Annabell Lackner, Grade 12
UWCEA Arusha Campus
Our first encounter was on a Monday, 5pm during a boarding house meeting. With your head held high and a walk as if you had all the time in the world, you approached the group of students sitting in the common room, contently aware that all eyes were just on you. “Welcome back, A”, said our teacher, and finding themselves in the middle of some approving nods, the newly arrived D1s wondered who this student, smirkingly smiling and scanning over the crowd, is. Well aware of the attention that you have caused, you took place and bathed in the stares and comments, while the teacher went on with his sermon. This was the moment where you, A, with a month's delay, stepped into my life and, as should turn out almost half a year later, changed my UWC journey forever.
While this might sound like the beginning of a love story, it is, in fact, the start of a truly splendid friendship. The first time we actually started talking was in December, before I left for the winter break. Having been left behind by the majority of my then close friends, I agreed to go on with a group of mostly D2s, mostly boys, among them you. The evening started off chaotic, including problems with communication and transportation. I can recall the memory of you insisting on the phone that I come back from my little adventure in the hoods of Arusha, admittedly, so that you could oversee things. Eventually, it ended up being the other way around with me taking care of you and bringing you home.
This “big brother instinct,” as I perceived it, was a characteristic that would shape our relationship and would be misinterpreted by many. Nevertheless, you were the first person at UWC that I truly told about myself; my dreams, my fears, and my insecurities. Like no one else, you supported me throughout the year, always encouraging me to go my way and not care about what others think of me. How often have I fought against my body to stay awake late hours for our conversations in the garden, conversations that have touched, shocked and inspired me. “Wake up early before the future wakes you up”, is a quote you told me one night and which carried me through the entire year. This statement reflects you and your ambitions in just one line and reveals the extraordinary aspirations and expectations that you have for yourself and your life, while simultaneously echoing in my mind always. When I suffered from the xth illness or found myself again confronted with devastating rumours, this motto, along with your appeal not to lose my focus, helped me to succeed my first year in college.
However, the biggest lesson you taught me was that even life in UWC has no mercy on us. As tough as it may sound, I came to realise that this school is a place where everyone just tries to survive at all costs. Having to compete for a few scholarships for the most prestigious universities, students, even those in UWC, become warriors fighting for their own good. In the end, the college is just a mesocosm of the real world and a compressed demonstration of humanity, comprising joy, sympathy and comradeship, but also trauma, competition and envy. The United World College will include all this and more and become the best and only school that teaches you how to survive and succeed. It will prepare all its students for the successes and failures, the joy and the pain and the coming and going of friends. So everyone will realise at some point that in the end, there are only a few people that truly remain at your side and will support you throughout every boom and bust of your life.
Thank you, A, for being one of those; my partner in crime and hopefully friend for a lifetime.
While this might sound like the beginning of a love story, it is, in fact, the start of a truly splendid friendship. The first time we actually started talking was in December, before I left for the winter break. Having been left behind by the majority of my then close friends, I agreed to go on with a group of mostly D2s, mostly boys, among them you. The evening started off chaotic, including problems with communication and transportation. I can recall the memory of you insisting on the phone that I come back from my little adventure in the hoods of Arusha, admittedly, so that you could oversee things. Eventually, it ended up being the other way around with me taking care of you and bringing you home.
This “big brother instinct,” as I perceived it, was a characteristic that would shape our relationship and would be misinterpreted by many. Nevertheless, you were the first person at UWC that I truly told about myself; my dreams, my fears, and my insecurities. Like no one else, you supported me throughout the year, always encouraging me to go my way and not care about what others think of me. How often have I fought against my body to stay awake late hours for our conversations in the garden, conversations that have touched, shocked and inspired me. “Wake up early before the future wakes you up”, is a quote you told me one night and which carried me through the entire year. This statement reflects you and your ambitions in just one line and reveals the extraordinary aspirations and expectations that you have for yourself and your life, while simultaneously echoing in my mind always. When I suffered from the xth illness or found myself again confronted with devastating rumours, this motto, along with your appeal not to lose my focus, helped me to succeed my first year in college.
However, the biggest lesson you taught me was that even life in UWC has no mercy on us. As tough as it may sound, I came to realise that this school is a place where everyone just tries to survive at all costs. Having to compete for a few scholarships for the most prestigious universities, students, even those in UWC, become warriors fighting for their own good. In the end, the college is just a mesocosm of the real world and a compressed demonstration of humanity, comprising joy, sympathy and comradeship, but also trauma, competition and envy. The United World College will include all this and more and become the best and only school that teaches you how to survive and succeed. It will prepare all its students for the successes and failures, the joy and the pain and the coming and going of friends. So everyone will realise at some point that in the end, there are only a few people that truly remain at your side and will support you throughout every boom and bust of your life.
Thank you, A, for being one of those; my partner in crime and hopefully friend for a lifetime.
www.unitedworldwide.co