Welcome in 2016!
How are you? Did you
spend a great New Year's Eve? Did you make New Year's Resolutions? Today I want
to tell you about one big change in my life: Moving to Boarding School in the
UK.
When I was still in Year 9 at my secondary school in Cologne, the teachers approached us and told us about the possibility to do one year abroad at the beginning of Sixth Form. It sounded really exciting and like a great opportunity to broaden my horizon. As a matter of fact, I didn't like going to school in Germany, although, that's really understating it: I hated my school, my peers and being bullied. Moving away for a year sounded perfect to me! An older friend who'd already spent his year abroad in England and extended it to finish Sixth Form over there told us all about it. So my parents and I planned everything, visited and applied for several Boarding Schools in the UK and I decided to do the IB - International Baccalaureate, an internationally recognised graduation. That made Year 10, my last year in Germany, actually more bearable, because I had all the planning and anticipation. And it was worth it! I was so incredibly happy when I arrived, you wouldn't believe! In the first year I shared a room with three other girls, one of whom became like a sister to me. School in England was still like any other school. You have different groups of people, you have bullies, you have pressure. But the difference was, that I found MY group of people. What I learned during those two years is that you don't have to be friends with everybody. You just have to be yourself, be happy with who you are and find people who tolerate, respect and value you exactly that way. Of course I didn't just wake up with self-confidence one morning. In fact, most of the time I still felt like a bit of an outsider. But I had taken the first step in the right direction and my confidence grew a little bit each day. So, thank you to all my friends I got to know in those two years, thank you to those who I can still call my friends three years after I left school, no matter the distance between us.
When I was still in Year 9 at my secondary school in Cologne, the teachers approached us and told us about the possibility to do one year abroad at the beginning of Sixth Form. It sounded really exciting and like a great opportunity to broaden my horizon. As a matter of fact, I didn't like going to school in Germany, although, that's really understating it: I hated my school, my peers and being bullied. Moving away for a year sounded perfect to me! An older friend who'd already spent his year abroad in England and extended it to finish Sixth Form over there told us all about it. So my parents and I planned everything, visited and applied for several Boarding Schools in the UK and I decided to do the IB - International Baccalaureate, an internationally recognised graduation. That made Year 10, my last year in Germany, actually more bearable, because I had all the planning and anticipation. And it was worth it! I was so incredibly happy when I arrived, you wouldn't believe! In the first year I shared a room with three other girls, one of whom became like a sister to me. School in England was still like any other school. You have different groups of people, you have bullies, you have pressure. But the difference was, that I found MY group of people. What I learned during those two years is that you don't have to be friends with everybody. You just have to be yourself, be happy with who you are and find people who tolerate, respect and value you exactly that way. Of course I didn't just wake up with self-confidence one morning. In fact, most of the time I still felt like a bit of an outsider. But I had taken the first step in the right direction and my confidence grew a little bit each day. So, thank you to all my friends I got to know in those two years, thank you to those who I can still call my friends three years after I left school, no matter the distance between us.
I met my best friend Simon at Boarding School. This picture was taken at a party in Aachen October 2013.
At this point I
should probably mention that, despite the bad experiences I made at school in
Germany, I am still friends with one of the girls from my class.
Next time I can tell
you more about my Boarding School experiences and England in general. If you
have any questions, please feel free to ask!
See you next time
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