Mareike Thärigen, Class of 2022
UWC Mostar
Mostar to me in fact is a star. It is a place that fills me with joy but also sets impulses. It makes me think each time I am feeling the sun on my (from biking tours burned) skin, each time my feet are sensing the grass in the park and each time my eyes are beholding the shapes of different houses, round mosques, green trees, stony mountains, and bright lights while my ears are listening to church bells announcing the beginning of a new hour. This image is probably the one I experienced the absolute most in my first year, considering how much time I spent on the Susac Balconies. They offered me whatever I needed at any point, and not only were they my home-feeling spot in my residence, but they were also the settings of deep (night) conversations, of laughter with friends, of the one and only best-balcony-teatimes, of discussions whether cereal is a soup and or soup a salad and they were the location for odd cards against humanity stories that built the first and the last evenings of my year one at UWC.
I have recently realized that MOSTAR not only contains star, but that mo is the ending in verbs for “we” in the local language. I like building the link to further Mostar being a place that is connecting us, that lets many stars from around the world come together and meet each other. I like the metaphor of each of us carrying their own light through the world and making it shine together for a while here in MOstar. That’s a huge part of what UWCiM means to me: gathering here to be living sharing learning on various and diverse levels - talking about very random topics - laughing about small things following the spirit that most uwc students feel and share, regardless of which college they attend(ed). But one particular character that I am continuously loving about UWCiM and which I have been experiencing as being truly unique to us is the vitality of m a k i n g t h e b e s t o u t o f i t.
This can refer to multitudinous various smaller and greater elements, and I feel honored to have seen creativity, crazy ideas that might or might not have ended up working, changes, and improvements that followed up based on not having everything we desire permanently given around us. Makingthebestoutofit impels us to pay attention to our surroundings and thrusts our brain cells in the position of trying to find less common but inspirational ways to get to the result we were striving for.
M a k i n g t h e b e s t o u t o f i t emboldens us to value tiny parts of our lives.
I have recently realized that MOSTAR not only contains star, but that mo is the ending in verbs for “we” in the local language. I like building the link to further Mostar being a place that is connecting us, that lets many stars from around the world come together and meet each other. I like the metaphor of each of us carrying their own light through the world and making it shine together for a while here in MOstar. That’s a huge part of what UWCiM means to me: gathering here to be living sharing learning on various and diverse levels - talking about very random topics - laughing about small things following the spirit that most uwc students feel and share, regardless of which college they attend(ed). But one particular character that I am continuously loving about UWCiM and which I have been experiencing as being truly unique to us is the vitality of m a k i n g t h e b e s t o u t o f i t.
This can refer to multitudinous various smaller and greater elements, and I feel honored to have seen creativity, crazy ideas that might or might not have ended up working, changes, and improvements that followed up based on not having everything we desire permanently given around us. Makingthebestoutofit impels us to pay attention to our surroundings and thrusts our brain cells in the position of trying to find less common but inspirational ways to get to the result we were striving for.
M a k i n g t h e b e s t o u t o f i t emboldens us to value tiny parts of our lives.
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