Polina Blinova, Grade 11
UWC Maastricht
People tend to think that their UWC experiences fly by with supersonic speed. When you are always in a rush to experience new eye-opening things, and when you try to hold on to moments with people that will inevitably leave you, taking a piece of your soul wherever life may bring them after your two-year journey, that might be the case. In such circumstances, time indeed flies by, leaving a lingering sense of closeness given to us by the so much cherished seconds. I could never put a value on them. For that reason, those who manage to find a place where time slows down are the lucky ones; be that the Christmas fair in its busiest hour or your common room at 3am.
The beauty of the campus that I live in lies in its proximity to essentially everything. It will only take you 15 minutes to get to the Maastricht city centre and 30 minutes to get to the border with Belgium. All of that just using your beloved bike that has probably been broken a couple of times already and is not suitable for going anywhere rather than the supermarket. But we will omit those details since the place that I will talk about does not require any transportation to get to. Yes, sometimes you have to get out into the city, but turning your planned route in a completely different direction might just bring you to the most marvelous place. At least, it was one of those for me.
Those who study at UWCM and love going for walks will undoubtedly realize that I am talking about the fields. When I was trying to find out the specific name of that place, google just left me with an empty space on the map that did not have a name on it whatsoever. In reality, the name does not matter because everyone who studies here knows about these fields. Evidently, most people are familiar with their concept due to the partying context, and while that might be a lot of fun, perhaps, going a bit further into the meadows will help you discover something new.
Miles and miles of endless rows of flowers, pastures, and occasionally small forests. This is what you will encounter walking for hours in the direction opposite to what you are in the habit of. The time that I spent being there contributed to the most memorable moments of my life. And whenever I would lie there; alone or with a couple of friends, the time would genuinely stop.
I realized that UWC distorted my perception of time. Most people feel like it is running away from them, so then it does. As for me, I am no different in thinking that it is going fast, but in the end, I have all the time in the world; for things that matter. Anytime we would go to our fields and lie there, I would always feel like I was and I am there for infinity, and that the time is passing by so quickly. And then, when I would look at my watch, only an hour would have passed or so. I have managed to carry this feeling with me back home, and now I always feel like I don’t have enough time, but then I do.
Try to look for those places in your everyday life. They are in the most casual things that you don’t usually pay attention to. Given that, they, in essence, become the most appreciated later on because, as our lovely DP2s once said, “Time goes on, it’s sad but true. We’re just glad to have been here with you.”
Or something along those lines.
The beauty of the campus that I live in lies in its proximity to essentially everything. It will only take you 15 minutes to get to the Maastricht city centre and 30 minutes to get to the border with Belgium. All of that just using your beloved bike that has probably been broken a couple of times already and is not suitable for going anywhere rather than the supermarket. But we will omit those details since the place that I will talk about does not require any transportation to get to. Yes, sometimes you have to get out into the city, but turning your planned route in a completely different direction might just bring you to the most marvelous place. At least, it was one of those for me.
Those who study at UWCM and love going for walks will undoubtedly realize that I am talking about the fields. When I was trying to find out the specific name of that place, google just left me with an empty space on the map that did not have a name on it whatsoever. In reality, the name does not matter because everyone who studies here knows about these fields. Evidently, most people are familiar with their concept due to the partying context, and while that might be a lot of fun, perhaps, going a bit further into the meadows will help you discover something new.
Miles and miles of endless rows of flowers, pastures, and occasionally small forests. This is what you will encounter walking for hours in the direction opposite to what you are in the habit of. The time that I spent being there contributed to the most memorable moments of my life. And whenever I would lie there; alone or with a couple of friends, the time would genuinely stop.
I realized that UWC distorted my perception of time. Most people feel like it is running away from them, so then it does. As for me, I am no different in thinking that it is going fast, but in the end, I have all the time in the world; for things that matter. Anytime we would go to our fields and lie there, I would always feel like I was and I am there for infinity, and that the time is passing by so quickly. And then, when I would look at my watch, only an hour would have passed or so. I have managed to carry this feeling with me back home, and now I always feel like I don’t have enough time, but then I do.
Try to look for those places in your everyday life. They are in the most casual things that you don’t usually pay attention to. Given that, they, in essence, become the most appreciated later on because, as our lovely DP2s once said, “Time goes on, it’s sad but true. We’re just glad to have been here with you.”
Or something along those lines.
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