I felt the tingles at the soles of my feet as I walked through the massive metal gates that shielded the school from the public eye. Far ahead stood the strong brick and mortar. The brown and white coats of paint attracted the rays of the morning sun. Three buildings merged into one. Each contained four floors with long narrow balconies. A magnificent building on a dramatic landscale.

I had lost my mother four weeks before my application to this school. For the very first time in my life, I felt completely alone. My father had died suddenly of an undiagnosed coronary heart disease four years before the road accident that led to my mother’s abrupt ending. The shock of her death shook my very existence. I became an orphan unexpectedly and I didn’t know how to move on. The first few weeks after her death were particularly difficult. I was lost and lonely and I missed her in manners words couldn’t explain. Two decades after her demise, I still do.