bloggy

As I sit and contemplate the events that have happened in the past 24 hours, I am distracted by the blue skies by my window.

Founders’ Weekend at UWC-USA was possibly the best thing to happen to me in the past one week or so.

Usually, when I meet strangers on campus, I don’t quite know how to connect.  We talk, we get along, we say goodbye.  But today I met people who once lived and studied and did crazy things here together, some of them in the ’80s, and there was an instant connection. Somehow I knew they understood everything I was trying to convey, whether it was my frustration with all this college pressure or the theft of the Nelson Mandela statue, or the IB’s.

And the feeling of being onstage yesterday was indescribable.  We have performed the Indonesian dance a gazillion times, but I agree with what so many people came up to tell me afterwards: I was so happy. I was incredibly happy going through those motions. It was the happiest I had been in the week.

For once, the speeches really engaged everyone too.  It wasn’t so much about politics or world peace this time; it was about us and what we could do in this place we’ve learnt to call home.  I was backstage, so I couldn’t actually see the speakers, but I was listening in the wings.  When Kim Vickers of the 1st graduating class reminisced about Howling (and how they started the tradition to keep the security guards busy) amongst other antics to conclude that really, this weekend was about 25 years of friendship, we had a group hug backstage. And I remembered what it was like to feel connected to people and memories.

The conversations I had with alumni just opened up the world to me again. The workshops on Education at the Grassroots, Activism, Sustainability and Ethical Leadership made me started to see that there is a world that exists beyond and after this bubble.  That there is a family I can rely on (this was told to me by a Mexican alum from ‘82). That loving what I’m doing at the moment instead of anxiously stretching out to see beyond the horizon really makes a difference. I’m no longer thinking ahead to TOK festival, Thanksgiving, Winter Break and Project Week, because I don’t just want to live during those milestones. I want to live in between as well - even if that means struggling to understand vectors. I want to learn to love that struggle.

Someone told me that I had a lovely aura today. I think that will keep me smiling for awhile.