While middle school was an interesting time for most people, it was especially interesting for my classmates and I who embarked upon this journey while living in Heidelberg, Germany and attending school on Patrick Henry Village PHV military base. We embraced the newfound horrors of growing up crushes, first kisses, girl drama and cherished our backward sense of cool brightly-colored skinny jeans, Aeropostale, side bangs, blue eye shadow -- and if you were a boy, a Justin Bieber-inspired haircut just like every other American kid as we teetered on the brink of teenager-hood.
We did not attend mixers at other schools, because there was only one school. We spent our free time downtown Heidelberg strolling along the Hauptstrasse or exploring the picturesque Heidelberg Castle. Heidelberg, Germany is a place like no other.
Should you ever decide to pay a visit, your tour guide will undoubtedly boast about it, and any friend who has studied abroad there will agree. For us military brats who were stationed there, though, there truly is no place like it, because we have the blessing of being able to have called it home. From to , I spent the remainder of elementary school and all of middle school as a Patrick Henry Elementary bobcat and Heidelberg Middle School panther.
Adjusting to not only German culture, but also military culture was challenging at first. Somewhere along the way, however, Heidelberg became my home and it seemed like I blinked and all of a sudden I was crying while boarding the plane back to America five years later. Army opened the base in It was home to thousands of American military personnel and their families until , when it was officially returned to the German government.
At its peak, PHV housed 16, Americans. My family lived off-base in a nearby German village, but I spent a large portion of almost every day on base while at school or extracurricular activities. Since its closing as a military base two years ago, PHV will never again be the same; the German government opened the space as a refugee center in September Part of me is sad for the place that was my stomping grounds for those five years -- sad because I know no one will ever again experience PHV and Heidelberg the way my friends and I did.
