Happy International students day !!!
This blog is not going to be about all the amazing motions which are going to have direct positive impact on international students and were approved by the Union Council or about some data on how many international brothers and sisters we are in our university. This blog is going to be a personal one from one international student to another! ?
International students day is a day not only to celebrate and appreciate our diversity but also to talk about issues that people normally do not talk about #LetsBreakTheStigma (link to event in Lounge that eve). This year we from the Student’s Union want to raise awareness around international students’ mental health. I believe that we should talk with examples this is why I am going to tell you my journey at Christ Church for the past three and a bit years.
Like many of you, I didn’t know what to expect when I came to UK. I arrived at the airport full of hopes that I would have the time of my life, studying hard and partying even harder. I was traveling on the bus from London to Canterbury and couldn’t stop thinking about how am I going to find friends, am I going to fit, am I going to like my course and a million other questions that make me smile when I remember them.
So I arrived in Parham Student Village, where I was going to spend my first year. I moved in and knocked on all of the doors in my house, it didn’t take me long to realise that I was the only one there. Later on I realised that I had arrived a week earlier (like many other international students) than anyone else. This was the moment that a bit of depression started kicking in, it wasn’t the best time of my life, but it was only a week.
So there I was a month later after two freshers weeks and two weeks of University, I met with hundreds of people and went out more times than I had done before. So you might think that’s it, happy days, but unfortunately the depression didn’t leave when my housemates arrived, didn’t leave when I was partying, didn’t leave when I was writing thousands of words worth of essays, it was still there, the fear of being left alone, the fear of failure, the constant feeling of worry.
It was one thing that helped me to feel at home, one thing that helped me to feel welcome and this was the American football team. Signing up for American football without a doubt was the best decision in my life! These amazing boys, that I can absolutely call brothers gave me the confidence to run for Student Rep for politics in my 2nd year, to run for social secretary of the team, to run for sport exec committee in my 3rd year. They were the people who encouraged me to run for Students’ Union President and supported me through my year as President, and now again they were the people who supported me to run for International students officer.
For me, joining American football wasn’t just a way to find new friends, for me this team gave me more than friends. This team gave me confidence, gave me friends for life and also made Canterbury feel like the home away from home!
Krum Tashev - International Students Officer 2016/17
