Verena 泰國UWC 畢業年度2024
在泰國就讀UWC Thailand校區的Verena Lin在第一學年結束後的感想與反思。
-
「For the first time, I felt like I found “my”' group of people, and I am thankful that I did since I believe not everyone is able to do so.」
-
文中探討著Verena自己在UWC Thailand對於歸屬感的概念。從起初的懷疑態度，到現今超越單純的社交與友誼等等。並且強調了多樣性與跨出舒適圈的重要性。
正文：
“What does belonging mean to you?” That is a question our school has been asking us ever since the first year I have been here. Back then I never understood the importance or the purpose of the question, not even after I finished the first year at UWC. While the first year consisted a lot on personal organization and responsibility, I discovered that the second year marks the evident change in myself.
*I gathered that many “introverts” who entered one of the UWC schools found “people” to be one of the most refreshing enlightenment. This reflection will be more self-based and function as self-reflection instead of discussion on the actualities of the school and the activities. More casual writing style will be used and I will be including a bit more of some personal opinion 
For privacy, there will be no names mentioned, but examples will be included.*
Spending so much time with my friends and the students in school, the most important lessons I concluded for my journey here has a lot to do with people and relations. Starting the school with everyone scrambling to find their own friend groups, to when the majority settled in, and until now, I realized that “having friends” and “socializing” is different from “belonging”. Back when the teachers would make us sit in a circle and discuss about the topic of “belonging”, I found it a waste of time because I never really fully understood what it meant or what it feels like. Before I came to UWC, I was a very introverted person (even though I still am). I did not always see the point in creating connections with people for I did not see the need to. Even though most social circles has been set, minor changes through interactions and communication allowed us to engage with new people. During the start of grade 12, I established new friendships and strengthened old ones, allowing me to find the friendship dynamics that come naturally. For the first time, I felt like I found “my” group of people, and I am thankful that I did since I believe not everyone is able to do so.
I realized how important it is for friendship to be mutual and to be initiative. One of my friends told us about how she purposely visit different rooms to check up on everyone occasionally, and that made me understand that I should also be doing the same. From then on, I spent a lot of time after school in other people’s rooms talking with them, and soon we became a lot closer. Now looking back, I see that many of the best friendships I had made were with people I never would have thought I’d be friends with.
Communicating is such as important aspect. A simple check up on someone when they are feeling down can open possibilities of relations, sharing your own ideas without fearing of being judged can build deeper understandings of one another, being open to listening can heal bonds that were broken, this and so much more I have experienced. You will definitely learn something or receive good results if efforts are put in. Instead of sticking to a comfort zone or only talking to a certain group of people with certain backgrounds, it is easy to miss out on the opportunities to find the people you actually feel like you belong to instead of people you only hang out with. Of course, having friends that you have fun with or hang out with is undoubtedly necessary, I believe that at the same time, it is essential to find people who you can go to even when you are tired of socializing.
While the first semester of grade 12 has been extremely busy due to exams and university applications, I found a balance within life at UWC. Despite the fact that this reflections talks heavily about “friends” and concepts instead of abilities such as knowledge and skills, I believe that while everyone will acquire technical abilities after coming to UWC, not everyone might gain experience on personal aspects of growth. A lot of my feelings and thoughts can not be simply put into words, I can only claim that this is one of the most valuable gains I have from beginning my UWC journey, which I am sure has also prepared me for the future in the wide society network.
Now for some more personal interactions with the people around me:
There are people who I can talk without filter; even on the most random subjects. As someone who is a very philosophical thinker, it isn’t often for me to find someone who share the same mind, and it isn’t always easy to just start of a conversation with “is there a purpose to life”? There are conversations until 2am where we discuss about controversial ideas (which I will not name since some, as mentioned of “no filter”, may be offensive to many). However, what I find special about these talks is that it is never judgmental, it is only a share of personal opinion, nothing more. Oftentimes, we have completely opposite approaches, and our “debate” begins without the intent of convincing the other person. Such as on the topic of “life”, while my friend and I had contradictory points of view, we arrived at the conclusion that “there purpose to life but no meaning to life”. (I will not go into the details of that haha).
There are people who I can have endless conversations with while we cook ramen (because as boarding students, we obviously eat ramen five times a week). This continued to the point where we even have what we call “ramen night”. There are people who I have been so close to that we don’t need to ask if they are up to do something, such as our inclusion of “movie night” every week. At this point, it is just “so what movie are we watching, horror again?” Instead of “Do you want to watch a movie”. And because of my body that falls ill a tad bit easier than normal, there are people who immediately knows what is going on the second I say “Can you get me a plastic bag”. There are friends that sleep on the ground because I took their bed when being sick in order to watch over me and those that will buy me a snack with a “get will soon” note. There are all of these people and so much more that made me appreciate what I have, and I must admit that I could not have survived the IB without these people around me.
Being in my old school for my entire life (which is ten years), I didn’t feel extremely upset when I left the only friends I had encountered in my sixteen years. But now, I can not imagine the day it comes when I have to leave these people I have only met for one year and a half. I am sure that during the remaining 4 months here at UWC Thailand, I will receive even more growth in my self. There is so much more other than this lesson that also seem like those plot lines in books where the main character is hit with realization, but those will be a story for another day.
