Can boarding school be fun?

When leaving the comfort zone of home, boarding school can seem terrifying. Well, this is a small diary from someone who’s been through this and let me just tell you - it’s more fun than you think.

Leaving your friends and family is hard, for sure. Homesickness will leave you emotional for a long time. Boarding school has the image of a strict and jail-type place that youngsters liken to entering hell. But you might find my story surprising, the story of a shy, young 14 year old girl that left home and entered the independent life of boarding school.

Moving away is one of the most difficult goodbyes anyone has to go through. This true story is set in a place far from any city, surrounded by cows and horses. Somewhere there in the middle was the school of Bede’s. The shared rooms are small with not that comfortable beds. The uniforms are ugly and uncomfortable, the food can taste like a shoe in most cases. All this spells disaster, however the good points hiding underneath will give you some of the best stories of your life.

For all of you that will or currently are studying at a boarding school, these stories are for you. Living with 50 girls in one house can create the best stories and memories - there is no room to be alone “even when you wish for some privacy”, because is simply a pyjama party all year round. Having a strict bedtime, no signal and wifi around the rooms at night, talking about all the latest news was the main hobby of the night, along with trying not to get caught. Hiding in closets and running around like ninjas were the key techniques for not getting caught.

Bonding with all the girls was not difficult, as we helped each other turn hideous uniforms into fashion statements and chatted over makeup in the mornings. Reading the uniform guidelines about a hundred times did gave us some room for inspiration and rival competition between different boarding houses, which was something that drove every girl to look their best in the morning. This is funny because looking back at pictures, we all still looked horrible.

Trying to make the most of the moment is the key part of boarding school; even sadness can be turned into a happy moment. Every lesson was fun - maths was became known as ‘selfie time’, to the point that even the teacher started getting involved and joked around. In business, we mastered the skill of sleeping with our eyes open. I was the only girl in design and technology, which had its perks as well. I looked forward to getting to class even 5 minutes earlier, because I could make friends in every class.

The worst thing was really the food. Being a picky eater doesn’t really help in this situation, but being kind to the canteen staff does. I used to be the girl with the connections. What does that mean? Eating normal things like cheese or some plain eggs for dinner or having Nutella for breakfast was like eating caviar for us, and having the staff give you some secretly from the back was a real cool kid move. But the main issue was the night time cravings. We have tried everything - cooking noodles in the bathroom, melting cheese on crackers with a drier. All the memories of these moments are just some good stories for future.

But the main lesson is that you get to live with your friends and they turn into family, helping each other when someone is upset, sick or having a bad day. You’ll never feel alone. You might hate the moment you live in, but looking back after 3 years, the memories and photographs will keep you warm with laughter.