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[spoiler=Essay: How I Spent My Summer]
So, how did I spend it?
In the first month of summer, new students arrived, including the DEMON Alidun Sirabe - Mudila Ebaris, in translation to Sakumorian.
Michaella Godwell (Dante keep her soul) - one of the few righteous people of Sakumor (though there may be some discrepancies here, especially lately) - decided to launch a petition to expel this very demon. So to speak, for the sake of ensuring he suffered no harm, and to give the faithful students the feeling that the process of exiling the demon would help cleanse the academy of the corrupting influence of ideas justifying his presence. Unfortunately, this petition had no effect - it was personally shut down by you, my highly respected adopted granddaughter. During an extracurricular lecture, you attempted to instill in us qualities conducive to accepting the demon despite his external and internal traits. As of now, I personally understand why you did this - the idea of expelling Alidun, though illegitimate, but to some extent a member of a high-ranking family, was distasteful to you and would have harmed the academy's prestige. Moreover, you knew him to a certain degree and were confident he wouldn't cause trouble. Nevertheless, from the perspective of us ordinary students, it was perceived as an arbitrary act by authorities overly detached from the student body to understand its true aspirations, but we had no choice but to relent and endure this event.
What else worth mentioning happened this summer? At the end of June, I got a part-time job at "Beznadega" - the local general store that holds certain significance for students. After one of the tournaments, I became concerned about the low penetration power of my katana. Yes, of course, much of this was due to my own inability to capitalize on the weapon's strengths, but have you ever tried wielding this weapon? I assume that on your part, you would be like a sylph, turning an ordinary battle into a dance, flawlessly striking down all opponents daring to raise a hand against you. As for me, my own efforts seemed inadequate compared to the level of skill this weapon would require. In trying to solve the problem, I visited the local weaponsmith - the vendor Ira at "Ira's Arsenal" (by the way, they are closing and selling off their entire arsenal at a discount until mid-October - hurry to stock up) - who revealed a sad truth: the katana is an exotic weapon in Sakumor, not available in regular sales. However, to her credit, she suggested I contact Yumiko Evgenyevna Laurinova - the so-called "beautiful child," a vendor from the aforementioned "Beznadega," who owned this personal weapon and might have access to the appropriate supply channels. Fortunately, this turned out to be entirely true. After a brief negotiation with Yumiko, during which I applied all my communication skills honed in various pre-school life settings, I managed to strike a temporary contract with her for four months of work as a salesgirl in that shop for zero rails, at the end of which I would receive a katana from Aokami as payment. Now, in hindsight, I realize Yumiko likely profited far more from my employment than she spent on the order. But still, I am grateful that this opportunity was given to me, because a student who chooses the katana as their primary weapon at NAILS is doomed to suffer if they don't venture beyond the default school selection, and doing so is quite difficult.
Then came July.
Nothing particularly interesting happened this month, except for the school president elections. Initially, I didn't even think about running, but two things forced me to do so. First, the system for organizing the election program required using one idea of my own and two proposed by someone else. I chose my idea to be as harmless as possible and in line with my own views on how things could be better. Some other ideas appealed to me on their own, and I wanted to see them implemented in a certain way that I thought would make them more beneficial. So I reasoned that after my inevitable loss, at least my interpretation of these ideas would be heard from the stage, and perhaps plant a corresponding seed in the plans of the winning classmate and the hearts of other students. Second, some of the proposed ideas seemed utterly wild to me but capable of garnering significant votes. Therefore, I admit I deliberately entered these elections as a spoiler candidate to try to siphon off some votes that might have gone to competitors of the pair of candidates whose victory I truly wanted. However, to my surprise, I overestimated the level of competition - most candidates were from my own class, whereas I thought they would have to compete against a larger number of opponents from across the school. Apparently, few were interested, or perhaps class I simply had the most potential leaders. But that wasn't my only miscalculation - the actual speeches of some candidates were not what I expected them to be, which contradicted my initial plan.
I can't say I didn't fantasize a couple of times about being a dark horse, unexpectedly winning this contest, and sitting in a huge presidential chair with my feet not reaching the floor, hidden behind massive stacks of papers covering the desk, but those fantasies remained just that, and I certainly never took them seriously. On top of that, I got a bit nervous while delivering my prepared speech and had to improvise in places. Yet, to my surprise, I actually won the election, with a decent lead over the other candidates. Unfortunately, no observers were provided for the vote-counting procedure, and given the specifics of the staff who conducted it, as well as my innate suspicion of all aspects of top-down social institutions, I have some doubts about the absolute reliability of this count, but since I have no direct evidence, I can only express gratitude to my fellow voters for their trust. It's a great pity that you were in Aokami on a diplomatic mission at the time and missed the ceremony. Your presence there would surely have smoothed over some of the rough edges in its organization.
As for the final summer month - for me, it was primarily marked by a huge amount of extra work that piled up due to my popular appointment as president. I had to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort mastering new areas; at some points, I was ready to just give up, drop everything, and curl up on the floor or under the covers in a fetal position, but a sense of responsibility to the voters who cast their ballots for me (and even those who didn't), as well as your help with many of these issues, helped me get through these steep hurdles. Yes, there will be even more work ahead, and it will be even harder, but at least by now I've gotten the hang of it a bit, rather than stumbling around in corners like a blind kitten.
Beyond the main workload, I also had to work on fulfilling my campaign promises. This required me to delve into the personal affairs of my classmates, talk to them, and observe their behavior in public. I am not inclined toward these things and never planned to do them consciously, but my duties forced me. Looking back - so far, I've expended far more effort on all these matters collectively than the benefit I've received, and that's not a very uplifting thought, but I suppose that's life in general?.. Sweat like crazy, go all out, and achieve, if you're lucky, even one percent of your expectations.
Among the more or less decent things in August, perhaps I can mention that I managed to establish some contact with a couple of students from other classes. You could say we achieved some, at least basic, level of mutual understanding. A photography lesson helped in part - gathered as a team working toward a common goal, we were able to abstract from pressing issues and focus on pouring our souls and ideas onto photographic paper. And as far as I could tell, many other teams managed this too, so perhaps, due to its practical nature and the corresponding scene and atmosphere, this has been one of the most useful lessons so far for developing relationships between representatives of different, even if by default rival, classes.
And finally, two interconnected things. First, I managed to complete my work at the curiosity shop one shift earlier than planned. Thanks for that should go to its owner, with whom over these long months we reached a certain level of acquaintance. Of course, this wasn't purely out of the goodness of her heart, and I had to take some extra steps, but regardless - I was able to obtain my weapon exactly on time before the final quarter physical education duel tournament. At first, I was a bit unsure how fair this approach was - using non-standard school equipment for a school combat event - but that feeling vanished instantly once I saw many classmates arriving with non-standard modifications. I suppose we can admit that spending time or material resources to improve the combat effectiveness of one's tools is no worse than spending the same time on, say, bench press exercises; it's just applied to a different strategic-tactical direction. Anyway, I think I performed quite well in that tournament, though I would have liked to do better. I think, under favorable circumstances, I might have even had a shot at first place.
Well, I suppose that's everything that happened this summer that could be related in this standard school essay. Not that all ninety days were so eventful, but those few memorable moments have left a lasting impression on my mind and heart for the rest of my life. After all, nothing like what happened to me this summer at this school had ever occurred before, and this valuable life experience has certainly had a profound and indelible impact on me. For the better? Let's hope so.[/spoiler]
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Heroist
