick and I was finally the captain of the A-team, the student council president and most importantly, a Lochend boy!
Mr. Sam, Marc, Akum, Uday, Arjun, Zeejid, Kush, Pagaar, Arvaav, Aditya, Parth, Neel, Aryavardhan and last and very much the least, Haryansh,
were very naughty boys. They lightened my days up every day. Rehan and Sener joined me and were the biggest contributors to making my
senior year absolutely wonderful. Rikzim never managed to take a bad photo of me except for the one on her first day of school where my
smile was as big as could be. I hope this pandemic gets over soon so I can give y’all a hug. People kept coming and going but the memories
are everlasting, and that’s a fact. Lastly, I wanna thank my parents for all the sacrifices they’ve made to give me a wonderful life and for
sending me to Kodi.