I saw friends

 By Ben Sweeney

11^th of February 2025, 15:45. I walk into room 3.05 of the AUC Academic Building for my second day of my exchange programme.

I’m scared. On my first day very few non-exchange AUC students spoke to me, and I felt like I didn’t fit in during the classes. They were full of quiet students already comfortable and confident in their pre-decided friend groups, not caring for someone who would be gone in 5 months. I was alone.

I sit down and try to talk to the student next to me. Pleasantries are exchanged but the conversation goes no further. Then, all of a sudden, during the teacher’s introduction to the class I hear my name get singled out to make sure I’m present. I feel myself go bright red as I try and feign a smile and steady my voice as she notes that I am an exchange student who had gone to irregular lengths to get into this class. I keep my head down for the rest of the class imagining that a repeat of yesterday is to be expected. I am mistaken - during the break of class students around me start to chat to me, and I quickly realise that my teacher’s announcement wasn’t a warning for other students, but rather an opportunity for them to connect.

This was my first day of my ‘Human Rights and Human Security’ course taught by Anne de Graaf. Anne’s classes became some of my favourites, and I made some genuine friends from the workshops and activities. I was overjoyed when Anne took me to a side one day before class to let me know that I had gotten into her other class ‘Peace Lab’ during the June Intensive. 

However, as June rolled around my old nerves had returned. I, as had happened in my other classes, didn’t know anyone in ‘Peace Lab’ (or so I thought), and with some of my best friends from exchange cutting their semesters short, I was prepared for a sub-par end to my semester abroad. At least I had had my fun abroad before an inadequate and unfortunate end, right?

Wrong.

Instead I got to know 15 of the kindest, most engaging, and most interesting young adults I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. No longer was it a problem that I wasn’t from AUC – now I had a valuable perspective from a different part of the world. No longer were the friend groups static, but now a constantly evolving mish-mash of people who treasured each other’s time and took everyone at face value. No longer was I perceived to be worth less due to how long I was staying in the country.

I no longer felt like an outsider.

As classes continued, so did our personal bonds. I was now able to join in on ‘in-jokes’ and knew some classmates’ secrets that I was made to promise not to tell in polite company. I felt valued – and with that self-value came commitment.

Commitment to myself to learn as much as I could and not allow awkwardness to disrupt me for my remaining weeks. Commitment to my classmates  to help each other with the material and create stunning projects together. Commitment to Anne who allowed me to gain all these wonderful new experiences and meet these wonderful new people.

In the final week of the course, as my project group met daily to create a ‘zine’, I didn’t feel like it was work. It was hanging out with friends to create an imaginative, interesting and informative booklet we were all invested in – work didn’t feel like work anymore!

I tend to get nervous when giving a speech or a talk without hours of meticulous preparation, but when I stood at the top of the class with my group to share what we had spent the last three weeks working on, I didn’t see strangers standing beside me or sitting staring up at me. I saw friends who were genuinely interested in what I had to say – putting me completely at ease.

‘Peace Lab’ 2025 taught me a lot of interesting  and practicable information about Kosovo, the wider Balkans, and how to build peace but most importantly it allowed me to feel ‘at home’ around people I didn’t know existed 28 days ago  - it was an incredible takeaway. 

28^th of June 2025, 09:00. I wake up in my bed and wish I could re-live my ‘Peace Lab’ Kosovo experience one more time.