Defne Tekin, Grade 11
UWC Maastricht
After being admitted to UWC Maastricht, I compulsively fantasised and dreamt about what “the UWC experience” would look like for me, a process which I am sure many UWCers can relate to, replaying the same youtube videos on life at UWC for the billionth time that week, revisiting UWC Maastricht’s website until I was certain that I knew the layout by heart, and reading UWC themed blog posts only to be left feeling an indescribable amount of admiration for the writers behind them. It felt as if, despite the excessive amount of UWCM content that I managed to dig up on the internet and consequently immersed myself in, I was always craving for more. In other words, I was preparing -this has always been the case in my life due to my perfectionist and cautious nature- for what was to become the best two years ahead of me. In this process of “preparation” I had, however, failed to take into consideration what was perhaps the biggest distinguisher of United World Colleges from other international boarding schools: how our campus also is known as “the island” was very isolated from the outside world. Both physically and mentally separated from the outside world, the campus was a place where we students shared common values and similar interests and made very limited contact with the outside world; the moat acting as a shield almost.
Looking back at my first year, which was mercilessly half-cut by Covid-19, I can say that the bubble-like state and cult-like culture on campus became clearer to me as time passed. Travelling back home has also played a big role in my realisation.
What does the UWC bubble mean for me, how did the cult-like culture of UWC affect me, and what were its implications? Certain events that happened after I arrived back home have helped me answer these questions.
A week after I had come home to Turkey, a series of events happened which also gave me the idea for this article. The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate gave a homophobic hate speech which victimised homosexuals in Turkey, blaming them for the spread of illnesses (referring to Coronavirus and HIV) as well as the disruption of family life. The speech was heavily criticised by LGBTQ+ organisations and activists in Turkey and soon turned into a criminal case. On the other hand, however, a large number of far-right groups were defending this speech and started an aggressively operated hate campaign on various social media channels. They asked LGBTQ+ identifying people to leave the country and signed petitions to shut down all the LGBTQ+ organisations.
In the midst of this chaos, I felt anxious, furious and extremely shocked. To be honest with myself, I wasn’t expecting to react in this way at all. I thought that I had become accustomed to seeing such phobic acts happen. After thinking about why I reacted the way that I did, I realised that if this had happened before UWC, then my reactions would have been completely different. I would still think it was wrong, but probably just accept it as one of life’s many facts and move on -which is contrary to what I am doing now!-
Eventually, I reached this simple conclusion: I had grown accustomed to the way of living in UWC.
Coming out of the inclusive, extremely open-minded UWC bubble, where most people shared similar attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people, different gender identities and sexual orientations etc. I had simply forgotten how “the real world” functioned, with the presence of far extremists’ opinions. Perhaps, in LGBTQ+ issues I was even more so in a bubble, because I was a member of a student-led club at UWC Maastricht called Spectrum. (For some context, spectrum is an all-inclusive club, open for queer and non-queer identifying DP students alike, where we discuss everything LGBTQ+ related. The club also organises an annual event called “the Spectrum Week” in order to raise awareness on LGBTQ+ issues and to show our support for this community as a school.) Being a club member myself, and actively participating in the events organised by Spectrum, I must admit that my understanding of homophobia, especially back in my home country was, to a certain extent second-hand natured.
Although it’s only been three months since I left campus temporarily, since leaving I have felt drastic effects of leaving the “bubble”. I cannot say that the “bubble-like” state of our campus is either completely good or bad, what I can say, however, is this: As well as having some downsides I believe that this utopic nature of our campus protects us from the problems and (what can sometimes become) unnecessary tensions of the real world.
To conclude, I feel as though how I react to events happening around me now have changed immensely. This alone is proof of how intense, but also interesting my UWC experience has been so far. I guess then that all the imagining and “mental preparations”, before UWC have paid off after all, and just like I couldn’t wait to start UWC I now cannot wait to get back to school as a DP2!
Looking back at my first year, which was mercilessly half-cut by Covid-19, I can say that the bubble-like state and cult-like culture on campus became clearer to me as time passed. Travelling back home has also played a big role in my realisation.
What does the UWC bubble mean for me, how did the cult-like culture of UWC affect me, and what were its implications? Certain events that happened after I arrived back home have helped me answer these questions.
A week after I had come home to Turkey, a series of events happened which also gave me the idea for this article. The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate gave a homophobic hate speech which victimised homosexuals in Turkey, blaming them for the spread of illnesses (referring to Coronavirus and HIV) as well as the disruption of family life. The speech was heavily criticised by LGBTQ+ organisations and activists in Turkey and soon turned into a criminal case. On the other hand, however, a large number of far-right groups were defending this speech and started an aggressively operated hate campaign on various social media channels. They asked LGBTQ+ identifying people to leave the country and signed petitions to shut down all the LGBTQ+ organisations.
In the midst of this chaos, I felt anxious, furious and extremely shocked. To be honest with myself, I wasn’t expecting to react in this way at all. I thought that I had become accustomed to seeing such phobic acts happen. After thinking about why I reacted the way that I did, I realised that if this had happened before UWC, then my reactions would have been completely different. I would still think it was wrong, but probably just accept it as one of life’s many facts and move on -which is contrary to what I am doing now!-
Eventually, I reached this simple conclusion: I had grown accustomed to the way of living in UWC.
Coming out of the inclusive, extremely open-minded UWC bubble, where most people shared similar attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people, different gender identities and sexual orientations etc. I had simply forgotten how “the real world” functioned, with the presence of far extremists’ opinions. Perhaps, in LGBTQ+ issues I was even more so in a bubble, because I was a member of a student-led club at UWC Maastricht called Spectrum. (For some context, spectrum is an all-inclusive club, open for queer and non-queer identifying DP students alike, where we discuss everything LGBTQ+ related. The club also organises an annual event called “the Spectrum Week” in order to raise awareness on LGBTQ+ issues and to show our support for this community as a school.) Being a club member myself, and actively participating in the events organised by Spectrum, I must admit that my understanding of homophobia, especially back in my home country was, to a certain extent second-hand natured.
Although it’s only been three months since I left campus temporarily, since leaving I have felt drastic effects of leaving the “bubble”. I cannot say that the “bubble-like” state of our campus is either completely good or bad, what I can say, however, is this: As well as having some downsides I believe that this utopic nature of our campus protects us from the problems and (what can sometimes become) unnecessary tensions of the real world.
To conclude, I feel as though how I react to events happening around me now have changed immensely. This alone is proof of how intense, but also interesting my UWC experience has been so far. I guess then that all the imagining and “mental preparations”, before UWC have paid off after all, and just like I couldn’t wait to start UWC I now cannot wait to get back to school as a DP2!
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