I wrote about our class of 2015 last week, and I’d like to do so again; not because they are more important than any other year group, but they are the students who have been with us longest, who best understand us, and who can articulate it most eloquently.
The eloquence is important because amidst the emotion, which was intense, there was also deep reflection and self-learning; indeed I think it likely that is was because of the emotion, and the transgression of the usual boundaries, that the learning was so deep. So I wanted to share two of many stories that came our way during the week. This first one, forwarded to me by the student’s parents, is unreservedly joyous:
Story One This is the place that you feel that you belong to, where you are not afraid to be ambitious and where you can voice your opinion. The school that is not like other. I have not ever dared to imagine that high school is probably the best thing that happened to me in my life. I am eternally grateful for my parents, for giving me this amazing opportunity to grow as a person in a place like this. Forever I am grateful for meeting the most talented, the brightest and open people here in UWCSEA. My love for everyone, students, teachers and staff, I have met in the past 4 years is permanent and limitless – thank you for only inspiring me to strive for better. There is not a single regret in my UWCSEA experience, because all of the challenges that we have been though. I will treasure the sweet memories till the last days.
Story Two 600+ Days ago I walked into the school for the first time as a student. It was undoubtedly intimidating, yet exciting all the same. Despite evidence to the contrary, I was shy and reserved. In many ways, even after my time at UWCSEA, I still am.
“Sonder” is a distinctly Millennial word (or so I think) for “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”. It’s not a “real” word, but what it describes is; my time at East is a testament to it.
In many places, we are as we are – people act to be who they are in the present, with little acknowledgement to their consequential pasts. It’s a shame, since within their pasts are memories, lessons and stories to be shared and learnt from by others around them. UWCSEA East is not one of those places. If anything will stick, it is the fact that there is no other place I, and I’m sure many others, have been to where individuals are open to the extent that they are. We’ve learnt that stories aren’t merely products of sentimentality, but a way to understand who we are, and why. At East, these stories aren’t filed away in the restricted section of the 11th floor of the National Library. I realise now why the bottom floor of the Kishore Mahbubani hardly has any books, and is instead an open space.
In the past week, it’s been difficult to sleep. Over and over again I think: What strong bonds have I made? Who have I deeply connected with? For a while it bothered me, but I then I realised that “to everything, and with everyone” suffices, although this story is a caveat.
At my time at school, I never really stuck with any specific group of people. During lunches I would move around tables, during frees I would go around the library, and after school I would stick around with whoever was free. It was lonely. Yesterday as we were all under that plaza, I hugged everyone with whom I’ve spent any time at all – there were many hugs. Yet, 20 minutes before that, I didn’t know who to walk out of the Black Box next to, so I did it alone. Afterwards, I left early, without a picture with the globe, or my cohort. I was around though, quietly with a close friend from another grade, on the 6th floor.
As altruistic as we may be, we are still the main characters of our own lives. We go to school to improve ourselves, and learn how to the same for others in the future. East taught me that it’s not a crime to recognise this simple fact, with one catch – that we realise the the same applies to each and every one of us.
