Convinced I look like an owl (wise and lacking sleep) in the graduation regalia, I settled down for my virtual graduation ceremony.

I scrolled through the participants to get a glimpse of the people I shared a classroom with, before changing the layout to fit my best friends in one frame. It was a chore, but hey, I had the most beautiful faces on my screen.

The next one-and-half-hour was brimmed with nostalgia, but there was still space for motivation and zeal. In the end, through sending virtual clapping emoji, we were done with our "school life."

However, a few months after goodbyes were officially said, the reality of it suddenly hit me as I saw the juniors prepare for school. I realised there were no more uniforms, no more heavy backpacks and no more strict hair styling rules — I could finally highlight my hair and no one would be bothered.

My friends and I, unsurprisingly, failed to realise every single plan that was made for the last two years in school. On top of that, we lost the opportunity to go on any school trips as well. Be it sleepovers or a trip to Sylhet, unfortunately, none of them came to fruition.

An average human spends about 15 to 16 years in school. The transition from school to university is a big one. A very big one. It's a transformation that is meant to be celebrated and cherished. But it feels like we lacked the closure required to appreciate these new beginnings.

We never got to have that "cinematic separation." Growing up, we had been anticipating the day we would all take flight and find our places in the world. It's sad to think we may never see some familiar faces again, and we never got the grand farewell we all had planned for each other.

It doesn't matter who moved out and who stayed back. We won't be sharing the same classroom anymore. Now that schools have reopened, the classroom chairs and cafeteria benches will no longer remain empty but we won't be a part of it anymore.

The library books may be cleaned, the dust removed, but not the traces we left in them, right? We must have made an impact; we must have left a mark.

I remember walking through the corridor with my friend discussing the predicted yet spontaneous school closure, back in March 2020. Little did I know that the day I left the campus for a "two-weekclosure" would casually become the last day attending classes under that roof.

The reopening of schools may be a joyous occasion for many, but it also brings a wave of resentment for the ones who have been robbed of the experience of a distinct "last day of school."

Riyana is an introvert self-debating on whether she is an INFJ or INFP. Send her memes on introversion and MBTI personality tests on Instagram at @_raya_riyana_