A single event that changed my life

A single event on one day changed my whole life. That one day came as the biggest surprise of my life. It also came as a gift to lucky me. They day was some day in March or April 1984. The place was the St Joseph\’s College in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was the day the results were to be announced for the 1983 December General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) Ordinary Level or O/L examination.

I went to school just like any other. But I came back with not like any other.  My expectations from the exam results were modest. There were eight subjects we all took. We could score D for Distinction (or A in many other countries), C for a Credit (or B or C in many other countries) or S for simple pass (D in many other countries). I remember when I was visiting Katharagama with my Buddhist relatives, a distant relatives closer my age, Ananda, Mali and I, visited a woman who was reading palms. She read my palm and told me to close my eyes and asked me to think of just one thing. Then she told me to open my eyes. She looked at my palm again and told me, you are thinking about something that makes your really worried and anxious. I was thinking about my forthcoming O/L results. Then she told me this, \”you will be rewarded beyond your expectations.\” I quickly forgot what she told me. But I was reminded of what this woman told me on the unforgettable day I am referring to in this blog. I was expecting 5Ds and 3Cs and I was being very modest and realistic. I remember we were all crowded around the office of the Vice Principle who had just received the huge results sheet from the Ministry of Education. That was a long computer printed results sheet containing results of all those who sat for the O/L exam in 1983. Of course, some teachers were more anxious than students. Some teachers managed to get into the room of the Vice Rector to get a sneak preview of the results. Their only objective was to see a) who has obtained the best results b) what was that best result. Mr. Livera who taught us Maths and Science in O/L was one such teacher who went into the room of the Vice Rector. He then came running out of the room so excited saying \”it is 8 Ds, it is 8 Ds\” So, I knew that the best result this year is 8 Ds or 8 As, which has not been achieved for O/L in the entire school history (with the exception of Fr. Don Peter, they say, who scored straight As in those day\’s SSC (Senior School Certificate) examination. Years prior to 1983, the best results have been either 6 Ds 2 Cs or 7 Ds 1 C. And then came the shock of my life. Mr. Livera was looking for someone and I heard my name, \”where is Sanjeewa Liyanage?, where is Sanjeewa Liyanage?\” I was thinking to myself, why he is shouting my name? He barely noticed me in the class? In fact I do not remember him ever calling my name? Then I saw him, his face beaming with pride, and came straight to me and shook my hand and told me \”you did it. You got 8 Ds.\” I could not believe him. I was really really shocked. I felt my mind going complete empty. This cannot be true? I know for sure I am not the smartest student in the 10S1. There was Manon, there was Channa, there was Radley and many others. In fact I only ranked 6th in overall ranking according to academic results. How can this be true? However, then I thought, Mr. Livera cannot be telling a lie either. How can he tell a lie so loudly in front of all my schoolmates? Then I thought, may be I have been really lucky and have obtained 8Ds. But there should be others like Manon, Channa and Radley too have scored the same. I must be one of those who scored this best results ever in my school. I could not believe this news until I really see this on paper. Altogether, all my classmates, including those who have never spoken to me were shaking hands with me. I did not know what to do or what to say. I had to confirm this news for myself. I did not have to queue as I was pushed to the front of the queue by others. There I could see Fr. Benedict Joseph, a priest I had tremendous respect for his gentle way of dealing with things, even when he was angered by my classmates during life education classes. He looked at me and shook my hand, and said, \”Congratulations, Sanjeewa!\” Then he took a yellowish piece of paper of A5 size with typed letters on it and started writing my results on it, D after D, after D after D. When he wrote the final D only I believed it that in fact I have become the luckiest man in the world, suddenly. I held this piece of paper in hand and walked out of his office and my close friends were outside waiting for me to and they all wanted to see the paper.

First to see was my best friend at that time, Ravi Samarasinghe. He hugged me and congratulated me. The paper went hand to hand, all my friends were congratulating me. I did not know what else to do than shaking their hands in return, saying thank you to each and everyone of them. I felt that it was a very awkward moment. I felt very bad for Manon,Channa, Radley, Rohitha Ganegoda, etc., who have not got 8Ds but got results close to mine. It was Sidath Edirisinghe who got 7Ds and 1C, which was the second best results that year. I took the paper, and sat on the stairs of the college chapel and stared at it again. It is real. It is real. It is real. It is not a dream. How can this happen. This is so surreal. The feelings that ran in my mind were incomprehensible. I felt extremely excited and happy. Yet I kept extremely calm. I went home and broke the news and my parents were elated. The news spread rapidly among the neighbourhood. That day changed my life. In my school, nobody like me became somebody. At least people knew my name from that day onwards. There was a sudden flow of respect from students as well as from teachers. I have made history, the first student to obtain 8As in GCE O/L exam at the St Joseph\’s College and best results of that year. I was awarded the certificate of best results at O/L during the College Prize Giving during the same year.

I was a bit disappointed that when I was awarded this prize no mention was made that this is for the first time a student in this school has done this. I thought about it later and two thoughts ran my mind on why it was not mentioned. First, I think the school did not want to announce that no other student have ever obtained this results until that year, while this results have been obtained by number of students in other leading schools like Royal College, Ananda College, etc. Second, I was a student from a very ordinary family, and in fact nobody. It if have been for someone else, there would have been a special mention. Again, I may be totally wrong that it has really been an oversight. But when I think of it, it is a too big of an oversight as everyone knew it and no one bothered to mentioned it.

Years later I called the school from Hong Kong to make an inquiry and a teacher answered. I told my name and the teacher told over the phone, \”of course how can we forget you? you are the first student to get 8Ds.\” So , at least in someone\’s memories it registered.