Maia Abroad: UWC Waterford

I arrived at Waterford Kamhlaba on January 13th. WK (and eSwatini) have been my home for almost a year. I've done all the cheesy cliche stuff - found family, learned new things about myself and the world, stayed up till 3am with friends. I've cried and partied and been hurt and stressed and ate too much chocolate and cried some more and wrote a paper in the middle of the night. The year's almost over. Midterm ended yesterday - I spent it on campus, holed up in my room with my textbooks. It was a far cry from my first, wilder midterm in Jozi. Right now we're in the middle of two weeks of exams, and then it's four weeks until we leave. Until I say goodbye to my IB2s - people who have held my hand through the good and bad parts of Waterford, and laughed at me when I make dumb choices. It's going to be really hard. Right now I'm in exam headspace, so not much else is getting through, but the fact that I'm almost done IB1 is absolutely insane. Exams for IB1...

It's been a while! The last post I wrote was about my term break travelling through Southern Africa, and a lot has happened since. Essentially, the IB continues to ramp up! I feel consistently frazzled, and it's a reminder of how I felt this time last year when I was working for a mayoral campaign that was in the last stretch of the campaign period. But honestly I'm more stressed now. Exams start next week and I've not begun to study. Everyone is overwhelmed. I think part of the issue lies in the fact that all the projects I have now are longer term ones - my extended essay, which I'm expected to spend a minimum of 40 hours on, my 20 page director's notebook, a 12 page bio research paper, a 20 minute Theory of Knowledge presentation. And that's on top of CAS and co curriculars and friends and sleep and sanity. This course is a lot. I haven't cried yet this term, but it's getting to that point. And I still have over one year to go! I'm sorry that ...