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Being Back

Once again, I’m blogging because I’m procrastinating and because I’m super stressed. I feel it’s so easy to get into the routine of life here and forget to simply step back and remember why you came here in the first place. Sometimes, and by sometimes I mean like every day I wonder why I came in the first place and why anyone would think I deserve to be here. 

It hasn’t been easy being back as the work load feels like is tripled and if you combine that with my extremely shit time management skills you get a ridiculously stressed third term start.

On the slightly more positive side, I went on homestays this weekend and it was amazing and allowed me to remember some of the reasons why I need to be here and gave me some perspective on certain things. I really need to get my life in some sort of routine and order but the process of finding that is just as important as the result. 

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A single story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche has become one of my favourite speakers ever since I watched her first ted talk about the single story. She talked about how the telling of one story will only create stereotypes which are not necessarily untrue but are just not complete. It reminds me so greatly of how I’ve felt in the past year at muwci. 

One thing I’ve come to realise very quickly is that I sometimes, like others feel guilty of telling or acknowledging one uwc story. Creating this one homogenous uwc culture which everyone is expected to subscribe to but in reality doesn’t. It was hard for me to accept that even though for me my first year at muwci was one of the best years of my life so far, for some it is definitely not their ideal place to be. Some people literally only care about getting into college and the IB and a part of me wants to believe that it’s a waste for them to be there but who am I to decide that?

The uwc story is so much more than what I often tell my friends or family or write about on this blog. I just hope that any future student or even current student will never think they must tell the same story. If you want to be that person who studies in the library all day or the person who spends all their time talking to friends and wondering around or those who have a passion for volunteering, or that person who has the confidence to command a crowd or would rather be themselves, I hope you also tell your story. 

One of the things I found hard in my first year was becoming that ideal muwci student that I thought I had to be to fit in, but I realized that person doesn’t exist. 

#muwci #uwc #exploringmuwci

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If I knew then what I know now

Once again, I’m simply procrastinating from doing work, therefore I’m writing another blog.

In about 4 days I’ll be back in India. The rain will welcome us, there will be cups of tea to be had and friends to catch up with. Sunsets to watch and mud games to play. To say I’m excited is a great understatement. I cannot wait to get back to normal life. Waking up five minutes early for a morning class and of course, before sleepily making my way to the AQ I will stop in the cafeteria to get coffee and toast with strange Indian ‘mixed’ fruit jam and amul butter which doesn’t really taste like butter.

In just 4 days I’ll be able to see those faces that I’ve missed seeing everyday, those laughs that I’ve missed and the Indian head shaking and simultaneous hand waving. Surprisingly, after eating chapatis for a year at least twice a day I never thought I would miss it but somehow I really do. In just 4 days though, we’ll return to campus without the other half of our bubble, making space for a new 125 happy, idealistic and inspiring faces. I just hope we welcome them with open arms and they fit into our bubble atop the hill but mould it into what they hope it to be.

If I knew over a year ago what the past year of living in and exploring India would be like, about how much I would struggle or about how hard life would be at times and how lonely you can feel on a hill of 250 people; there’s a part of me that would never have gone. But then, I would never have had the late night conversations on rooftops and the cooking sessions or the shopping trips to Pune where I spent way too much money or laying on the beach in Goa listening to waves crashing. The opportunity to explore the world outside of my little rock which was Jamaica is one I will be eternally grateful for and an experience I would recommend to anyone.  Now as I pack my suitcase to return, I’m also packing with me memories to last a lifetime, very small but greatly useful scraps of Hindi which come in handy when a ‘rickshaw wala’ tries to charge you five hundred rupees for a trip that should cost only eighty, experience to know how to navigate a city with five times the amount of people as your entire country and the passion to adventure into new corners of this beautiful country.

Me being an unapologetic, embarrassing tourist in Hampi, India. 

#muwci #uwc #united world college

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UWC Mahindra College Promo Video 

Home on the hill <3

APPLY TODAY. DO IT 

#muwci #uwc #exploringmuwci

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My UWC Experience

Typically all of my blog posts are as a result of me trying to procrastinate some form of work. I do also find it great to get me started on things that I actually have to do. I’ve tried at least three times to write about my UWC experience and failed. But I’ll give it another go. 

I found out about UWC when the head of our national committee, an alumni of my school at the time came to give a talk about this program that I had never heard about. I was beyond fascinated by everything he said, the chance to study in Wales or Italy or Swaziland with other kids from all around the world was enough to have me hooked. It came at the perfect time because around that time my parents had taken me to a boarding schools fair where all these boarding schools in America and Canada came to pitch their schools to you and tell you how much you would fit into their school and so on. At the time I was simply looking for a way out of my current school. I couldn’t stand most of the people or the teachers and I felt my education was mostly memorizing and pointless assignments. 

I went home that night and before I made the pitch to my parents I had to know every little detail in order to convince them, so I went on the website and read everything I could find. At first I fell in love with two schools UWC Kamhlaba and MUWCI. They were beautiful and seemed like a dream. After I told my parents they were interested but agreed I was too young and weren’t ready for me to leave. Looking back now I’m so glad I waited. So I waited a year doing everything I could in the meanwhile to become a better applicant. I studied so hard for my exam grades that I would send to the Jamaican committee and it was my best grades in all 5 years of high school. I submitted the application and almost a month later got an invitation to be interviewed and within a week of my interview got the call I was accepted even though they said it would take 2 weeks. 

Throughout the entire process I was really nervous as to whether I would ever get in. My math tutor said to me that one of her old students, a way to motivate herself was to write down whatever it is that she wanted and to look at it every day as a reminder. Because your dreams can be a reality if you are motivated. So I went home got a flash card that I was using to study and wrote in big letters, UWC. I looked at it every day and the day before me interview I put it under my pillow. 

Looking back now I still can’t believe this has happened and it has been a year. It’s such a cliche thing for UWC students and alum to say but UWC really is a transformational two years. Honestly though, I wish we would get out of the habit of sensationalizing it though as even though a lot of people, maybe even the majority do enjoy it for some it just isn’t that great. Living away by MinimumPrice"> from home

with a tonne of other kids and all the social and academic pressure is harder than I can ever describe in words. But for most it’s worth it. 

In the past year I’ve learnt so much about myself, others, about the world and so on. The most important thing I learnt was how to be open to change. I came into this journey with a plan and a year in most of it has already changed. I plan on taking a gap year, I’m hoping to study somewhere in Europe maybe the Netherlands or Scotland and I want to travel and see my friends. 

All in all, I think my UWC experience would be nothing without the friends that I made. There’s people at MUWCI who I don’t even consider friends but look up to their sheer brilliance or warm spirit and I’m just so thankful that I get to spend two years with them. In less than a month we’ll be welcoming soon to be firsties to our home and I hope their ready to start their UWC experience. 

Some of my favourite people ever from game night in my corner <3 HOME

#muwci #exploringmuwci #uwc

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Room Picture

It’s that time of year when they are organizing the year book and as part of that we have to take a room picture. In my room is Ritwik from Mumbai, Aasim from Nagpur, India and Nitay from Israel. I’ve got to really love these guys over the past year and I’m so grateful for them. 

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A gem in the valley

Dusty jeep rides will never be my favourite but they usually lead to a very special place. Every Tuesday evening I along with about ten other students board our dusty jeep and make our way along the crater filled country road to go to a home for disabled adults who live in Sadhana Village. The project is called Sadhana Friends and it is the best part of my week. It’s two and half hours of simple fun and interaction with a group of people who I genuinely feel like are no longer a group of people I felt uncomfortable and strange around but a group of friends.

A huge aspect of exploring this foreign land which I live in is getting to understand the local people and area more and more. Whether that is achieved by picking up the local language; in my case it was Marathi and Hindi or travelling through the villages below on mountain bikes and absorbing the fresh air and taking in the pristine beauty of the rice paddies or learning more about the people who populate the drought stricken area and  learn more about their stories.

A way for me to learn more about the local people who surround us was to volunteer my time at Sadhana Friends. As a result I’ve learnt the story of how the organization came into existence, a long tale of struggle between the leaders of the organization and the people of the community to become more accepting of people with differences. I’ve also learnt how to connect with people who are different from myself and to appreciate who they are and what they can do as opposed to focusing on what they struggle with and what they can’t do.

When I think back to how I first felt at the beginning of the year when I started going to the Sadhanna home, I feel a lot has changed. Not only have I finally learnt every friend’s name and made somewhat of a relationship with a few of them but I also feel I can positively influence their life in some way. One of the hardest parts of being a foreign volunteer is questioning always whether your efforts and energies are translating into something useful for the people you are actually trying to help. I think though that I’ve finally come to a place where I can appreciate and understand the impact of what we are doing and also be critical of the role that we play in their lives.

Nitin, one of my favourite friends and I a few months ago.

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Travel Week 2015

For travel week I went with a group of friends to Kerala in South India for the first half and then a fun trip to Goa for the last three days. It was so fun and I really miss it. These are just my favourite pics from the trip. 

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48 Days to go?

I never thought this day would come so soon, but in just 48 days or even less who knows I’m trying not to keep count this year will be all over. The second years who we have come to love and appreciate so much will have all gone. Most on to do more amazing great things, to amazing universities or gap year programmes or to figure it out. 

It feels weird on campus or maybe it’s just me. It’s selections weekend for potential Indian firsties and there’s groups of them on campus. Which is great and all but it forces me to accept the fact that soon this year will be all over and there’s nothing I can really do about it except look forward to next term I guess. 

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My home My home is actually 5,000 miles from here In a strange land I thought I would never end up in It’s amazing, creative and intelligent inhabitants fill it to the boundaries And they make me question my existence there daily The three am maggy making And the coordinated hand shaking Make my home special Unexplainable to those who haven’t been The picturesque scenery of the sun setting in the green valley over the river Makes even the strongest non-believers question the possibility of a God I didn’t ever imagine I could make a place I don’t really belong to feel like home But there’s something about that hill That makes you feel like you were made to be there Despite however different you may think you are Honestly it wasn’t easy at first And I didn’t know if it was the right thing But being away has made me realize that My home isn’t just where I decide to leave my suitcase But it’s where I’m happy to be who I am And right now that place is MUWCI

A poem I wrote at 3 am when I couldn’t go to sleep. 

#muwci #uwc

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It’s Been A While

I honestly don’t even know where to begin anymore. It’s been almost 7 months since I’ve been at MUWCI and unfortunately this is the first time I’ve updated my blog. My original intentions were to update it frequently so I could look back on these past two years in order to see how much I’ve done and hopefully how much I had grown. I was hoping to be able to look back and smile and laugh and maybe even cry at all that had happened but MUWCI happened. You throw yourself into everything here and all of a sudden you forget the things you were supposed to actually do. For me it’s skyping my parents, or replying to emails or writing blog posts. The point is I’ve got to a point in my MUWCI life where I feel like a lot needs to change and it need to happen soon. I could say I’ll wait until next term but I feel it’s better now than later. I need to get back to writing. I need to document the wonderful and the not so wonderful days here. One of my biggest fears of writing this blog was who was going to eventually find it and read it but then I realised I don’t even care anymore. I’m going to write it for me and write it in a way in which I would enjoy reading it. 

 As I sit in my corner, patiently waiting for the time to pass so I can go to check in and then start my work I am just trying to run through all that I’ve done today. One of my biggest problems here is that I do so much in the day and at the end when I finally put my head to that sweet pillow, I fail to remember or just simply acknowledge the things I did, or the conversations I had or the people I met. 

Honestly, so much has happened in the past seven months that I can’t even begin to think of all that I wan’t to write down. So I’m just gonna drop in a few pictures and I’ll start back writing properly next time. 

Me and my friend Maits from Bangalore at Holi a couple weeks ago. 

There was a women’s rights march in Paud the village nearby to us. 

Lastly this was at the Valentine’s Day soiree last month.

I really hope the next time I write isn’t in another 7 months.

#uwc #muwci

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Journey Begins Tomorrow- 1 day left!!!!!!!

It's hard to describe how I feel right now. I don't know whether I'm more nervous, excited or sad. I can't believe it's been five months since I found out that my life was gonna change this much. It's surreal to think that tomorrow, I'm boarding a plane to India and I'm going to spend the next two years on a beautiful campus, with some amazing people who share some of the same ideas as me or maybe agree to disagree. 

I have no clue what to expect when I arrive on Sunday, but whatever it is I know I will enjoy it and make the best out of the next two years. The fact that I got into Muwci just proves that anything is possible and the future really is unpredictable. 

I finally finished packing and just my luck my bag is overweight so tomorrow morning I'm gonna take some stuff out and rearrange everything. It's currently 1:30 in the morning and the excitement is preventing me from sleeping so hopefully I'll catch up on some sleep on the 9 hour plane ride tomorrow. 

I still can't believe this is happening, but I'm ready to start this journey. The next time I write I'll probably be at Muwci. 

#muwci #uwc

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10 Days to Go!!!

It's too late to be doing anything else but the perfect time for writing blog posts. Tonight my results for the major exam I did in June come out and I am not half as stressed or worried as my friends. I wouldn't go as far as to say I don't care because I put a lot of time and effort into those exams, but for everyone else those results determine their future of which school they'll be going to. On the other hand, I've already got my place at muwci and these results won't really change anything. I wish them good luck but I know they did great. Its slowly starting to set in how close it is until I will land in India. Its terrifying and exciting but mostly exciting. Summer is slowly coming to an end but this time I'm going to a new school in a new country with people I don't know. Lots of stuff left to do but it should all come together.

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A Better View of Jamaica. Not the crappy stereotypical sunsets and palmtrees you see in the travel ads. Happy 52nd Independence Day Jamaica. 

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The journey so far still in England. Muwci in 18 days!!!

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Journey Begins- 20 Days to go!

Although I still have 20 days until I have to be at muwci my journey begins tomorrow as I'm flying from Jamaica to England to stay there for a few weeks before heading to India. Everything has been sorted out, got my visa, my passports, my tickets and now I can enjoy the rest of summer. 

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The UWC Spirit 2014- The first ever film about United World Colleges. 

What characterizes a global community of students who experienced an education based on social justice, diversity and understanding between peoples, nations, and cultures? Visiting six highly diverse international schools around the globe, that form part of the United World Colleges (UWC) movement, Andres Broennimann lives the empowering potential of education; epitomized in the inspiring stories of four exceptional teenagers, respectively from the Maldives, USA, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica.

Directed & Edited by Andrés Broennimann Producers: Andrés Broennimann & Ana María Alvarez Executive Producer: Kristine Ngiriye

(Information taken from the vimeo page http://vimeo.com/theuwcspirit) 

#uwc #United World College #the uwc spirit #muwci