The flight of stairs… the scope of things…

Last year, on our trip to India, a bunch of school friends decided to check out our school campus. We walked all around, admiring, laughing, reminiscing… the jungle gym, the tree where the dabbawallas lefts the lunch boxes, the tamarind tree, we would pelt stones at, to make the tart brown fruit fall to the ground… there were a lot of giggles and a lot of nostalgia.

Sweet memories and misadventures went through our minds and it didn’t seem that long ago that we had scraped-up knees (moi especially), and fed our lunches (sorry moms) to the kites soaring high in the sky, willing to swoop down (rather scary) to get the food… Yes. We laughed and remembered - teachers, friends, quirks, funny happenings, strange activities, odd rules… but you know all about that. You’ve done the same at some point…

Of all things to make a big impact, were the stone stairs spread across the hockey field in an amphitheater-like manner, only straight. These grey, stony stairs separated our all-girls school from the campus of an all-boys school. Yes. Many stories there too.

I was almost in disbelief at how small the stairs seemed. They had always seemed so sweeping and regal and fortress like. True. We were little and perhaps, that was why the stairs seemed large. But again, at fifteen, when we left school, we really weren’t that little anymore.

So what changed? Our perspective? Our exposure to greater, bigger things? Our sense of wonder?

Was it just a reality check? Had we simply grown-up? Had we simply moved on and could not relate to the awe? Had the scope of things shifted? Had the scope of our lives shifted? Or had our humility changed?

I don’t know. I know that the stairs seem smaller than they once did. And that is the reality of today. My today. I know for sure that they had once seemed more majestic and magnificent. I wondered if I was just too grand for those stairs now. I wondered about my humility. Again.

When I look down, I can still see all the scars on my knees. So I know I must still be the same person. So what changed? The way I look at things? The scope of things? My humility?