The most loving winter holidays I ever spent! 

By Pranshi Srivastava

Winter holidays are a time in which students usually like to decompress and plan the upcoming year. It usually begins 2-3 days before Christmas and ends 3-4 days after the arrival of the new year. 

My winter vacation began on the 22^nd of December and I was quite excited to end the last holidays of the year with my friends and family. 

I remember consuming a lot of diverse varieties of food items and also having a lot of fun on the last day of school. 

After the school day ended, I bid my friends goodbye and also wished them to have a delightful end to the year and a pleasant new year. 

After I reached home and freshened up, I started packing for my 4-day camp to Panvel. This camp was organised by IMSF(Indian Martial Arts Shito-Ryu Federation). 

I was going to this camp to take my black belt exam and also to gain the experience of independent living. 

I was expected to leave for this camp on the 26^th of December and return on the 30^th of December.

Soon, I started packing all the essential commodities I would require for the trip such as toiletries, outfits, jackets and more. I also picked up a party outfit as we were going to have a party on the last day of the camp.

Nevertheless, I had to pack a lot of warm clothes as we were going to stay at a chilly place. I also packed up a pocket mirror, incase there was no availability of a mirror in the room.

A day before I had to leave i.e. 25th December, I started feeling very homesick. I didn’t feel like going away from my home and family. All I wanted was to stay at home and spend time with my family.

Despite that, I tried convincing myself that I would have fun and would enjoy it if I went on the trip. It was a heart-wrenching decision to stay away from my family for 4 days and manage everything alone. Still, I kept giving myself hope that everything was going to go the right way. 

On the day of reporting to a given location, i.e.26^th of December, I was quite nervous and emotional. All my mind told me was not to go and not be a part of the camp. Nevertheless, I picked up my luggage and with my parents, went to the reporting site, where the bus was going to pick up several other children like me. I felt a bit vulnerable a tried my best not to cry. After the bus left, I started feeling a bit better as I was able to see a lot of buildings and the rising sun. 

The appearance of the sky was magnificent and was quite soothing. Within 40-50 minutes, we reached our destination and it was a quiet and peaceful one. There were a lot of pet birds and rabbits in the resort. There was also a cute, young puppy who was running here and there. A lot of chattering was going on as everyone was deciding which rooms to stay in. 

After an hour, all of the students were allotted rooms and were asked to come for lunch after freshening up. We quickly picked up our luggage and rushed towards our rooms. After freshening up and scanning the room, we noticed that it was time to go for lunch.

After we came back after having our lunch, we felt tired and wanted to sleep. Not long after I and my roommates had laid down to rest, we were told that we were going to have practice in an hour. All of us were very disappointed as we wanted to rest and sleep. Still, we got ready and attended the practice. After coming back from practice and having our lunch, we all played the game of atlas and slept peacefully.

Our reporting time for the day was 6:00 AM and we woke up at 5:00 AM. After bathing in chilly cold water, all of us started getting ready and then a sudden realization hit us, we all were late. We all started rushing towards the hall. When we stopped to catch our breath, we saw a girl running and asked her what the time was. While panting, she replied, “Two minutes to 6:00 AM”. Saying this she ran away and so did we.

After running at our highest speeds, we reached the hall, and guess what, we were a minute early. This sense of accomplishment gave us the strength to climb the stairs. After we entered the hall, we did yoga and some exercises, which relieved us of the body pain we experienced in the morning.

An hour later, we had our breakfast and did some practice, and thereafter had our lunch. By the time we came back after eating our dinner, we were very tired and had no strength to do anything. Remembering what had happened to us this morning, we went to bed early so that such a thing could not happen the other day.

On the last day, we had our exam and were very tired after we gave it. All of us were experiencing body pain but when we remembered that we were going to have a party, all our body pain suddenly vanished. We wore the best outfits that we had and also applied a bit of makeup. After clicking a few pictures, we went to the cafeteria, where we were served with a tasty variety of food. All of us were delighted after eating such tasty varieties and felt that we had regained our energy. 

After dinner, we went to the disco, where we danced our hearts out. We also had a campfire and we all danced around it as well. It was a cheerful and energetic night where all of us had the moment of our lives.

While I was returning from the camp, I remembered how homesick was feeling before coming to the camp and how I felt not to be a part of it. However, in the end, I was happy that was returning home with happy memories and a memorable experience.