Veerle Koops, Grade 12
UWCEA Arusha Campus
When you live on campus, this place becomes the platform on which you map out your days, weeks and months. You can spend certain evenings here, mornings there and of course nights in one of the dormitories. We attend classes on campus, and as it is a two minute walk from your room to the classrooms, there is a very small barrier between personal space and time and work. You walk from your room to the cafeteria, to your room, classroom, dormitory, another dormitory and other places on campus back to your room in a day, and this takes up less than half an hour.
This definitely has effects on my mind. Originally, I am from The Hague, The Netherlands. I used to bike for at least twenty minutes between my home and other places I needed or wanted to be. This helps you clear your mind and focus on what you are doing. It is easy to move on from one to the next if moving from one place to another is just as easy, and this is convenient as well as disadvantageous.
One of the advantages however, is the fact that communication with all others around you, is clear and easily accessible. This is very helpful in day to day life, and especially for personal development, I believe. When you learn how to work together in teams, as leaders and in duo’s, you start to comprehend how helpful others can be to you and you can be to others. A sort of ‘give and receive’ relationship can form; others treat you how you treat them. Learning to work together on a committed level is a life skill that can help a person in all areas of life. On the other hand, lies the fact that, for communication is so fluid, your mind starts working a little differently: being given less time to switch, it takes less time to switch from one state to another. In my experience, this can result in a less conscious or effective manner of behaviour. Of course it depends on a person how they will deal with that situation.
Personally, I like to isolate myself in different spaces, to maintain focus, if I need it. As on campus all locations are close to each other and there are many places available for study, this is easy. I can go to my room, a classroom, the cafeteria or any other place that I feel comfortable studying. Some of my friends however, like to study habit-based, and do this at one place. Others study in the common area, having noise to cancel out or peers to offer help.
It all comes down to arranging your patterns in places and with people. Whether this is for quiet study or lound discussions, as a student we decide why we want to be somewhere and for what purpose. I find that it bears a great sense of freedom to be able to go anywhere on campus, at all times and without limitations
This definitely has effects on my mind. Originally, I am from The Hague, The Netherlands. I used to bike for at least twenty minutes between my home and other places I needed or wanted to be. This helps you clear your mind and focus on what you are doing. It is easy to move on from one to the next if moving from one place to another is just as easy, and this is convenient as well as disadvantageous.
One of the advantages however, is the fact that communication with all others around you, is clear and easily accessible. This is very helpful in day to day life, and especially for personal development, I believe. When you learn how to work together in teams, as leaders and in duo’s, you start to comprehend how helpful others can be to you and you can be to others. A sort of ‘give and receive’ relationship can form; others treat you how you treat them. Learning to work together on a committed level is a life skill that can help a person in all areas of life. On the other hand, lies the fact that, for communication is so fluid, your mind starts working a little differently: being given less time to switch, it takes less time to switch from one state to another. In my experience, this can result in a less conscious or effective manner of behaviour. Of course it depends on a person how they will deal with that situation.
Personally, I like to isolate myself in different spaces, to maintain focus, if I need it. As on campus all locations are close to each other and there are many places available for study, this is easy. I can go to my room, a classroom, the cafeteria or any other place that I feel comfortable studying. Some of my friends however, like to study habit-based, and do this at one place. Others study in the common area, having noise to cancel out or peers to offer help.
It all comes down to arranging your patterns in places and with people. Whether this is for quiet study or lound discussions, as a student we decide why we want to be somewhere and for what purpose. I find that it bears a great sense of freedom to be able to go anywhere on campus, at all times and without limitations
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