Til We Meet Again

I can finally sit down and ponder over the many things this semester has taught me. I can say I have learned things like learning how to study better, creating a movie on my laptop, even write better, but that just breaks the surface of what I have learned. The most important thing I was shown, was to open my eyes again, and actually see the beauty that my life's stories show and every last one of us has memories so vivid we can place a class of strangers in to the moments with descriptive details. Our stories matter and maybe one day we can motivate the world.

Word Count: 108

Setting Sail to America

The alarm rings, it's 5am, still dark out and the house is silent. I get up, get dressed look around my room, pick up my suitcase and passport and head downstairs. My stomach is in knots, I am having second thoughts, maybe I was too ambitious, and I should just go back to bed. The house looked the same as any normal day, no obvious signs that I was about to leave the country and my family behind. My mum and dad walk downstairs in silence, my dad ties his shoes while my mother is still in her robe. The tears begin to flow. The next few moments are an emotional blur of goodbyes and I love yous. Now I really don't want to leave, I've made a stupid mistake. Before I know it I'm at the airport terminal, hundreds of people bustling by me trying to get to their flights, cars blaring horns for a parking spot. I hug my dad, walk in the terminal and I'm on my own. People run around me, yelling on their cell phones, no one even notices my tired, tearstained face. I check in and begin to wait and contemplate heading back home, my parents will understand. 9 hours and several alcoholic beverages later, I am face to face with a US Immigration Officer. 

"Purpose of visit?"

"School"

"Where?"

"UMBC"

Many stamping sounds followed by a grunt.

"Proceed"

I walk through the doors and finally a smile emerges, I'm here, and I'm about to begin the biggest adventure of my life. Bring it on America.

Point: Don't look back, only forward.

Word Count: 267

The Little Things in Life

Around 3pm, Monday through Friday, the tranquility suddenly bursts in to children's laughter and chatter. No matter the time of year, rain or shine, the Chapel Square playground is always vibrant and energetic late in to the evening. It's a place where children from every age come to play on the slides or chat at the benches, even the adult have a communal beer and cigarette while looking on from a distance. This playground brings the community together, from summer water fights to fall festivals to the neighbourhood Santa Clause handing out presents. Without this area the children would seek other methods of entertainment, some maybe not so harmless. There is always an adult to watch the children, and it makes for a safe, special and bonding environment for young and old. The seasons are ever changing but the laughter, at every 3pm, remains constant.

Map:

Word Count: 145

Tajriba - Swahili for my belief

I believe in a life of Experiences. Everyone on this earth should have at least one defining moment in their life that they can look back on as though they accomplished, lived and created greatness.

As a meek 15 year old who had already dealt with a transcontinental move, decided it was my turn to have an experience that was my own, not my families. That May I got on a plane to Arusha, Tanzania, with a backpack and a journal. I arrived in pitch dark and was approached by an elderly smiling man, Kimon, my guide.  8 experience seekers and myself got in to two Land Rovers and drove off in silence in to the night down what was a supposed road in to the Savannah. As morning broke, 4am, we stopped in an area of elevation, rocks, brush and deafening sounds of the wilderness. I set up my home for the next four months and without sleep set off to meet my new family, the Hutu tribe. I spent four months learning the ways of a hunter-gatherer tribe and was shown the majesty of the plains of Africa through a lens no standard hotel bound tourist would ever see. Standing atop of the Ngorogoro Crater looking down on the animals hearing the sounds so clearly with a smell of crisp rain in the air, I have never been so emotionally moved by the pure beauty of this earth. I built schools, I delivered HIV positive babies but most importantly I enriched my own life with new knowledge of this once foreign culture.

While I have now been back in civilization for 8 years, there is still, to this day, not a day that goes by where I cannot apply something I learnt from the Hutu or from Africa. It is this experience that pushes me to continue enriching my life through these experiences. I believe everyone should have the same drive, to find an experience to not only emotionally drive themselves, but to enrich their life from then on.

 Word Count: 341

Narrated Time: 2 minutes and 48 seconds

Where Dreams Truly Do Come True

The green arrow flashes on the turnstile, your heart rate rapidly increases, and you're in. Immediately the smells of cookies and hot dogs, the sounds of chatter, laughter and well-known tunes, and an overwhelming feeling of joy that brings an unstoppable smile possesses you. The impulse to rush to the favourite ride is overwhelming. Walt Disney World will always be a place of magic for any age. Without Disney, Childhood dreams are lost and for those over 10 years old, it's a reminder of happier days, a location to let inhibitions loose and to just embrace, enjoy, love and indulge.

Word Count:100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom#Lands_of_Magic_Kingdom
http://www.dreamcometruevacations.com/
http://disney-where-dreams-come-true.tumblr.com/

Bloch: From Cheerleading to Ballroom Dance

As a dancer, you're feet are your life, and your shoes are what can make or break that lifeline. From baby sized pink ballet slippers to size 8 dance sneakers, there has only been one brand I trust my feet in while dancing. An extra $20 for a pair of shoes is worth it when they last just like my dance career has. 20 years ago today I started my first ever ballet class, now on my 23rd birthday I can look back and still have faith in my trusted Bloch and all the memories they have created for me.

Word count: 100

What Will You Regret in 30 Years?

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved to dance and to standout on my own. At the age of 18 I made two of the biggest choices in my life both financially and emotionally. I got tattoos. I have an English rose for my heritage and the tiger, I've admired since childhood. Sadly they never made a tattoo cover up good enough to cover the art. My style led to the abandonment of NFL Cheerleading. I wish I could still be on the Raven's squad, but without them, I would no longer feel like myself.

Word Count: 98

A Delayed About Me

So my first assignment was to describe home in 100 words or less which is pretty much impossible when you have lived what seems like all over the world.

So let me truly introduce myself:

Hi, My name is Hayley Charlotte Nelson and I was born in Preston in the North West of England.

I went to a mixture of public and private school while I was there until the age of 13. One day I came home to my mum in a bad mood and asked her the problem. She told me not to tell my younger brother, Ben, but that dad was being relocated to either Glasgow or London. My mum is a country girl and she was not up for moving to the city, but my dad had one final option left. That option was a total move to Switzerland. I assumed I was going to a land filled with cheese, watches and lederhosen and live in a wooden chalet half way up a snowy mountain. This wasn't far from the truth. My dad moved a year before us and set up a home there and wanted to make sure he was happy with the job there.

So the summer before I started the 9th grade, my entire house was packed up and shipped to Montagnola, Switzerland. Montagnola, is in the Italian part of Switzerland. Switzerland has three languages French, German and Italian. The Italian area is the smallest by far and it is pretty much like living back in time. No one speaks English, you must adapt tho their culture and language. You eat as a community at grottos which have things like Lard and of course red wine. Every one goes to church on a Sunday and all the shops are closed. You can do nothing at all other than go for a walk. Learning the language was simple enough as I already spoke French and Spanish and had studied Latin for 6 years. However with only truly 3 years to master it before I took the I.B exam, (similar to the AP) my parents and I decided it be best I go to the only English speaking school in the area. This school was called TASIS, The American School in Switzerland, and it was like taking America and placing it in a small gated community with Italian styled buildings for dormitories and classrooms. I was fortunate enough to be a day student which at my time of joining were about 4%of the schools population. My brother and I were the only Brits, but there were 51 other different nationalities represented at that school.

I soon lost my accent to an American one, as the Californians seemed to be having trouble understanding my Britishisms. I also embraced high school like I never thought I would. While the class part was still class, I pretty much committed my self to 80% of all the extracurriculars that were possible for me to do. I ran track all four years and was captain for two, I danced and taught, I was in Shakespeare plays and Musicals, I sang for the Jazz band and in the choir and an A Capella group and I was a prefect. For those of you who don't know what that is you clearly need to watch more Harry Potter. My 10th grade Summer I travelled to Tanzania and Kenya and built schools, I travelled throughout Europe and Northern Africa on school breaks.

My parents then broke news to us on Day 1 of 12th grade. They were moving back to England after that school year, but not to Preston but to the Channel Islands, more specifically Guernsey. So a new home I had yet again.

My senior year I decided to change everything and rather than returning 'home' to England for university I decided to go big and move to America. I had been to Florida, DC and Virginia on vacations before but nothing more than a couple of weeks. I had no family here and no one to turn to it was a pure adventure for myself and a true test of character.

So here I am, in Baltimore, thousands of miles from home or one of my home (my parent's location), I have my own apartment after living on campus and then a house with a disaster for a room mate.

Today I am on the UMBC Fever Retrievers Dance Team and helped start it last year, and am hoping to embrace this year as both Captain and Fitness Captain for our 15 girls. So, if you come to Basketball games you will see us at half times and every third time out dancing to the UMBC drumline. I'll be the one with the Blondest hair, This year we get shorts! :)

A life of experiences.

Hi, I am Hayley and I was born in England, who then moved at 15 to Switzerland and then to Guernsey in the Chanel Islands and now am studying here. In terms of actual legality, I am not a permanent resident anywhere, so I refer to myself as homeless (jokingly) or a Nomad. Home is hard to define, I have had many, though I will always have two. The one where I am, and the one where my parents are. There is no way of combining the two, so I will forever have two homes and I love it this way.

Word Count: 100