I was engrossed playing chess with my dad when somebody pulled me by my collar. It was my uncle reminding me of an exam I had to sit for in the next few hours.

My parents had been talking about getting me admitted in a far-away school. Those days I did not know why anyone in his/her right mind would go to a school 30 minutes away from home when there was a school nearby. But when guardians decide, it is “decided” once and for all. I had to sit for the exam.

I slept my way to the school thinking that it was going to take forever to reach there. But it did not turn out to be that far. I was still complaining, but the very next moment my jaws dropped looking at what a treat it would be to get admitted in the school that looked like a home away from home.

I found myself running around in the playground, once again forgetting the exam that I had to sit for.

This time my uncle grabbed me and shoved me into the examination hall.

Others had already been seated and were staring at me.

I returned home content with the experience of getting into that place which they call school. Ten days later, I was the happiest person on earth even when my dad scolded me for coming eleventh in the exam.

Now all I was waiting to do was to get back to Kathmandu and get into that new school.

Then I learned what it is like being a student of a SOS Hermann Gmeiner School. It is not just a school: I learnt and experienced that it is a home and collectively a village.

On that first day I also learnt that no one remained a newcomer the second day.

I was at my “home away from home” for five jubilant years. Now the day has come when I will have to leave this home of mine.

The five years I spent here were not just years of learning and fun. The years taught me the values of social service. Now that I have chosen a path of social service there will always be this consolation that even if I remain far away from my school, I will always be its proud member serving society in every capacity I can.

“We learn what we live” — and this is what I learnt at SOS Hermann Gmeiner School.