Erika+S

=My High School Years =

 Freshman year was both the peak and trough of my high school years. Within one year I had all the friends I could imagine but also had lost a few one by one. It was probably one of the most unstable years of my life.

At the time, I resided in Berlin, Germany. I attended an international school in the middle of the German capital. Public transportation, such as trains and buses, was our every day way of getting from point A to point B. It was the most ideal way of traveling… I didn’t need to have my parents drive me everywhere. Not only that, but the trains could take me as far away as I desired, whenever I wanted and where ever I wanted. None of the students needed or had the desire to buy a car unlike students in America. Our way of thinking was this: “No car, no responsibility, no car insurance, no maintenance, no excessive use of gasoline, thus eco friendly.”

Let me first describe the first half of my freshman year; aka one of the peaks of my high school career. During my freshman year, I had friends who came from all over the world; Malaysia, Japan, China, Serbia, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, USA, Italy, France, Great Britain, India, and of course from various cities in Germany. The diversity in our cultures broadened our perspectives and taught us how to accept and adapt to some of the traditions of various nations. The combination and fusion of our diversities gave us the title; “Third Culture Kids.” Basically, being a “Third Culture Kid” means that you have background from different nationalities and create your own culture by implementing the various cultures that happen to enclose you. This trait helped bring me and my many friends together. My freshman year was a class of about 130 kids and I knew every single one of them. About 100 of them were people that I spent time with outside of school. In groups of about six to ten, we’d go out almost every weekend, whether it was to the lake, city, or simply hanging out at someone’s house. Many times we’d just go out and eat a restaurant or watch a movie.

Then, February of my freshman year, I had lost the friendship of a very close friend. My world became very dark and, eventually, another one of my best friends began to drift away due to declining trust. I became very gloomy and felt down for about three to four months. It was probably the most difficult moment of my life.

Around March of my freshman year, two half Malaysian-half German boy twins transferred into my class. At first glance I thought they were dorks, nerds and had no social life… one that was worse than mine. Of course, just as I had suspected, they were true nerds… but those boys were the smartest kids I’ve ever seen. In addition, to that they were the best athletes in my class.

Despite my initial opinion of them, I decided to approach one of the twins in the middle of class and began to run on the track every lunch with them. All of a sudden I had made two new friends and I had become best friends with the older twin. I had suddenly seen the bright side of life and realized how irrational my previous downfall was. This is when I began to believe in the quote; “With every downfall there is a beauty.” I continued to run with the around the track during lunch and would join them during study sessions every day during the time we had left over after running during our lunch breaks. All of a sudden, my grades had gone up and I was in better condition than at the beginning of my freshman year. For once, I was truly satisfied with who I was and became. At that point, I told myself, “This is who I am, my friends love me for who I am and I’m happy. And no one can change that.”

After an eventful freshman year, my sophomore, in contrast, was very stable…. Not in a bad way… it was a blissful kind of stability. I began to meet more people and my friendship with the twins became more than just good friends. We spent almost every weekend hanging out with other friends and talked on the phone often. It practically felt like we were brothers and sisters. I’d turn to them for help and they’d always be there, without doubt, to assist me.

During the middle of my ideal sophomore year, my parents decided that we should move back to North Carolina during the summer of 2008. This upset me just as much as my friends. We happened to spend more time together than we normally did… which already was a lot to begin with. On my last night in Berlin, the twins, and other friends and I went out to a movie. It was a get together that they had planned for me. We were out till about one in the morning, just walking around on the streets in the city and talking about EVERYTHING.

That night, after coming back home from the get together, I was crushed. I was basically abandoning the life that had taken me so much strength to build. That summer I continued to run in the gym and on the sidewalks with the motivation to become better runners than the twins. It never happened of course… although I had improved, they had improved just as much… but I got close! My junior year at Green Hope had started in August of 2008. I had to start again. I went through a culture shock, despite the fact that I lived in the US for 10 years before moving to Germany. I realized that social life was so different here. Most people are in cliques or groups… something that didn’t really exist at my school in Berlin. Despite this I became friends with some interesting people. I had joined the cross country team, where I made more friends. The workouts were a lot of work but it was nothing like what I had experienced in Berlin. It was so motivating. For once I was running with a large group of people that was actually willing to run – not walk- to the finish line.

Junior year passed by pretty slowly. And the summer of 2009, I went back to Germany and visited my friends. It was as if not a single day had gone by. And I still miss my life in Berlin.

Now, my senior year… was just full of mother annoying me with scholarship applications and essay writing and SATs and college application. The courses I had selected had made my senior year more stressful than my junior year… *echem* Calculus; but I dealt with it.

Out of three applications that I have sent I have been accepted to two colleges: North Carolina State and Rhode Island school of Design; the top art school in the nation. The third one that I had applied to was Cooper Union in New York City where I had sent test scores and essays and etc. However, I was overwhelmed with the nine take home art assignments that I had to finish within three weeks on top of studying for midterms; so essentially, I didn’t even really complete the application.. OOPS.

Within the last two years of my high school career... I’ve been more committed to photography and art, specifically oil painting. It is a career path I have chosen.

I have decided to attend NC State for one or two years and then transfer to Rhode Island. I had been satisfied with the last two years of high school… but nothing can compete with my experience abroad.

@http://animoto.com/play/5FklVQuy2PcGZUACVm0LSg