When I was in the 8th grade, my family was told that we were moving to Belgium at the end of June 2021. When reviewing all the options I had for schooling while OUTCAN, it was revealed to me that I had the opportunity to attend boarding school in Italy for my high school career. When I first heard about this opportunity, I was wary about living alone and away from my parents. Despite my concerns, I concluded that it would be an amazing education with even more amazing experiences. So, the decision was made and in late August, I hopped on a plane to Italy to begin my boarding school experience.
When I arrived in the small town in Italy that I would be spending most of the next four years of my life in, I was nervous but extremely excited for the opportunities that I was being presented with. I never would have expected how much I would end up learning about life.
My first year of high school taught me about friendships and how to stand up for myself. I learned that you do not need a best friend everywhere you go. The ones you have will stay with you wherever you go even if you are living all the way across the world from them. This isn’t to say that you should not put in the effort to make friends, in fact, that is another major lesson I learned during this year: Make all the friends you can when you find yourself in unfamiliar environments, you never know who will stay with you for life.
My second year of high school taught me how to take care of myself without the help of my support group. I endured tough challenges during this year that I never could have prepared myself for. I learned through these challenges that to keep going I needed to take matters into my own hands and take care of myself to keep growing. This was a difficult feat, but without my parents and best friends being with me all the time it was time I started to learn.
My third year was very important for me. I learned how to stop taking everything so seriously and to have as much fun as I can. I learned how to keep a close group of friends while still building relationships with people from different groups. This year allowed me to learn how to not be afraid and to be my own person.
As of now, I am about to go into my senior year in two months and I will be taking these lessons into my last year of high school and even further into university. The special part about these lessons is that I had to learn them all by myself because I was away at boarding school.