Each school at the right time

At fifteen years old, I have to say, I have had a very interesting school life. My parents decided to change the country where they had lived for their entire lives to give me a bigger perspective on different traditions and cultures. When we were in Italy, I attended the Waldorf kindergarten; afterwards, when we moved to America, my parents thought that it was a good idea for me to keep attending the Waldorf school. This was because everything else in my life had changed: my home had changed, my family stayed in Italy, my environment was different, and what I found to be very challenging was that my language had changed, as I did not speak one word of english. I attended the Waldorf school up until the fifth grade, then, my mom had to go back to Italy for business. My parents decided that would be the perfect occasion for me to look at my home country with fresh eyes because I was older, and quite some time had gone by since I had experienced Italy for more than a month. One of the things that I acknowledged during the year that I spent in an Italian, bilingual school, was that the Waldorf school was not the right fit for me anymore. I needed something more diverse and challenging. That was when I talked with my parents and we started looking into Waynflete. During our holiday visit to the U.S. that winter, I visited Waynflete, and it made a good impression on me. When we came back to the United States, I was about to enter the seventh grade, and that was when my adventure at Waynflete began.

The transition from eighth grade to high school is life changing; the freedom that comes with high school is very stimulating, as it provides the chance to explore new things. The possibility of being able to choose my courses and all kinds of activities is the greatest gift for me that came with beginning high school.

When I started school a few months ago, there was definitely more interaction with older students than in middle school, and they were very welcoming. It inspires me to see what the sophomores, juniors and seniors do and which classes they take, and I love listening to their suggestions on how to explore high school. I really value the friendships that I have and advice that I am given by older students.

I have learned so far that with more freedom comes more responsibility. It is not always easy to make the right decisions, especially because everything is new. At Waynflete, I feel supported by my advisor and my teachers, and I always feel that I can seek their advice. This year, something that I enjoy very much is drama. I had been interested in drama for a while, but had not gotten the chance to try it out. Now that I have had the opportunity to try it, I have found it to be very amusing, as I love to explore all the possible sides of a character’s moods and feelings when I live them and bring them to life. Another opportunity that I look forward to in the years to come is foreign language. It is fascinating to learn a new language, because it provides the chance to communicate with many people, and to express ideas in different ways.

Speaking of opportunities, I love to write, and I would love writing to be a significant part of my life in the future. I am using writing as a chance to work on my skills and express my ideas and thoughts, so that I can get to know myself as a writer and work on sharing my goals, feelings and inspirations with the world and understand them better myself by writing about them. Writing is important to me because it helps me express things with my thoughts that I would not be able to say with such deliberation if I were saying them on the spot. It gives me the chance to spend immeasurable amounts of time engaging in introspection, and it’s like traveling an endless universe and seeing thousands of places that can be multifarious emotions, feelings, illusions, and new experiences.

Overall, I am very happy to be at Waynflete, and when I look back at my life and the path I have walked, I feel very grateful to be where I am today. Waynflete is a very important part of my life because of the potential it gives me. Every day I am able to experience something different, something that opens my eyes to a new thought. I am eager to see where my path at Waynflete takes me in the coming years, and where my life takes me after that.