This is it!

Well I did it. Last night I graduated from Kigali International Community School with Honors! It was a proud and rewarding night. Along with my diploma and the Academic Excellence of Honors Award, I also received the Character Award. I loved looking out and seeing my band on the right side and my friends and family scattered throughout on the left side. I am a high school graduate.

Let’s back up…it’s not like I suddenly walked up on stage and was handed a diploma. It was a process. An eighteen year process. Don’t worry; I’m not backing up that far. Let’s just review that past month or so…

We had our final band concert on Thursday May 16. And when I say “final band concert” I’m not referring to the “last concert of the year.” It was not only my final band concert, as a high school senior, but it was also my family’s final band concert at KICS.  Despite the sad emotions of the night, it was truly excellent. We played everything to the best of our ability and I had an opportunity to openly express my love for my fellow band members. It was a great note to end on (pun intended). 

The very next day (May 17) I took a bus to Gisenyi to join the rest of the seniors. (There are five of us total.) The trip took place Thursday through Saturday but I refused to miss the final band concert and so I went a day late. We enjoyed a relaxing time on the beach and shared many laughs over conversations and games. It was a great last weekend of being a high schooler!

Backing up a little further…The KICS Band Tour took place May 2-5. Those of you who have been faithfully reading my blog for more than a year may recall last year’s tour. This year’s tour followed a similar format. On Thursday May 2 we played for local schools in Kigali. On Friday we played for a school in the city and then we continued the tour by traveling about two hours north to a town called Musanze and played for yet another school.  It was new and exciting each time we played. Not only was the location different each time, but the audience was also different and unaccustomed to the music we played.  On the way back from Musanze we encountered a landslide. The bus went off the road to go around the fallen tree and got stuck in the mud. The bus quickly became successfully tilted to the right side and the band members were going crazy. We all exited the bus and stood in dark (and the rain!) for an hour and a half while several men (including my dad) attempted to remove the bus from the mud. After long minutes of huddling together to stay warm and many trips of pairs into the dark bushes to use the bathroom, the bus was finally free and we were on our way to Kigali again! It wouldn’t have been a true band-tour without an eventful story like that, now would it? We concluded our tour on Sunday by playing at a church in Kigali and having a picnic on their grounds after the service. The band certainly bonded and overall it was a very fun weekend.

Kigali’s very first movie theatre opened a few weeks ago.  Four different theatres complete with overpriced popcorn and drinks. They even have a 3D and 5D room! This is a big deal for Kigali…definitely blog-worthy material. I saw Iron Man 3 with some friends, and no I had not seen the previous two, but going to the new theatre was such a big deal that I didn’t mind being a bit lost when it came to the plot.

In this last month of school, I have been slowly checking off my classes. First it was my online history class, then a couple weeks later it was AP Lit, a few days later it was Chemistry. (By this point I had more free periods then I person should be allowed to have.) I followed this pattern until I took my last final exam on May 22^nd. A different benefit to being a senior – have you worked hard? Well then, you get to finish early!

Even though the past month has been peaceful and slowly winding down in the academic sense, it has also been an emotional roller coaster which has not always presented me at my finest. If you can recall my last blog (I know, I put so much time in between posts that it makes you feel like you have a challenged brain if you can’t remember that far back) we took a wonderful vacation to Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda. We (my family) recovered from the first half of the second semester and stored up our energy, like a squirrel stores up acorns, for the remaining weeks. And then something happened. Maybe I got a bit too excited and ate all my acorns in one day.  All I know is that my energy I had supposedly stored up depleted faster than a hot air balloon.  Yes, I will admit, part of this alarming loss of energy/motivation is due to being a second semester senior.  But part of it also has to do with the stress my family has been under and the transition we’re going through.  And I’m sure that being a TCK factors in here somewhere. When you become a Third Culture Kid, your life is forever changed. Some people have been a TCK their whole life, but others, like me, have become a TCK in the middle of their life.  Becoming a TCK means you can’t go back to the way things were before. I’ve taken my American culture (culture #1) my Rwandan culture (culture #2) and formed my own unique culture (resulting in culture #3). As a result my own unique culture doesn’t fit in anywhere, but at the same time it also means I fit in everywhere.

One of the problems with living in more than one place (being a TCK) is that you’re always missing someone or something. When I’m here I miss there and when I’m there I miss here. Not that I don’t enjoy being here or there while I’m in that particular location, it’s just that I’ve invested myself in both here and there and so, inevitably, I’ll miss whichever one I’m not in/with.

It’s confusing even for me. All I know is that I’m caught between two worlds, but thankfully, no matter which world I’m in, God is always with me.

There is a lot about the future that I do not know, however, there are a few things I can confidently state: I know I will be studying music education at Appalachian State University in the fall.  I know God is always faithful and He will guide and direct my paths. I know I will miss Rwanda very much. I know I will miss my family even more.

This is it! In 5 days I will be departing this beautiful country of Rwanda and embarking on a new journey in America. I have learned so much, I’ve grown so much, and I’ve changed so much in these past two years. I have been significantly impacted by people from many different cultures. I have had countless opportunities. I’ve further developed my relationship with God. And I’ve grown incredibly close to my brother, Adam. I’ve had ups and downs, but through it all I can say, my time in Rwanda has been wonderful. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I will, without a doubt, miss absolutely everything about this place. From the food to the hills to the people…all of it. The really nice thing is that I’m not permanently staying goodbye. My family will still be here and therefore I can say with a grin, “I’m not leaving, I’m just going.” I’m going on to the next phase of my life, but I will return to Rwanda again soon.