Tuesday 30 April 2013

An Introduction

Guacamole N' Chips.
Yes! Perfect! All I ever needed was another blog about food. 
I am afraid that anyone who may be reading this has been viciously, viciously deceived. This is not about food. In all honesty this is about me.
I am a 17-year-old girl who has been living in Pretoria, South Africa for the past 5 years, and will soon be leaving again with plans to go to university somewhere in the lovely United States of America. More on that eventually.
A brief summary of my previous destinations and life:
1995- Born in Chicago, Illinois
1996- At the age of 1 my family of 3 departs to live in Tokyo, Japan.
2000- The trio returns to the USA and I carry out my Elementary School years in Colorado.
2006- Surprise! The parents believe that Eastern Europe is their calling, so we move to Ljubljana, Slovenia. My first two years of middle school are spent at an isolated and minuscule American-curriculum based international school where I am in a class consisting of me and 4 other boys, the entire population of grades 6-8.
2008- A temporary change of scenery occurs where we live for 3 months with my mother's family who are farmers in south-west Iowa. In the mean time visas are sorted out in regards to our move to...
2008 (later)- South Africa! Here I am enrolled to carry out my Secondary education in an Anglican girl's school, one of the most drastic changes I have ever had to adapt to in my life, in my opinion. Besides the fact that never in my life before had I ever been required to wear a uniform, besides the fact that never in my life before had I ever really hung out with a large quantity of girls, besides the fact that suddenly I woke up every morning in Africa, but all my life I had been raised in a relatively religiously-liberal family. To put it quite subtly, my first year was a combination of violent culture shock and general apprehension. Twice a week the school day would begin with a compulsory chapel service. If ever you walked by an adult, you had to greet them, and if you were sitting, you had to stand up as well. Demerits were given out for not using a brown hair tie (all hair must be tied back), shoes not being polished, the length of your school dress not meeting the "4 fingers above the knee" requirement, the presence of nail polish, wearing incorrect earrings, and plenty more. A very academically prestigious school, any grade at or below the range of a C is relatively rare and treated seriously.
At the time I was the only international student that I knew of, and all of my peers were completely adapted to such a lifestyle. In summary, I was probably more stressed than any already unstable 13-year-old should really be. Nothing has changed since then, but 5 years is enough time to get used to the environment, and I have been able to see and appreciate the kind of person that this has molded me to be.
I have seen and experienced a lot of things, and I like to think that it has given me a more objective perspective on some things that are happening in society today, and the ability to form some pretty well-rounded opinions.
This is a place that I will consider as my little electronic diary of sorts. Firstly because I type much more quickly than I write and I will be able to say more without getting distracted. As someone who does not generally talk about their feelings to people very often, (one phrase that I have heard to describe me is "an emotionless robot") this may become slightly therapeutic seeing as I definitely have a lot of thoughts swimming around my head.
Secondly, my hand-writing looks like a pre-developed form of chicken scratch.
So, internet. The contents of my head now belong to you. Because everyone always needs more teenage angst in their lives.