Tag: friends

The Faults of Living (at school)

lanative1Leave a comment
When I was younger, I thought that teachers lived at school.   I imagined them sleeping in the classrooms, pulling out the mats we used for nap time and creating comfortable beds.  I thought it sounded really fun and cool to live at school.  Now that I actually do live at my school, I have a better understanding of what it means and what you give up.
At OVS, there is a clear divide between the day students and the resident students. This is because the day students have time to see each other outside of school every day without the resident students.  Similarly, the resident students have a lot of time every day without the day students.  This has created a noticeable rift between the student body.  When you live at school, it’s harder to put aside free time for your friends.  With a schedule that maps out almost every minute of the day, it is a lot more difficult for residents than day students.
There are a lot of day students that I really like and want to get to know better.  However, as much as I wish I could change it, watching them drive away as I am confined up on the hill is pretty much standard procedure.

Summer Lovin’

raining17Leave a comment

As the school year comes to a close, anticipation for summer is high. Seniors have decided which college they plan to attend, and others are simply excited for the year to end and summer to begin.

Photo Credit: school.familyeducation.com

For boarders, this can come with mixed emotions. Of course we are excited for the year to end and what the summer will bring. However, as much as we love home, a part of our life is at school.

Day students live in the area, so while they can see friends at school, they also live right by them. Boarders, on the other hand, do not.

I have friends at home that I am excited to see, but I have close friends at school too, and the fact that I won’t get to see any of them for three months is sad!

Basically, I’m excited for the school year to be over since it means school will be done and I get to go home, but leaving my friends is going to be difficult.

Boarding School vs. Reality

raining17Leave a comment

Living at boarding school makes for an odd double standard, specifically in the sense of relationships – any type. If a boarder and a day student are friends, the boarder can go to the day students house and get to know their lifestyle.

Over this weekend, or whenever the visit takes place, the boarder explores the day student’s house, and gets to know their family and friends. It’s just odd how this can’t be reciprocated.

Because of the boarding school situation, social events are so different from a standard day school, where people can go over to each other’s houses whenever they please. With a boarding school, it’s so one-sided. The boarding student may become close and acquainted with the day student’s lifestyle, yet there is still a whole part of the boarder’s life that the day student will never know. They will never visit the boarder’s house, or get to know their family or friends.

This unavoidable situation creates a barrier between life at boarding school and reality, and causes day students to never know the boarding student’s true way of life.

Photo Credit: upload.wikimedia.org

 

How Old?

raining17Leave a comment

Nowadays, age means nothing. Due to the school system, children standardly grow up with friends either in the same grade, or one grade higher or lower. If one’s sibling is a few years apart, they might socialize with their sibling’s friends, but that’s the extent of it.

Photo Credit: th05.deviantart.net

Married couples are often multiple years apart, but at that age it’s not considered odd. At a younger age, however, it would be weird if people were to date even three years up. The age gap of friendships/relationships is a double standard, and it’s simply weird to reflect on how that evolves with age.

More controversially, milestones that come with age seem to be happening at younger and younger ages. Only a few years after reaching double digits, children are drinking and doing drugs. Maturing at such a young age leaves nothing for these adolescents to do at later points in their lives. This premature maturing is detrimental to the children, and it messes with cultural norms.

Tiny Wins

kennyrooLeave a comment

“The more your praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey

Yes, I just quoted Oprah.

But maybe, just maybe she has the right idea about this topic.

I like to call these daily praises and celebrations “tiny wins.”

These tiny wins can really be anything, but I think it is ever so important that we at least acknowledge them.

It could be, as big as passing your license test the first time, or as small as learning all the lyrics to that new song you love. But these happy moments in life must not be wasted.

Everyday may not be great, but there is something great in everyday.

I know it is so easy to talk about all the annoyances in your life – but when we’re old and grey are all of these minuscule inconveniences going to matter?

Looking back on my life on want to celebrate my tiny, and huge wins with an enormous grin on my face.

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Photo Credit to: http://deliveringhappiness.com/

We live in a generation where so much is shared; so let’s start sharing our wins instead of our losses.

Weekends

raining17Leave a comment

Although I chose to go to a boarding school, it’s still nice to get away on the weekends. I’m friends with day students, as well as dormers who live relatively close by, and on some weekends I get invited over to their houses.

Because weekends here are more confined than a standard weekend at home, it’s nice to get off campus and spend some time in the real world. Sometimes a few days packed with fun, and sometimes a few days spent relaxing, these weekends are much-needed, and very rejuvenating.

Living far away, it’s not possible for me to go home on the weekends. I miss all my friends, and aspects of where I live. In spite of not being able to experience home regularly, I have other places to make up for it. Having friends whose houses I am able to go to provides a homey environment, which is comforting.

Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

When so much time is spent in an environment so different from what I’m used to, it’s calming to enjoy a few days in a real house. All in all, weekends are a time to rest after a packed week, and, if possible, it’s nice to vary what happens.

Friends?

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Photo Credit: http://www.mynamenecklace.com

The need for true friends is becoming less relevant everyday due to the newfound possibility of online friends. Nowadays people are meeting over shared likes on Instagram, or mutual friends on Facebook. Although they will never meet and only talk online, they consider each other friends.

However nice that may be, it’s causing friendships to become less important, which makes an everyday social life sad. The concept of a genuine friend is changing. People can be less authentic in their conversations, and be more than acquaintances with people they don’t necessarily want to be friends with.

It’s important to make friends with relatable people, and if one befriends people knowing they have others to fall back on, it’s not an honest friendship.

Friends are an important aspect of life, and are usually needed to maintain a happy life. If one spends time with people they don’t truly like, it causes them to be unhappy and not live to their full potential.

Unison

indigoshellLeave a comment

You stay up late the night before, preparing a presentation for that class you hate.

Everyone has to present. Everyone was assigned one section of a rather specific topic, and was told that they would be presenting on that specific day.

So the day comes and all your classmates quietly meander in, as if reciting the material to themselves.

Then the teacher comes in and starts the class.

You exchange a glance to the classmate to your left. What about the presentation?

The person to your right catches your eye. Did I read the homework sheet wrong? Were we not supposed to present today?

Eyes wander the room and relieved grins are held. Everyone almost telepathically nods at each other, thinking in unison with each other, you say nothing, I say nothing, we will all say nothing.

And thus, the presentation deadline has been extended.

Valentine’s Day

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

As most of you know, or should know, Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and as ever, Facebook is lamenting “Single Awareness Day.” Every year, there is a group of people who don’t hesitate to make it known that they hate Valentine’s Day because it makes them feel bad about themselves, when really, if having a relationship determines your self-worth, you should feel bad about your principles.

And then there is the group of people who do have dates for Valentine’s. They fret about the perfect gift for weeks, hoping that they can show their date just how well they know their other half through the present they get for them. This causes people to go all out and spend pretty much all the money they have worked so hard to earn. What should really be a simple romantic holiday has been turned into a commercialized event that makes people feel left out.

Instead of going out and buying the most expensive gift you can think of and still somewhat afford for your date, you should try to hand make something a little more heartfelt. It’s through being creative that you can really show someone how well you know them, and not that you just listen to them talk about something they really really want. And people who don’t have a date should use Valentine’s Day as a chance to be goofy with friends, or have a girls’ night. Valentine’s isn’t designed to rob people’s banks and make others feel bad about themselves. It’s designed for you to be able to show your love to someone – whether it be your boyfriend, parents, siblings, or friends.

Braai

Daphne Psaledakis1 Comment

While I was in South Africa I experienced a lot of different traditions. One of them, and probably the most significant one, is that of a braai. A braai is basically a barbecue – except so much better.

Instead of using a grill, they cook the meat over a fire. Honestly I don’t even know how it works, but it’s like all the flavor is locked inside the meat. It doesn’t dry out, and the meat is perfectly done.

Weirdly enough though, and this is the part I couldn’t quite understand, they don’t braai hamburgers or hotdogs. For the most part it’s chicken or lamb, sometimes steak.

A braai is a way for family and friends to come together. They occur far more often than our barbecues. I was there for five weeks and we must have had four or five braais, if not more.

The friends and family come over, and while the meat is cooking, the kids play around in the yard and the adults sit and talk. It’s a chance for everyone to connect. And once the food is done, everyone sits down together and eats until they’re absolutely stuffed.

At least that’s what I did.

I thought it was a great tradition. We should definitely have more traditions like that back home in the states. I brought my dad home a braai cookbook, so hopefully we’ll be having our own little braai back home in Aspen, Colorado sometime soon.