Armenia is a very small country; it’s like a small bubble, where everyone knows each other. The capital of Armenia, Yerevan, is even smaller, I was born there and my whole childhood passed there. Yerevan seemed like a home to me that can’t be replaced with any other place. It was so familiar to me; I knew all the streets and corners by heart. Leaving in Yerevan and living in a country so culturally different from what I was used to seemed something I would never have the courage to do, but when I turned 16, I thought that it’s the right time to start exploring the world, so I applied to UWC. I got admitted to Mahindra UWC of India, and even though it was hard for my friends and parents to let me go, I risked to leave Armenia, alone for the first time in my life and gave a new start to my life in an international school in India.
MUWCI was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. The education system there was so much different from what I was used to. I’ve never communicated with people from so many different countries and cultures before. I still remember the first ride to the college from Mumbai International Airport. I felt very weird, the weather and climate was very humid, the streets were nothing like the streets back home, there were cows and pigs on the sidewalks, and I think I was experiencing a cultural shock. But meeting people from different countries, from Japan, Serbia, Zimbabwe, etc. was very exciting. They were telling me about their countries, their homes, their families and it was so interesting to look at the world from a completely different perspective. It was highly challenging for me to speak in my third language. Armenian is my first language, and Russian is my second, so actually, I’d never really communicated in English before coming to MUWCI.
I completely fell in love with Yoga in India. Every Sunday afternoon we would have Yoga sessions, and it was so different from everything else I’d ever tried. It was so relaxing but lively at the same time. I would always feel refreshed after the session and it would help me to go through the tiring week full with classes and homework. Fitness was another thing I really enjoyed. I would have my own fitness sessions twice a week, and it was not only making us more fit and strong but we would also talk during the sessions and learn more about each other and our cultures. Also, as I am very interested in Biology and Chemistry, and having the opportunity to do lab work and perform or even design our own experiments was such a great privilege to me. I think I will major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology when I come to Lewis & Clark. I can’t wait to come to Lewis & Clark and be able to learn and experience more.
In the second year in MUWCI, everyone was deciding the colleges they will apply to. I really missed my family and friends and I thought I will go to college in Armenia, where I can be next to the people I love. I would research some colleges in the US and Europe but they didn’t seem that exciting to me. One of my friends told me about Lewis & Clark and when I looked it up I understood that it’s different from all the other colleges I’ve been researching so far. Being accepted to Lewis & Clark was my dream and it came true. I’ve never been in America before, but I’ve travelled in Europe and Asia, and it will be my first time being out of Eurasia. I can’t wait to meet a lot of new and interesting people at Lewis & Clark and explore a completely new continent.