As if running in a school uniform wasn’t hard enough, mixed with the agonizing Haiti heat it was like the Devil himself had paid us a visit to make it way worse. As soon as the bell rang for recess, everyone in class knew what was going to happen. There was a portion of the class that always ran to a food stand to get food, and then there was us. We were the ones who risked our lunches to play the infamous game of tag. The moment we stepped foot outside the classroom, we were all on a battlefield and it was every man and woman for themselves.

The courtyard was sort of a long, square-shaped yard with classrooms surrounding it. There wasn’t much to the yard beside one water fountain at the end where kids would run to cool off. As for the ground, it was entirely concrete, so falls did get extreme at times. Everyone would gather around the water fountain, and once the tagger was chosen, the game was really about to begin. I was always the tiniest kid, but make no mistake, I was also one of the fastest. I remember tiny ol’ me getting ready to run as the game was about to start, and it’s still one of the best memories I can remember. Considering the yard wasn’t too big, there was always this tension in the air where you could just tell everyone was trying to find the best location to run to.

As the tagger counts to 30, everyone scatters around the courtyard, running for their lives. The sound of each countdown number was almost as obnoxious as an alarm ringing at six in the morning. The feeling of pure adrenaline
when the tagger says that the last number always rushed through my body faster than anything I knew.

There were many reasons the game brought me happiness, one of which was the fact that I was with some of my closest friends playing a game that became a tradition for us. Playing with everyone made everything else in the world go away. It didn’t matter that we’d have to go back to class after playing, it didn’t matter that we had homework. Nothing mattered because we were all lost in the moment playing a game we loved. I remember the sound of everyone yelling and repeating the name of the tagger as we all ran. We didn’t simply scream the tagger’s name. We didn’t do it normally, we used hyphens. For example if your name was Daïna, when we yell out your name, it would be Da-Da-ï-ï-na-na, and everyone playing the game would say it together out loud. It sounded like an entire choir harmonizing.

When the game got really intense and people started getting caught, that’s when I felt true terror. As I dodged everything and everyone around me, I could hear the screams of the others getting caught. The shrieks of my friends sounded like banshees in a scary movie, and they warned me that at any moment, I could be next. The thing about the game is that it is extremely fun, but the level of stress you feel when you’re trying not to get caught is absolutely terrifying.

One of the scariest and most stressful situations was when you were one of the last few people still standing. When there’s still a lot of people left in the game, it’s more likely that there won’t be too much attention on you; but when there aren’t many people left, the chances are way higher that they’ll come after you. There was always this tight feeling in your chest after running so much, and that’s when you knew your time was coming to an end because there wasn’t much else you could do. You were all worn out.

After everyone got caught, the fun didn’t stop. Everyone gathered together trying to catch their breaths because it felt like we had all run the race of our lives. As the bell rang for us to go back to class, everyone was still talking about the game. Either talking about how we got caught, how we fell while running, how tired we were, or anything else. The conversations usually continued in class until the professor was ready to teach, but it was overall pure happiness at that moment.

From a very young age, I grew up believing that if you didn’t have a lot or you weren’t as fortunate as others, then there are certain things you aren’t capable of feeling. For me, one specific feeling that I learned you could always feel even if you don’t have much, was happiness or fun. Every day playing that game with all of my friends brought me joy I know I’ll forever remember in my life.