The last quarter of every grade level has always been stressful and mine was no exception.

In the final two weeks of the last quarter of Grade 8, my friends and I arrive at school with baggy bloodshot eyes as we push ourselves completing our yearly clearance. The deadlines were creeping, quizzes were alarming, and our homeworks and seatworks were kicking our butts.

We were stressed out of our minds, and we knew we couldn’t handle any more requirements. We were cramped for time and still got a lot of deadlines to go through. However, there was this one minor subject that broke the camel’s back.

A precious older teacher that we respect smiled at us and said in the warmest of voices that we would be assigned to create a 8-page minimum documentation that contains all major entrepreneurs in the county along with their family lineage, origins, business partners, and branches with the appropriate references in a single week.

We were pissed!

So, you’re telling us to create a whole damn documentation in a week where there’s a deadline and quiz every single day?! This is unacceptable! We would be fine with if it’s said earlier than usual, but this? This was rushed! We have deadlines in place woman!

She was basically saying: Hey! I know you kids are busy for this clearance thing, so here’s a project that even major subjects can’t hold a candle to! Hahahaha! Enjoy the week my dear students! I’ll make your life harder than it is already. And she smiles as if nothing ever happened.

My classmates tried to negotiate with this elder teacher, but she wasn’t budging. What’s even worse she even declared that this would be the final project that would make 25% of grade. What is this bullshit?

That teacher instantly went from the kind person we loved to the most avoided demon all in 15 minutes and stayed that way until I graduated.

Later that day, I immediately finished that stupid project. I remember finishing so fast because I didn’t care anymore. My tired butt can’t deal with the emotions of worry or anxiety as I wrote and paraphrased what I found, and I couldn’t care less whether they were true or not.

When I finished the project, I was so happy that I couldn’t help but post it on my section’s Facebook private group. I acted as if I cared about my classmates, but they didn’t know that I posted it because I was there to stroke my ego. I finished it first, so praise me! Yeah, I was an attention-seeking and arrogant brat at that time.

When I posted the project, I received the praise and banter that I craved and passed my project the following morning. I thought that was the end of it.

Unknown to me at the time, a certain popular classmate of mine began sharing my project to other sections as well. In less than two days, the paper was being passed around section to section without me even knowing.

There was a time at the library, where some students from my batch approached me and thanked me out of nowhere. I was confused. Why did they thank me for? I asked them and told me it was nothing and I didn’t have to worry about it.

It was only when I was in the middle part of Grade 9 that I knew that they were talking about my paper. When I knew, I laughed my ass off. What’s even more funny was that the people who passed my paper around dubbed it ‘The Paper.’ They treated it as some sort of drug.

It does make sense though. Imagine going through a stressful environment, then they found something that would ease their worries that’s why they called it that way. Well, this was according to the people who told me.

They also said that the older teacher was getting weirded out since she found that most of our projects are similar to each other.

Looking back, I’m lucky that I got away with it.

Imagine me doing that in college. I would immediately get caught thanks to plagiarism checkers. Some idiots might send the same documentation without even editing and would get all of us in trouble.

There was an instance at that time when I saw my paper on my teacher’s table. I decided to check it out, but it wasn’t mine! It was my classmate’s. He literally only changed the name of the project. I was so pissed when I saw it. Why didn’t you bother editing the details, so it won’t be more obvious idiot!

In hindsight, I should never have done that. It was such a risky move just to satisfy my childish ego.

However, I can confidently say that most of the students in my batch wouldn’t have graduated without that paper. It’s all thanks to me that they were able to advance the next grade.

Heh, my ego’s more satisfied than ever. What a genius plan, past me.