The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 97 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT replied, “I think so. It helped to cement my desire to live overseas, to be in a community of people who had that same experience.” At CIS, one of the English exams included memorizing Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” My English teacher, Mr. Pierce, told us that it would save our life someday — the day we got stuck in an elevator. Years later, I did get stuck in an elevator, at the Kennedy Center. Although I did think about my high school English class, I was more concerned with try- ing to calm the claustrophobic lady counting her business cards. I don’t know if she would have appreciated my reciting, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ...” But Copenhagen International School did make a difference. It was much like a secret society. Once a CISer, always a CISer. I can go any- where in the world and call up a for- mer CISer, and I will have a place to stay. Even if the kid that I didn’t like back then called me up now, I would have dinner with him or her. There are those for whom memories of CIS are a time-warp where they were king. But for most of us, it was a great gathering of our lifelong friends. As a Foreign Service child, I’m rather proud and happy that many of my closest friends are from my high school years. Not a mean feat in a place where some people pass through for six months and then leave (yes, even they count as part of the brotherhood). Though high school had a forma- tive place in many international chil- dren’s lives, as it did in mine, it proba- bly didn’t affect us as much as the sheer internationalism of our lives. There are so many lessons learned when the world has been your play- ground. So, although these children still may not know what they are look- ing for, they have an internal global positioning system that is distinct and offers its own inestimable rewards. In the words of one: “I appreciate my worldly upbringing. I feel that the perspective I got in experiencing com- pletely different cultures and lan- guages allowed me to see more of what is underneath culture and language and is universal in all people.” Continued from page 95 There are so many lessons learned when the world has been your playground.