Redominatelife

Echoes of Adisadel: A Boarding School Experience That Lingers

Some places never leave you. They etch themselves into your mind, their presence flickering in and out of your dreams, long after you’ve moved on. For me, that place is Adisadel College, the all-boys boarding school where I spent three formative years. Though I graduated, I still find myself walking its corridors in my sleep, caught in fragments of memories that refuse to fade.

Boarding school was a world of its own—a mix of rigid discipline, unspoken camaraderie, and the constant struggle to carve out an identity among hundreds of teenage boys. It was a place where you had to be tough, or at least pretend to be. There was no escape from the chaos, no running home at the end of a rough day. The dorms, classrooms, dining halls, and fields became our universe, and within that universe, every experience was magnified.

I remember the early morning bells, the rushed baths, and the race to beat the roll call. I remember the food—some days tolerable, other days a test of endurance. I remember the seniors who could either be protectors or tormentors, depending on their mood and your luck. I remember nights when sleep came easy after a long day of classes and sports, and other nights when the weight of it all kept me awake.

The friendships forged in that environment were unlike any other. We saw each other at our best and worst—through screaming victories on the field at inter school competitions, through punishments endured together, through late-night talks about dreams that stretched far beyond the school walls. We shared laughs that made the hardships bearable and secrets that could only be entrusted to those who lived through the same madness.

Yet, for all the lessons and bonds, leaving wasn’t as simple as packing my bags and stepping into the next phase of life. Something about that place clung to me. Even now, years later, I sometimes find myself back there in my dreams—walking the same halls, hearing the same voices, feeling the same urgency of a schoolboy’s world. The setting changes, but the essence remains: a mixture of nostalgia, unfinished business, and a subconscious attempt to relive a past that shaped me in ways I’m still discovering.

Maybe some experiences aren’t meant to be fully let go. Maybe they linger as reminders of where we’ve been, shaping how we navigate where we’re going. Adisadel is a closed chapter, but its echoes still find me in the quiet moments, in the occasional dream, in the unshakable knowledge that those years mattered. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Until next time…