School is filled with funny stories of weird characters, classic scrapes, mischief, and mayhem!

Something funny that happened to me at school: How my school achieved world peace in 6 hours!

However, I can assure you none of these stories is as insane as the one I’m about to tell you. Believe me, when I say “something funny that happened to me at school“, I mean something ridiculously funny happened to me at school.

My School:

Before I can tell you my “something funny that happened to me at school story,” I have to give you some background.

I went to school in Dubai. Our school culture was a mix between British and American high school life, but I would say we leaned towards U.K culture more. We were following the British board exam system, after all.

One American tradition we had was the senior prank. For those of you who don’t know, the senior prank is when high schoolers in their last year of the school play a massive prank on the school (friends and faculty included). The prank can be organized by the whole class or just a few loose cannons. Either way, the senior prank is the basis for most  “something funny that happened to me at school” stories.

The difference in our senior prank culture was that we played our pranks in year 10, not year 12. Year 10 was the last year before 6th form (board exams), and after year ten, students would have special study rooms which they wouldn’t leave come hell or high water! Year 11, 12 and 13 (yeah, some schools have a year 13! And you thought your school was bad!) were like mythical creatures you would see once in a blue moon, usually crying into a textbook or asleep on a bench!

The 6th form was not going to be fun!

As a result, year 10 was also technically the oldest class in school, meaning that they had the most power. Younger grades feared the tenth graders because they had years of experience, connections and were generally invincible. I will never forget on my first day of grade 10, wearing my new black and white uniform, a girl in the uniform for 7th grade bumped into me and started profusely apologizing.

Before I could say anything, she ran away, whispering to her friend, ‘I can’t believe I just bumped into a senior!’

The sixth form as a collective was also the smallest batch as most students went to coaching institutions or got enrolled in college early. This is why it was so important to have one last hurrah before the sixth form took it all away.

School Functions:

Whenever something funny happened to me at school, you can bet that it happened at a school function.

Our school celebrated diversity.

Our school was notorious for its school-wide events. Some notable ones included world book day, where every student had to dress up like a character from a book, and national day, where we celebrated U.A.E national day by watching performances and going around different cultural stalls (food, henna, and other trinkets). However, none of these events was nearly as significant as the international day.

International day was an annual event where every classroom was assigned a different country that they had to represent. This meant decorating the room in the style of the country, creating informational presentation boards, bringing in food and drink from that country, and much much more.

Usually, the younger classes outshone the older ones by lightyears. Walking into 6th grade on an international day was like walking through a portal to another world. Whilst the older classes may not have done as well as the eager children; the annual ‘world tours’ were the highlight of the school year. Furthermore, everyone got to dress up in their country’s national dress.

In a multicultural city like Dubai, this meant an explosion of color and confidence that you didn’t want to miss. Absolutely nobody skipped an international day!

This is where our story begins.

Something Funny That Happened to Me at School:

It was an ordinary morning, or as ordinary as it could be on an international day! I had rocked up to school in a mint green Anarkali, dupatta billowing behind me. I was an ambassador to Ukraine, but I would be representing Indian pride in all its silken glory!

My class, 10th B, was setting up as usual. We had a smattering of traditional Ukrainian recipes and an Instagram worthy photo booth where you could take pictures with Ukrainian props and lifesize paintings of Ukrainian people in their national clothes. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t half bad either.

It was as we were setting up blue and yellow lights that we heard the familiar rhythm of Arabic drums in the distance. Stomping, marching, and a song whose lyrics we couldn’t quite make out. We popped our heads out the classroom door to see a gaggle of boys from our grade dancing in the corridors chanting ‘AF-GHA-NIS-TAN’ like an Arab wedding procession!

At the head of the group was a boy who had been established as the class clown. He was loud, untamed, mischievous and, therefore, such a fun guy! He was the catalyst for half of all the times something funny happened to me at school.

He was like an Arab rockstar.

He explained to us that the reason he was parading around like an Arab rockstar was that this was their senior prank idea. They had swapped their assigned country for the bright and lively nation of Afghanistan without informing any authority figure. The dance in the corridor was simply the celebration of a successful senior prank.

“Lame”, scoffed one of my friends. She was right. If that had been the extent of our senior prank, we would have been infamous as the class that had the lamest senior prank in the school’s history!

However, the basis of the prank wasn’t bad at all. The idea of playing a prank on the most packed and prestigious day of school was nothing short of genius. The cogs in my head started turning, and it seems I wasn’t the only one either. Most of us realized that we had the bones of a legendary senior prank right in front of us.

There was a symphony of hushed whispers, animated hand gestures, and abrupt interjections, but eventually, the plan emerged. Why settle for changing just one classroom’s assigned country when you could change them all?

We got to planning immediately.

The plan was simple and effective. Firstly, everyone loves joining a mob or parade. Even in the short walk here, our Arab rockstar had managed to attract followers from three different year groups! If that was the opening number, imagine what a whole concert tour could achieve. Secondly, it would be the most ambitious plan in school history and would thus be the best senior prank ever!

“But how are we going to pull this off? We don’t have any supplies!”, someone chirped from amongst the crowd. That was true. It wasn’t like we had days or even hours to curate supplies. If we were going to do this, it had to be right here right now while the teachers were setting up the assembly hall.

It would be boring just to get classes to swap counties with each other- that would have been equally as lame as just changing one classroom’s country.

We exchanged eye contact, and the message was clear. We had to turn every class in the school into just one country.

Luckily for us, we were in an Arab country, and that meant our school was chock full of Arabic heritage decorations and supplies, our canteen served Arabic food, and our music room had Arabic instruments. They weren’t exactly Afghanistani, but they were close enough!

With that solution, we set off on the Afghanistani world takeover!

The Takeover:

We had snuck into every supply closet, prayer room, and kindergarten class in the school to gather anything that could be reasonably construed as Afghanistani in origin. There was now an army of the tenth graders with glue guns in their holsters and poster paper strapped to their backs.

Our resident rockstar led the way with music and dancing as we marched through the halls. Anyone seen loitering in the corridor was promptly recruited and armed with a flag and a gun (staple or glue, it was the dealer’s choice!). When we hit a classroom, we announced our presence and demanded to speak to their leaders to negotiate a deal.

An army of decorators

The first few countries on our road to domination were India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Those countries had a culture that was somewhat similar to that of Afghanistan, and we thought it would be easy to negotiate with them as they were also part of year 10. We agreed on a trade deal, where they would redecorate their country and place our signs on their doors in exchange for full credit in the senior prank section of the yearbook, and zero credit when it came to the inevitable detentions we were going to get from this stunt.

We begrudgingly agreed. But, my “something funny that happened to me at school” story had a twist.

“How do we know they won’t just go back on their agreement as soon as we leave ?”, one of our army generals asked. His concerns were valid. We had no way of knowing if they would stick to the plan after taking all our food and decorations.

The solution we came up with was to station two of our army in the classrooms while we enlisted two of theirs to join our party. The idea was that we would be sure that our treaties were being enforced while maintaining the strength of our legion. Now we weren’t just playing a ridiculous prank; we had politicians, foreign ambassadors, and a military! We were Afghanistani colonizers at age 16!

We were politicians at age 16!

The rest of the day was spent similarly. The corridors were a massive party complete with singing and dancing. The baritone boom of a drum punctuated every syllable of the word Afghanistan. The teachers were powerless to stop the sheer amount of students in the hallways. Many teachers tried, but by the time they apprehended two kids, five more had joined the group!

As the prank was getting larger and larger, more people wanted to become part of our Afghanistani empire just for the festivities! Before we had to negotiate by giving countries with bland food, our mouthwatering kibbeh and khubz, or countries with tedious music, our speakers, full of superior Arabic music. Now, countries were voluntarily joining our Afghanistani tribe.

More countries started joining us and started bringing their own culture with them. Our Arab rockstar was joined by Japanese singers, Somalian drums, and Pakistani dancers. It was like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy all coming together! We were slowly turning into a global union, united under Afghanistan!

One big, global party

The only people not willing to participate in our coalition were the primary school classes. They spent so much time and effort on their displays that the thought of a slapdash Afghanistani takeover was horrifying! They locked their doors and pouted as we passed.

Of course, we would never destroy the hard work of some innocent children. We weren’t monsters, after all! We just waited for the children to go on their “world tour” ( which by this point was just a tour of Afghanistan!) and changed the signs on the doors, leaving the inside intact!

What’s the Climax of ‘Something Funny That Happened to Me at School’ Story?

By the end of the day, we were less Afghanistani colonizers and more of a United Nations, if the only thing the United Nations did was a party all day! As the day was winding down, we decided we should rename our ragtag group because this was no longer just a random thought about taking over the world as a joke. We were now everyone-stan ( not the most creative name, but it worked with the chant, and that’s all we really cared about).

We had achieved world peace within the span of one standard school day!

Alas, the fun eventually had to end. We finally had to make our way to assembly, where we would most definitely be punished for the rest of the semester. So, as we marched to our dooms, all we could think was, “this senior prank is going down in history.”

The assembly performances were drawing to a close, and the whole tenth grade was sitting in solidarity, waiting to hear our fates. The strictest, scariest teacher (head of senior secondary) who we all agreed was a soul-sucking demon, stepped onto the stage. The clacking of her heels struck fear into our hearts. Her lips drew closer to the microphone. We all held our breaths.

“To class 10”, she spoke as our hearts started beating in perfect synchronicity, “Well done on your senior prank!”

There was a chorus of “What?” “Huh?” And “No way!” before we realized that we had gotten off scot-free! The teachers even invited our drummers back onto the stage to finish off the day with a group musical! It was like something from a Disney channel movie or a sketch from “Comedy Tonight”!

So, that is how we pulled off the best senior prank ever by using some Afghanistani culture, politics, and colonial ambitions to achieve “world peace”! And my “something funny that happened to me at school” story turned out to be insane!

‘World Peace’-something funny that happened to me at school

That was my ‘something funny that happened to me at school’ story. If you have a story like that, do share it in the comments below. Maybe your ‘something funny that happened to me at school’ story will top this one! Read more like this, here.

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