uzla29 
Maybe not everyone has experience in skipping classes but I am still not the exception. I skipped classes – many times. (*I am talking about the time later than high school. There is no such concept as skipping classes in elementary/junior high school. Don’t even think about it)
If students’ occupation is to study at school, in the classroom, where do those skippers go instead? My case, I used empty classrooms. The closer to the classroom you were supposed to be sitting in, the better. It was not to be thrilled or to feel guilty. I just liked school. School is where you meet your friends and where you can try out all your ideas in your head by pretending it’s a part of your studies.
So I used to spend time right next to my own classroom. Knowing that you have completely missed the class and are getting “absent” on your teacher’s book, the time I could spend with my friend (she was also skipping another class, obviously) felt more precious.
Of course we didn’t always stay at school (if we were skipping classes). There was 7/11 right next to the school. There were restaurants, ramen shops, supermarkets, doughnut shops, drug stores, department stores, and if you wished, a 5 minutes walk to the station to move somewhere else.
However, one place I didn’t stay was a coffee shop. Drinking a cup of coffee at a cafeteria with some typical classical music playing wasn’t my option. First of all, coffee was a poison drink for me.
Now believing that I am fully grown up (or just “old”) I would rather go to a coffee shop than paying no more than 100 yen for a cup of too-hot-instant-coffee at a fast food chain. I don’t go to school anymore. I don’t have to stay at the office for a fixed time. I can go anywhere I want and no one will tell me that I missed a new formula in maths class or didn’t hear the teacher’s freezing cold joke.
OK, maybe I can still say that I am sabotaging a mission given by Fusa (our CEO) but as long as it looks like everything is going well on the surface, I will not be the one to be blamed. I just sip my perfect-temperature-drip-coffee.
I can even order a basket of fries. Maybe I will have another cup of coffee. I could offer an ice cream for that high school student who’s been studying for hours. I have coins, I have time! No one is stopping me! I have freedom!
… Hmm. I kind of miss being obliged to attend something. I don’t think I am looking for an opportunity to go back to school but I would love to experience skipping classes again. This is what you cannot buy with your Mastercard. Precious. Skipping classes is not a good thing. But Precious.
Sato Tajima – December 17, 2021