Tea's story: making friends for life
Early Childhood student Tea Evans travelled to India to experience the culture and learn about schools. What she didn’t expect was that she would form friendships that would last a lifetime.
Alongside fellow students of Early Childhood, she joined others from healthcare courses to experience a month of travel, culture, and lifelong learning.
“We got to visit a lot of schools,” explained Tea. “One day we took a trip and went to a school which was in a tribal community that had its own school.”
She said: “The people were always really happy to see us, and it was great because you could see that the people there just really loved their school environments.”
“It was a very different culture, and it could be a shock at times,” she added. “Seeing how they separate male and female at school from a very young age really shocked me. Over here we’re so invested in having friendships across genders, but there it was completely different.”
Now working as a mentor in an alternative provision setting, Tea said that the experiences fed into her expertise, giving a broader perspective and practical strategies to support vulnerable young people.
“I do draw from the experience that I had in India, and I do take some of the values and traits that I’ve gathered from there. I appreciate the little things I notice, and I can see how there are different ways of viewing things; perspective is such an important thing to have in life,” she said.
It was on the trip that Tea met one of her best friends, a nursing student in Maharashtra.
“She just came over to us,” said Tea. “She was so invested in finding out who we were, what we were there for, and we chatted every day for the first week. We went out with her for chai, she took us to her family home, and we met her mum.”
She added: “On one of the last evenings of the trip, four of us went round for dinner and we sat and ate together. She’s such a beautiful person and I’m so grateful to have met her because if it wasn’t for her having the confidence to come and say hello it wouldn’t have happened.”
“I still call her now,” said Tea, a big smile growing on her face. “I’ve got friends for life from that trip and it’s phenomenal that we get to say, ‘do you remember that time…’ and share so many stories about staying up until 3am talking.”
For Tea, the month she spent immersed in life in India was transformative. “It just felt like a blessing to be able to go and experience what I experienced,” she said. “I saw the world in a different way.”
She added: “Honestly, if you’re ever worried about doing something like this because you won’t know anyone, you’re going to come away with so many friends.