Dear UWC Georgia, 

One month has already passed since I finished my final IB exams and officially graduated from UWC Robert Bosch College, six months have gone by since I officially got my place at my favorite university, almost a year has passed since I started my second year experience, more than two years since I was granted a scholarship to become a UWC RBC and UWC Georgia second generation member and I cannot help thinking about how lucky I am to have been able to experience everything that I did experience. 

I think that UWC is different for every person lucky enough to live it. Different smells come to our minds, different people, different places, but one thing that connects us all I believe is that all of our experiences are meaningful, life-changing and the ones that make us believe in the future. 90 nationalities is really a phrase until you really come to experience what it is like to live with people from 90 nationalities - to get to know them well, think about what makes them different from you and what not and I think realizing that my idea about the world that "we are all the same" was not at all true was the most challenging thing UWC did to me. Well we are all the same, we should all be the same in the name of our rights and laws, I still believe in that whether it is right or not but I realize how different each of us is due and not due to our background, how different our values are and how individually I should assess each person because there is no formula for communicating with people who you care about. Talking about differences, it sometimes is frustrating, really, because you do realize that it is very hard that all of us come to agree on one thing or another and our way of living is not perfect due to our different views on it but the most important thing that I have also heard our Rektor say is that we make it work, somehow, and in the end we remember each other as the people who we spent time in our late night conversations with, went on hilarious trips with, camped for the first time with, had a big argument with but also the people who we stood by when we all needed each other. I think realizing this is the best moment itself, but it also is something very hard to describe to someone who has not yet lived UWC.

Similarly, it is very hard to speak about what I learned at UWC about myself because there is just so much to speak about I would probably get lost in this letter and make it hard for anyone to make any conclusion. I would say that I for sure improved academically, I managed to work very hard which I  had never really needed before, I saw challenges which made me almost cry but overcame them somehow in the end which made me trust myself more and also trust others more because there was always someone who I could rely on during these two years, who were living just across my bed or door or house. I also got to know myself better, I came to change almost entirely what I wanted to do in life and I grew up a lot, but the most important thing that I realized in the end is that although we get a little bit bigger every day we are just never changing who we are deep inside, just like in one of my favorite songs.

By growing up I also mean that I just realized that after 13 years of secondary education I'm finally starting the life of a 'Studentin' in German. Next year I am going to be studying in my first choice university with great professors, academics, small class sizes and just very caring atmosphere that I love in this school - University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. What I also like in what they do is that they really focus on sustainability and are kind of living the mission outside of the UWC. 

And to the next generation of UWC students I would say: really live the mission, go on every official or unofficial event, spend time with friends, study together, think together, live each and every minute of UWC because although IB is about hard work, UWC is about moments and we all deserve to enjoy our time once or better many times  in a while because frankly we get to be young only once and that's it, then we go and step into the adulthood which I believe we should also make it something to enjoy. Also, I would tell them to try everything that they want to try or even not want to try because every experience counts and UWC is a perfect place for experiment with also experiencing the results of our experiments. And when they finish their studies I would encourage them to just continue to be dreamers because they are not the only ones and to be proud that they have been lucky to live their own UWC.

And of course, GOOD LUCK !! 

I wish you all the best,

Sincerely,

Ani, UWC Robert Bosch College'2017