New Era, New Age

A few years pass ever so swiftly. It's actually incredible. I'm definetly experiencing the life of someone who's only 5 years old. I got my memories of 90 years of life time and they don't seem to matter at all to the emotinal state of this body, to me.

It doesn't strike me as odd though, only a little shocking, but I heard the the human brain can hold a few petabytes of memories. I start thinking about how many life times that would be, and question, "Is there a limit to this reincarnation thing? Is it one time only? Or something that happens repeatedly? I'm actually WAY too young to worry about that".

I seem to have mastered the local language from usage, however, that is my native tongue and my parent's native tongue. I'm not sure how many more languages are there in this world. I'm not sure if this is the absolute right course of action, but I make sure to be relatively physically active. I don't even bother with desserts and keep my eyes on what my mother is cooking to make it easier for me in the future to immediatly pedal in an athletic direction.

Throughout conversation with my parents, I managed to get some valuable information, like the fact that I will go to school only at the age of 10. But that's not all, school is only for 3 years! After that, there's higher education that is towards occupations of this world. This one is also for 3 years. Meaning, if I want to start my journey in this world I actually have to start by studying, and then I should be ready in the age of 16.

A few years pass, and I'm almost 10, but it seems school starts for everybody who will turn 10 at that first year. The time has come and tomorow is the big day. I can't bring myself to fall asleep from the excitement. This reminds me of the excitement before a school trip, roughly 90 years ago. I remember that on occasions like this It's better to at least lie down. My body suddenly listens to me and I fall asleep soundly, as the course of that last 100 years seems to be able to also "eat" the excitement. "If I focus...", I realize, "I can milk my years of experience living through what is a human mechanism, that is, a human body, regardless of which one is it. Operating it now seems easier than ever".

I wake up early. Before my parents have a chance to wake me up. They usually get up really early because they find it convenient to go hunt at these hours. They notice me while getting ready and my mother says something about an "early bird". I can't really hear because I'm brushing my teeth but I assume she complimented me on that. This world's soap is like the old solid soap. The tooth brush seems pretty much identical but is made of wood, and the tooth paste is edible, smells better and tastes better. (I'm making myself gigle a bit by thinknig about how as a product, it lacks the information about nutritional values and calories).

My parents take me to school by foot. It takes some time but after roughly 10 minutes, I start to see the village. As we go into the village I see guards, and a lively market. Every now and then I see a kid walking with their parents, probably like me, for the first day of school. I also notice everyone who looks my age is not only in that similar position, but, in fact, are either with their parents just like me, or look older than me. I realize something. I've never been here before although this is our village, even if we live in the outskirts. The fact that I can't see anyone below my age is probably due to the same reason. Others are probably the same. In fact, although I've never left the boundaries of our house, my life has been very lively and I got a lot of teachings and home schooling from my parents. As we get to the school grounds, which seem like a bigger building built in the same relatively old wood style, I see some kids going out of the school crying, with their parents seemingly disappointed as well.

"Dad, why are they sad?" I ask. "Well, this is something you see here all the time" my dad explains. "In the first day of school there's an entrance exam. If you have been properly home schooled, which you have - it shouldn't be any problem at all, and it's not any different from any other days in school for you to come, I wouldn't even mention it to you otherwise since I don't want you stressing for no reason, while it is gonig to be undoubtedly easy for you. However, for parents who didn't make it to school - it's very hard to prepare their child for what's to come. As a matter of fact, this makes that problem rather hereditary, since if their child can't make it next year, or the year after that, they might face the same problem one day with their children".

I look back at them, and move forward into the school. This is the first time in my life that I feel privileged, yet I feel so bad for them. I hope I don't get to feel like that one day. I step with my parents into the first building and the teachers seem to recognize my mother.

"Nana! Is this your son? He is adorable!"

"Yes! And he looks just like his father but with my face", my mom replies.

"OH! That lucky bastard!"

They keep the covnersation going for a while. I learn that my mother was the top of her school. I wonder how well my dad did so I asked him.

"I barely got into the school. My parents were the same, but your mother tutored me herself, so I managed thanks to her." My mother was always astounding, I see. She grabs my hand and takes me to the exam room herself with a bunch of other kids. I sit, and after rules and punishments for cheating are explained, the test begins.

I see that there are no questions about history or math, and most of the questions are about human morale, values. This might be just one version of the test, and if so, this might be the hardest version of it, as it creates though lines of thought for a 10 years old, not to mention, these are open questions that require a full explanation. "I got this", I think none the less. Most of the questions are regarding appreciating others, and taking care even of strangers. The last question got me baffled a bit, though.

"Had you lived for a 1,000 years, what should you do?"

I answered: "Asking this of a kid whose not even 10 years old, will just craft an answer that can be agressively overwritten by their own self in the future. Ask me that next year, and if my answer remains unchanged, it's probably for a good reason".

After a few minutes the test is over. It almost took me the entire 30 minutes we had, but it wasn't close or anything, there were a few mintues left in the end. I guess the open questions were indeed a tough version of this test.

The tester takes the papers from everybody, and roughly going over the answers as she picks them up. She takes mine and immidietly skips to the bottom part of the test. She is taken aback, impressed, making a surprised face and look at me for a few seconds, before continuing.

After it's finished, the tester goes to my mother who waited on the side. She whispers something to her, and I barely manage to grasp my mother's face, while the shadow covers her eyes as I'm seeing her from behind, and she developes a little smile. It seems this entire section passed the exam. "Could these be officialy allocated by difficulty?" I wonder, knowing that if my parents didn't even tell me about the test, maybe there are more expectations from some known names' children ,"or maybe there were just a lot of sharp minds this year?"

They take us to class and the teacher explains that in 30 minutes - after the last testing session, class will begin. I overhear some kids talk about their questions. Some of them I've seen in that room, and others I haven't. Seems like everyone gets a random test after all and there is only one class, per grade I assume.

After around 20 minutes, a beautiful girl sits next to me, with red hair like my mother's, and eyes that are black as opal. The class starts.