Throughout the past four months, so many things have changed, not just the obvious factor of people and environment, but also the change in myself.

As the first student from Taiwan to go to UWC Thailand, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t have advice from past students and graduates or even a glimpse of what life would be at Thailand. When I arrived there, I realized that not only was I the first Taiwanese students, I was also the only East Asian. In some ways, it affected how I settled in; I had nobody to connect to. Often times I hear other students speaking to one another in their mother tongue, but I didn’t have the chance or the person. On top of the fact that I am a pretty introverted person myself, it wasn’t the easiest to extend my social circle until later on. Nonetheless, I soon bonded with many different people through classes, trips to nearby places, and nights spent together doing the most random things.

Our school included a lot of day students, this year more than the last. It created some diversion between them and the boarding students, which made it difficult to engage with everyone within the grade. We were also very obviously divided into these two categories, and we would look at the grade 12s and wonder how is their year so close and friendly to one another. Perhaps it’s at the same time because of lesser day students and an overall smaller grade, the term ‘friend group’ does not exist that distinctively compared to us. Thankfully, this issue had been brought to everyone’s attention, including all the students, the student council, and the teachers.

The next important thing to socializing is self management. Surprisingly, school starts at 8 and ends at 3:30 in the afternoon, giving students plenty of their own free time. However, it is very essential to wisely use these after-class periods to balance between resting and working. It is easy for students to want to immediately start engaging with leisure activities and then cramping all the work until late night, when in truth, we are given more time then we need to complete our tasks. Self discipline becomes a difficult thing to manage, but once students begin on the right track, things can go a lot more smoothly and easier.

Time spent here in UWC gave me skills that I lacked, such as socializing and time managing. I was never one to plan my schedules or write down to do lists, but here I have been given a lot of freedom to do what I desire, and it took me a while to realize how much self growth and improvement I have demonstrated.

Throughout the past four months, so many things have changed, not just the obvious factor of people and environment, but also the change in myself.

As the first student from Taiwan to go to UWC Thailand, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t have advice from past students and graduates or even a glimpse of what life would be at Thailand. When I arrived there, I realized that not only was I the first Taiwanese students, I was also the only East Asian. In some ways, it affected how I settled in; I had nobody to connect to. Often times I hear other students speaking to one another in their mother tongue, but I didn’t have the chance or the person. On top of the fact that I am a pretty introverted person myself, it wasn’t the easiest to extend my social circle until later on. Nonetheless, I soon bonded with many different people through classes, trips to nearby places, and nights spent together doing the most random things.

Our school included a lot of day students, this year more than the last. It created some diversion between them and the boarding students, which made it difficult to engage with everyone within the grade. We were also very obviously divided into these two categories, and we would look at the grade 12s and wonder how is their year so close and friendly to one another. Perhaps it’s at the same time because of lesser day students and an overall smaller grade, the term ‘friend group’ does not exist that distinctively compared to us. Thankfully, this issue had been brought to everyone’s attention, including all the students, the student council, and the teachers.

The next important thing to socializing is self management. Surprisingly, school starts at 8 and ends at 3:30 in the afternoon, giving students plenty of their own free time. However, it is very essential to wisely use these after-class periods to balance between resting and working. It is easy for students to want to immediately start engaging with leisure activities and then cramping all the work until late night, when in truth, we are given more time then we need to complete our tasks. Self discipline becomes a difficult thing to manage, but once students begin on the right track, things can go a lot more smoothly and easier.

Time spent here in UWC gave me skills that I lacked, such as socializing and time managing. I was never one to plan my schedules or write down to do lists, but here I have been given a lot of freedom to do what I desire, and it took me a while to realize how much self growth and improvement I have demonstrated.