Defne Tekin, Grade 11
UWC Maastricht
‘Mysa’ can roughly be translated from Swedish into English as ‘to become cozy’ or ‘to feel at home’; these were exactly what I felt when I arrived on Mysa, our floor for the first time last year. After spending a year -almost!- on the floor, I can now say that I am delighted to have been placed in a room on Mysa and certainly proud to call myself a Mysa girl! I enjoyed every minute spent on the floor, and am grateful to have met so many incredible and talented people, who continue to inspire me still.
Apart from the people on Mysa: our second years whom I already miss greatly and my co-years which I hope to reunite with and welcome our incoming firsties into their new homes together, there are so many other things I miss about our floor: the late-night deliveries from Siba (a fast-food restaurant in Maastricht that is commonly used by UWC students for takeaways), the common room conversations we had amongst ourselves or with others who came to the floor, our floor dinners and picnics, floor meetings and even floor cleaning. While we were definitely not the cleanest or the tidiest floor on campus, our floor had a certain charm to it that I am sure no other floor can compare to! It is also true that we as Mysa girls each had our own distinct personalities; we were all so different -and unique- in our own ways, yet we managed to form a culture in Mysa, which I believe will be talked about years after we have graduated.
It’s difficult to describe my experience in Mysa so far, in writing, and even more difficult to describe ‘Mysa’. Because what is Mysa, or rather what could it be? Just like how I don’t think I will ever understand the crazy movement/school I am now a part of, that is UWC, and I don’t think I will ever be able to fully grasp what Mysa means… “Sisters from all over the world” seems like the closest I can get to defining ‘Mysa’ now.
Apart from the people on Mysa: our second years whom I already miss greatly and my co-years which I hope to reunite with and welcome our incoming firsties into their new homes together, there are so many other things I miss about our floor: the late-night deliveries from Siba (a fast-food restaurant in Maastricht that is commonly used by UWC students for takeaways), the common room conversations we had amongst ourselves or with others who came to the floor, our floor dinners and picnics, floor meetings and even floor cleaning. While we were definitely not the cleanest or the tidiest floor on campus, our floor had a certain charm to it that I am sure no other floor can compare to! It is also true that we as Mysa girls each had our own distinct personalities; we were all so different -and unique- in our own ways, yet we managed to form a culture in Mysa, which I believe will be talked about years after we have graduated.
It’s difficult to describe my experience in Mysa so far, in writing, and even more difficult to describe ‘Mysa’. Because what is Mysa, or rather what could it be? Just like how I don’t think I will ever understand the crazy movement/school I am now a part of, that is UWC, and I don’t think I will ever be able to fully grasp what Mysa means… “Sisters from all over the world” seems like the closest I can get to defining ‘Mysa’ now.
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