"When I was an undergrad I studied abroad in Budapest, and I used to walk by CEU sometimes. That was before the new building was finished, but something about the students I'd see outside seemed so cool and worldly. It sounds dumb now that I'm one of them, but at the same time it still feels true. Growing up, I was always a big fish in a small pond, and the adults in my life always told me it would be different when I went to high school, and then it wasn't. My teachers in high school told me I would be a small fish in an ocean when I went to college, but then I went to college and I was still a big fish and it felt like I was in a fishtank. Coming to CEU felt like being dropped in the ocean; all the fish are big here but it's not scary, it feels freeing. I feel like I finally found a place where I belong, and it's mostly because of the cool, worldly students that I get to be one of here".
Isabel Seiden was IR student of the 2-years MA program at the Department of International Relations at CEU in 2019.
Photo by Edit Kalman Photography