1. How would you describe your UWC experience so far?

My UWC experience has been a very interesting one. I am really enjoying it and the fact that there are so many people from different countries. I like the fact that I get so close to so many cultures. It has enriched my cultural and spiritual experience and has made me value more the things I have back home. I discovered many parts of me that I kept hidden deep inside. Quan Cais and the people around me made me realize that I am capable of much more than I actually thought before. As one of the quotes from the courtyard says, I discovered that there is more in me than I think and that my disability is my opportunity. I am really thankful for these two wonderful past months and I look forward to having even more interesting things happen to me in the rest of the two years, until I graduate. Of course considering all of what is happening in Syria makes me very sad, but at the same time I am trying to enjoy my experience and to live in the present, to feel every moment at its full intensity. There is no point in being physically present somewhere and living with your heart somewhere else.  At some times it is really hard and I feel like it’s almost impossible to survive here, because I think so much about the people from back home, but then I meet my friends, I simply look around, notice all the nice things and I keep going. There’s a quote saying that it does not matter how slow you go as long as you go, and I try to follow it. With small steps, I am travelling to my future and even if it’s hard sometimes, I go on.

2. Tell us about your favorite UWC activity?

I enjoy in a special way the Newspaper. It is part of the creativity activities. It helps me develop my writing skills and gives me the opportunity to express my opinion and share my story with my peers. It also gives me the opportunity to interact with people who write from different environments and cultural backgrounds and to see how different can people write according to their views about the world. I really like how we are given the same topic and how everybody interprets it in his own way, through his own experience and ideas. It is really interesting to observe this. I also enjoy writing and just losing myself in words. It’s such a nice way to bring people closer to my experience and ideas. It is like getting closer to someone, without forcing anything. You just write, people just read and the connection forms itself. Words are the shortest way to form a connection between people, no matter how different those people seem to be in the beginning.

I really like how our activities are interrelated with our academics and how every person is valued not based on their academics and marks only, but also based on their contribution to society. Newspapers informs people and I think, no matter how small, we still make a change in the world, by sharing our stories, by listening to others’ stories and simply by the fact that we form a team.