Emile Brozaityte, Grade 11
UWC ISAK Japan
We were sitting somewhere in the suburbs of Tokyo, waiting for the morning sun. The streets were empty, the sky was pink, we were resting on the sidewalk with our backs hunched and legs stretched in front of us, absorbing the quiet of the morning and the soft warmth of the beginning of one more hectic day. Waiting for the sunrise.
“I wonder what Shibuya looks like at 5AM in the morning…” said Shimba. I looked at him, we smiled at each other and decided to go where the dawn leads us.
It was exactly the 3rd time I was talking to this person but there we were, pondering together in the unrealistic first hours of the day somewhere thousands of miles away from our homes in the biggest city in the word.
The silence of this sleeping giant was unreal and hard to process. It felt like the world had stopped, everyone was gone. The greys and blues of the city towers and streets were mixing with those of the sky.
We slowly made our way to the metro station and crouched on the floor with not a soul around. I still clearly remember the weird trans-like feeling of peace and inner calm I was suddenly indrawn in. I felt in my place. “I am exactly where I have to, want to and need to be” I thought. Even though I was God knows where.
The rest of the morning was extremely chaotic and would seem like nothing special. But it was. It was to me.
We took a metro to one of the centres of Tokyo - Shibuya. Walked around, tried to find a skyscraper with a roof that we could go onto. We were running around at 6AM on a Saturday morning to find something, obviously everything was closed. When we realised that, we waited for McDonalds to open. Sat around, ran out of patience, then went back to where we came from to find that the McDonalds there had opened and then sat in it for 3 hours.
Sitting there at 7 AM in a Tokyo McDonald’s second floor, staring through the oily window almost brought me to tears. The sound of Shimba softly laughing and silently sipping his coffee blurred out somewhere in the background for a moment. I couldn’t believe that I was living in that moment. It felt unreal for a second, like I was floating somewhere else.
That was one of the moments that made me fall in love with UWC all over again. The way it brings people together. The way that it makes complete strangers feel like family.
Only 3 meets ago me and Shimba were aliens to each other. But we both had something that we shared - the spirit of UWC.
“I wonder what Shibuya looks like at 5AM in the morning…” said Shimba. I looked at him, we smiled at each other and decided to go where the dawn leads us.
It was exactly the 3rd time I was talking to this person but there we were, pondering together in the unrealistic first hours of the day somewhere thousands of miles away from our homes in the biggest city in the word.
The silence of this sleeping giant was unreal and hard to process. It felt like the world had stopped, everyone was gone. The greys and blues of the city towers and streets were mixing with those of the sky.
We slowly made our way to the metro station and crouched on the floor with not a soul around. I still clearly remember the weird trans-like feeling of peace and inner calm I was suddenly indrawn in. I felt in my place. “I am exactly where I have to, want to and need to be” I thought. Even though I was God knows where.
The rest of the morning was extremely chaotic and would seem like nothing special. But it was. It was to me.
We took a metro to one of the centres of Tokyo - Shibuya. Walked around, tried to find a skyscraper with a roof that we could go onto. We were running around at 6AM on a Saturday morning to find something, obviously everything was closed. When we realised that, we waited for McDonalds to open. Sat around, ran out of patience, then went back to where we came from to find that the McDonalds there had opened and then sat in it for 3 hours.
Sitting there at 7 AM in a Tokyo McDonald’s second floor, staring through the oily window almost brought me to tears. The sound of Shimba softly laughing and silently sipping his coffee blurred out somewhere in the background for a moment. I couldn’t believe that I was living in that moment. It felt unreal for a second, like I was floating somewhere else.
That was one of the moments that made me fall in love with UWC all over again. The way it brings people together. The way that it makes complete strangers feel like family.
Only 3 meets ago me and Shimba were aliens to each other. But we both had something that we shared - the spirit of UWC.
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