Do you hear it?
Can you feel it?
The tick-tock of the clock,
A sound that will never stop.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
Time check: 658 days, 15,792 hours. 22,740,480 minutes.
And out of all the time we have spent, infinite moments on this campus have etched their way into our minds and hearts for the entirety of our existence.
It’s strange, isn’t it?
How strangers find not-so-strange ways of meeting,
And form connections so deep, they wouldn’t want to leave.
It’s strange, isn’t it?
That the people before you were merely faces
And now, transform into beings you’d cherish for as long as forever lasts.
Strangers to Friends to Family.
I have always thought that change is a strange concept. At least when I was 5, I associated it with the change of clothes after making mud cakes with my little brother in the sand. But arriving in the minibus in front of the blue gate with my heart hammering so loudly that it could probably be the construction around Santa Ana. I have come to understand that there is more to the surface. We had to modify our daily routine and decided to leave our homes to venture into the unknown that is UWC Costa Rica.
When we’re young, we’re told not to talk to strangers,
I’m glad that we didn’t follow this rule.
And that our hearts are full from the people that are around us.
Strange friends. Strange family.
But it is one I am more than grateful to be a part of.
Change is awfully scary. How can I explain to anyone else that our tongues have adopted the UWC Costa Rica effect of the word “pookie”? Quite certain that this never belonged in my vocabulary until we came here. So, yes, pookie, change is odd. But it holds stories of what is yet to come. I often ask myself questions that begin with the word ‘where.’
Where else are we going to listen to the tunes played in caf as we made lines for dinner? Where else are you going to be surrounded by people attending “surprise” birthdays? Where else are we going to see sunsets upon a football field? Where else are we going to have our own school plays directed by our resident theatre kids? Where else are we going to march to celebrate womanhood, 8M. Where else will we be seated in chairs, watching cultural shows with stickers at the end?
Where? Where else will carne or pollo be asked of us as options? Where else will you see Steven’s vast bow tie collection and shorts combo? Where else will feel like a home away from home when this one has embedded itself into our souls?
In the words of Dr. Facilier in Princess and the Frog, this is Transformation Central. No person comes out of this place the same way that they came.
So I’ll ask you again.
Do you hear it?
Can you feel it?
The tick-tock of the clock,
A sound that will never stop.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
By Bonita Murungi ’25 (Uganda)
Edited with minor adjustments made for style and flow.