Alumni point of view

“The Potter and the Clay.”

Memories are one dangerous thing because they give you this feeling of wanting to go back to those olden days, while you are here, with an old photograph or a letter in your shivering palm. My slam book is so full of mixed experiences and amazing memories that I am overwhelmed at its very sight. TIPS is the foundation of my life. “A school usually teaches you subjects and a few life lessons.” But we mostly forget that it actually ‘builds a person.’ I’m Shreya Gopal, a proud alumni of TIPS, who learnt life more than subjects, earned more friends than marks, made more memories than projects, wrote more screenplays than apologies, won medals more than scars, and who danced till the beat stopped, all on TIPS stage.

“You rise when you learn and fall when you lean.”

I entered TIPS as a tiny girl, wearing a pink shirt and a grey skirt, with little knowledge of what I’m supposed to do. I get stressed during my exams, but I had my friends’ love. Circumstances made me shift to another school, but I guess TIPS and I shared an inseparable bond. I came back, but this time I was a teenage girl wearing a white t-shirt and a navy skirt. Over the years, TIPS had grown more bricks and walls just as I had developed in muscles and height. So, where am I leading? TIPS transformed me from a caterpillar to a butterfly, slowly and steadily. I’m a proud student of TIPS. It might sound like a cliche, but it’s the truth.

“My school made me a prodigy!”

I remember, in my 7th STD, I got low scores in my biology test, and for that, I was motivated and not punished. Later, even my simple effort to make things better was prized, which kept me going. Until my 12th grade, I was an average student who excelled in dance, sports, drama, and writing, but nobody chained my legs or my mind; instead, they let this butterfly fly free, just chiseling here and there for perfection. One day, I got a call from my school saying that I was School third in the 12th board exams. My dad looked at me and said, “My daughter has achieved it. She made it.” But you know what? I did not do anything, it was my school, my teachers, the freedom and support they gave me, that made me do it.

“Go back to what makes you want to come back for signing an autograph.”

Even after 20 years of living, I still look up to the friends I made in TIPS, the teachers I got in TIPS, and I still live the life TIPS has fabricated for me. My expertise in language or any skill for that matter are the lessons from school. My uniform is old, my books are thrown, and my ID card is in the hanger, and yet, TIPS is not a stranger. Today, I’m a part of TIPS family, and I’m proud about it because I always wanted to be part of an institution that built me, gave me strength, brought me knowledge, unfolded my insecurities and dropped me on the most exceptional career space because without it, who am I?

Also read CAMBRIDGE SECONDARY PATHWAY AT TIPS