Margaux Ibing

Hello! I’m Margaux. I’m currently a student living in Athens, Georgia. Which is an adjustment from where I spent the last 7 months. Even though my family is German and I have spent all the summers of my life there, going to school there and being immersed into the culture was just a completely different experience.

In the summer of 2025 I had the opportunity to spend 3 nights at the boarding school my father attended in Germany. Coincidentally my best friend that I’ve known since being born had been there full time for one year already. So I thankfully had a buddy to walk me through everything and introduce me to people to sit at lunch with. Because being normal and introducing myself to new people during that age would be too much to handle. During my short time there, I did not have a very good experience. Everyone was actually doing school because it was finals week. So I told my parents I would never go there.

As I got more and more bored my senior year and kept hearing about my best friend's experience in Germany I began to grow more curious about it. Could it have been that it was just the week I was there that it was boring? When I kept going through my options I realized it was something I had to do.

Now reflecting on it the only thing I regret is not going sooner. It was the best experience of my life. Before going, I wouldn't have been able to comprehend the importance of my experience. Without it I wouldn't have expanded my world view in so many ways, made connections with people from all over the world, and made so many fun memories. Getting to experience growing up in a completely different culture just got me out of my bubble let me have so much insight.