How Studying at High School in New Zealand Enhanced My Future | Study With New Zealand

If someone had asked me a year ago what the toughest thing I’d done in my life was, I would have said “leaving home to study in New Zealand”. Without doubt. Now, I’d answer with “leaving New Zealand”. I won’t say that studying in New Zealand was all fun and easy because it really wasn’t. But it changed me for the good. It made it more clear to me what I want to do in life, who I am and what I value. 

Coming to New Zealand, I had pretty much nothing, just hope. Hope that I had made the right decision to leave, that I would have a good year, that I had chosen the right school to study at, and that I would make friends. Now that my year has come to an end, I can hands down say that studying in New Zealand is the best decision I’ve ever made. Of course I had moments when I regretted my decision, asking myself “why am I doing this?”, but in the end I’m happy for all the joys, disappointments and everything else I’ve felt during my year abroad.

When coming to New Zealand, I didn’t think I would learn as much as I did academically. I was so wrong. My year at Roncalli College turned out to be the school year in which I learned the most. Being in such an inspiring environment with hard-working students and helpful, caring teachers really woke me up to how great the education there is

I was given an enormous amount of opportunities while studying in NZ and I’m grateful for every single one of them. I got the chance to be a student ambassador for Education New Zealand, sharing my experiences to inspire other students. I was also lucky enough to travel around most of the South Island, as well as having a week exploring Northern Queensland in Australia. I got to try activities most people only dream about doing such as snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, skydiving and bungy jumping. But, the opportunity where I learnt the most was being an International Student Leader at my school. I will carry everything that I learnt during that experience with me into the future - it gave me a lot of belief in myself and definitely made me step up and take responsibility. All of these experiences really opened up my eyes to how lucky I am and how big this world really is.

I’ve learned more about myself than I thought was possible. I discovered new abilities I didn’t know I had and I discovered how important values such as family and tradition is for me. It prepared me for the future by moving out of home and getting a fresh start. It made me more secure about who I am and who I want to be. Of course there were struggles along the way. I had half a week in hospital midway through my year abroad, but I think that week was the one where I learned the most about myself. 

In the first few weeks at school, I struggled with making friends. With time it all got better and I managed to get friends who I don't know what I would do without today. I made friends from Norway, Fiji, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand and everywhere in between. I really can’t thank my host family, friends, peers, and the international department and staff at Roncalli College enough for the support and opportunities I've been given during my year.