Ants are part of an organized system. They have their own rooms, societies, civilizations. And they trust one another – sometimes so much that they create the so-called “circle of death”: a phenomenon where hundreds of ants march one behind the other until they lose their breath.

Anabela shared this with me when she explained the meaning behind a bag that holds a special memory from the café Bukva. The empathy with which she spoke about ants is a reflection of her character – her care for others and her understanding that humans are just one small link in the mosaic of the world. “Humans and nature are connected: wherever you look – whether at tree trunks or leaves – you can find the mark of a person,” she says. She values every life equally and emphasizes that the love we show towards the smallest creatures reflects our most important traits.

I met her for the first time during the second round of interviews, where she immediately warmed my heart by speaking so passionately about the beauty and diversity of Macedonian dialects and speech. Her love for languages has been nurtured since childhood, through the multiple languages she knows and through the projects she’s involved in. She explores comparative differences between languages – both semantically and morphologically – and pointed out examples of relationships between Macedonian and English, as well as French and Italian.

In Skopje, Anabela is always in search of art and beauty. You can find her at festivals, exhibitions, and theater performances. KEM is her favorite band, and she deeply appreciates the approach of young Macedonian performers: “you can talk to them, they’ll help you out, they’ll even play your favorite song live.” Anabela would say: “Skopje and Macedonia have music and soul.” She inherited her artistic side from her grandmother, who once lived in a matriarchal ethnic community in China and now passes on her experiences through her artistic work.

She develops her adventurous spirit daily. When her uncle and aunt hosted volunteers from Mauritius and Italy, it was Anabela who sparked the adrenaline. They woke up at 4 a.m. just to experience the sunrise at Matka – bringing peaches, water, lots of joy, openness, and good energy. She’s eagerly awaiting to welcome her friends from UWC to Skopje with “young goat cheese, Macedonian mozzarella, and falafel.”
We often say that any student can fit into any UWC college. And that’s true – but her kindness, her openness to building community with both the familiar and the unfamiliar, her love for nature and people, her sense of adventure, and her eagerness to discover the unknown, are reasons I feel proud that my home in Tanzania will also be hers.

We are all ants, walking one behind the other. Anabela is one of them. But instead of only walking forward, simply following the ant in front of her – her love, empathy, and warmth are always extending a hand to the one behind her. We dream of a circle like that. Until then, I wish Anabela to continue sharing her selflessness with the world.

Marko Ingjilizov, 2025