Pavit Kaur, Grade 12
UWC-USA
Arriving in the Albuquerque airport, exhausted after days of travel, felt a lot like a dream. The walk out of the aircraft aisle through the terminal and onto the bus is blurred out by the haze of jet lag leaving me with the memory of nothing more than a souvenir shop selling “ I ♡ NEW MEXICO” T-Shirts and the weight of my backpack.
It was my first time travelling alone and the experience was filled with harrowing moments of scrambling around my pockets checking to see if I still had my passport on me (despite last checking only five minutes ago) but also with beautiful moments like my descent into San Francisco as the continuous ocean view of my flight gave way to densely packed houses, my first glimpse of America.
I still remember my first night vividly-- hands greasy from the cheesesteak sandwich I was wolfing down in the silence of the hotel room. I remember sitting there with the fluorescent lights from the twisting knots of the freeway shining in through the open curtains and thinking that this felt a lot like a dream.
This moment still feels like the bridge between my life before and after. The chaotic day of last minute packing, goodbyes, a long flight, and arduous custom queues would be followed by another whole day of airports, bus rides, welcomes and new beginnings. So as I sat there, still unaware of what UWC really was, I learnt to deal with the new sensation of independence and responsibility.
Now, after having only been at UWC for a month, I have had many different experiences of life away from home. Days surrounded by friends in the dining hall laughing until my sides ached, Nights alone in the IT centre typing furiously at my laptop trying to finish tommorows homework. Time spent hiking in the wilderness as I ate, slept and adventured with new friends and mornings alone in the laundry room trying to beat the crowd to a vacant machine when I desperately missed the comforts of home. But I think that the one common thread through all these experiences that I first felt on my journey to New Mexico was this new sense of independence.
I remember riding the bus to UWC avidly discussing the history of the landscape with a second year sitting behind me and learning about the mountains that stretched all the way to canada. Or seeing the vast barren land that stretched out as far as the eye could see and turning over to point it out to my family, only to realise again that I was alone, that each new experience was mine to process alone first.
Our arrival at campus may have been a quiet affair as the five of us were ushered into the guest rooms immediately to be quarantined, but seeing the castle for the first time was one of my favourite moments of the journey. I remember pressing up against the window as the second year told us where to look to catch glimpses of the towers as we turned through the roads outside the school. The first full view of it as all the snaches we had managed to see so far weaved together into its entirety was breathtaking. It was partially the beautiful architecture, but for me it was also this sensation of having arrived and having the myth of UWC manifest into reality.
And since quarantine, the UWC experience has manifested itself in every day of my life as I learn to juggle school, friends and living alone. It has been an incredible (-ly challenging) experience and many times I have had to readjust what I am used to as I eased into the difference of living with family to living with friends, but it has been richer than I ever imagined. Each day feels like a new adventure and I look forward to the wealth of experiences these two years here will hold for me.
It was my first time travelling alone and the experience was filled with harrowing moments of scrambling around my pockets checking to see if I still had my passport on me (despite last checking only five minutes ago) but also with beautiful moments like my descent into San Francisco as the continuous ocean view of my flight gave way to densely packed houses, my first glimpse of America.
I still remember my first night vividly-- hands greasy from the cheesesteak sandwich I was wolfing down in the silence of the hotel room. I remember sitting there with the fluorescent lights from the twisting knots of the freeway shining in through the open curtains and thinking that this felt a lot like a dream.
This moment still feels like the bridge between my life before and after. The chaotic day of last minute packing, goodbyes, a long flight, and arduous custom queues would be followed by another whole day of airports, bus rides, welcomes and new beginnings. So as I sat there, still unaware of what UWC really was, I learnt to deal with the new sensation of independence and responsibility.
Now, after having only been at UWC for a month, I have had many different experiences of life away from home. Days surrounded by friends in the dining hall laughing until my sides ached, Nights alone in the IT centre typing furiously at my laptop trying to finish tommorows homework. Time spent hiking in the wilderness as I ate, slept and adventured with new friends and mornings alone in the laundry room trying to beat the crowd to a vacant machine when I desperately missed the comforts of home. But I think that the one common thread through all these experiences that I first felt on my journey to New Mexico was this new sense of independence.
I remember riding the bus to UWC avidly discussing the history of the landscape with a second year sitting behind me and learning about the mountains that stretched all the way to canada. Or seeing the vast barren land that stretched out as far as the eye could see and turning over to point it out to my family, only to realise again that I was alone, that each new experience was mine to process alone first.
Our arrival at campus may have been a quiet affair as the five of us were ushered into the guest rooms immediately to be quarantined, but seeing the castle for the first time was one of my favourite moments of the journey. I remember pressing up against the window as the second year told us where to look to catch glimpses of the towers as we turned through the roads outside the school. The first full view of it as all the snaches we had managed to see so far weaved together into its entirety was breathtaking. It was partially the beautiful architecture, but for me it was also this sensation of having arrived and having the myth of UWC manifest into reality.
And since quarantine, the UWC experience has manifested itself in every day of my life as I learn to juggle school, friends and living alone. It has been an incredible (-ly challenging) experience and many times I have had to readjust what I am used to as I eased into the difference of living with family to living with friends, but it has been richer than I ever imagined. Each day feels like a new adventure and I look forward to the wealth of experiences these two years here will hold for me.
www.unitedworldwide.co