I hated almost all of my time at the boarding school and, in any case, my first term was a disaster. I found it difficult to settle down. And my unhappiness was made worse because I was so unhappy at home. A happy home life gives you a base from which you can go into the world with confidence. But if life at home is difficult, life at the boarding school is almost impossible. Apart from having to keep a great many rules and customs, many of which seemed to me stupid, we were never allowed to be alone. You had to be with another boy at all times. I am extremely dependent upon being alone part of every day, compared with daily life at school was very hard for me, though the other boys managed fairly well.In the middle of the first term I developed a cough. The school nurse said it was "stomach-cough", what ever it may be, and gave me some pills. However, afterwards, playing football in a snowstorm, I suddenly could not breathe properly and was taken to hospital. Almost at once I was put in a small room with another boy who was very ill. He died and I nearly did. My main memory of my stay at the hospital was that the night nurse to get together in my room and play cards and chat. Keeping the light on and keeping me awake when I was seriously ill didn't bother them. When I had recovered I was sent home for a few weeks and missed a term.When I returned to school, I was sent to bed early because of my illness, and so managed to get a brief period alone every day. Later on, when I went into the senior part of the school, I was allowed to go to school library by myself, which was a great improvement.The day I left school, the headmaster said goodbye and asked whether it was a sad day for me. I replied that it was the happiest day of my life. He said I would come to think of my time at the school very differently. I said that I was sure that I would not. Though I have had unhappy days since that day, I have found that my conclusion then-that nothing afterwards could ever be so bad as the boarding school-have been proved true.
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