Utshaa Basu, Grade 12
UWC Mahindra
At MUWCI, I came wanting to be a particular individual and ended up being myself. Sometimes I imagine the admission officers, sitting around a table, picking out assorted sets of students, the ones who go at their own pace, with snack-sized friend groups and evenings filled with naps, the popular ones with a tick-off resume and a social flair, the Type A’s, the studious, and so the list goes. My past class culture dictated that to be credited with anything resembling a personality, you had to be either desirable or an asshole, so I spent highschool warding off snark and throwing back my own- an exhausting back and forth of proving myself or get crushed. This relentless environment was rich with typecasting, I was a labeled nerd, teacher’s daughter now for several years, and mostly straight A’s, but it made me seeth. I was trope-trained, tossed my classmates into boxes, and worked my interactions around them the same way.
Then comes MUWCI. I’m guilty of damaging first impressions, fast to read a situation but fast to judge, amounting people to an awkward conversation or an incompatible personality trait. But I’ve come to learn that personalities cannot be segregated, that they aren’t unique to anyone friend group; the sports whiz? Also made for the theatre stage. The bubbly, gorgeous lab partner? Eager for straight A’s and the teacher’s praise. And the committed, intense student? Singer with a booming voice. I don’t have to be all snarky and serious, and all truant and funny; I can shift and change like humans do.
I’m no longer scared of my own opinions, looser with what I voice, my speech for once not tired out by mental rehearsal. It’s a blessedly judgment-free space, welcoming all perspectives, no matter how inane or controversial. It’s at MUWCI’s core, its beating UWC heart of openness and diversity.
There’s also something so specific about the community that you learn; MUWCI’s pre-college: stressed out black coffee and nights spent camped out in the library, domesticity at its finest, making noodles between study breaks and crumbly apple pie in the charred oven from another wada. Waking up at ungodly hours to stumble out with dirty laundry, clearing your desk, armed with a bottle of Collins. MUWCI’s a boarding school, after all, and I learn independence, so stern that being home is a splash of cold water, again just the child. I’ve lived the homesickness and the responsibility and the five roommates, and I feel all the more prepared for college. MUWCI is like our own little paradise on a hill, an incubator to prepare us, infants, to breathe the air of the real world.
Then comes MUWCI. I’m guilty of damaging first impressions, fast to read a situation but fast to judge, amounting people to an awkward conversation or an incompatible personality trait. But I’ve come to learn that personalities cannot be segregated, that they aren’t unique to anyone friend group; the sports whiz? Also made for the theatre stage. The bubbly, gorgeous lab partner? Eager for straight A’s and the teacher’s praise. And the committed, intense student? Singer with a booming voice. I don’t have to be all snarky and serious, and all truant and funny; I can shift and change like humans do.
I’m no longer scared of my own opinions, looser with what I voice, my speech for once not tired out by mental rehearsal. It’s a blessedly judgment-free space, welcoming all perspectives, no matter how inane or controversial. It’s at MUWCI’s core, its beating UWC heart of openness and diversity.
There’s also something so specific about the community that you learn; MUWCI’s pre-college: stressed out black coffee and nights spent camped out in the library, domesticity at its finest, making noodles between study breaks and crumbly apple pie in the charred oven from another wada. Waking up at ungodly hours to stumble out with dirty laundry, clearing your desk, armed with a bottle of Collins. MUWCI’s a boarding school, after all, and I learn independence, so stern that being home is a splash of cold water, again just the child. I’ve lived the homesickness and the responsibility and the five roommates, and I feel all the more prepared for college. MUWCI is like our own little paradise on a hill, an incubator to prepare us, infants, to breathe the air of the real world.
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