Once a Limburger, always a Limburger. I love it here and have no plans to move away. I considered enrolling at Radboud University Nijmegen – my brother goes there – but Maastricht appealed to me more. I feel like the transition from secondary school to university is already big enough without adding moving out to the mix. It’s not that I’m not open to the idea, though. My parents would have supported it; they both moved away for university themselves, my mother to Tilburg and my father to Leiden. But right now, Maastricht feels like the best fit for me. My boyfriend Laurent still lives at home in Mechelen, just a few kilometres from Wahlwiller, and he also studies in Maastricht. It’s nice living so close to each other. And South Limburg is beautiful; I feel at home here. When I went to the open day at the Faculty of Law, I realised just how lovely the city is, with its historic buildings, its charming streets and its old bridge. I’d never really looked at it that way before.
Language is my thing. [Chuckles] Yes, I’m very interested in language. Dutch was one of my strongest subjects – much more so than maths, anyway. I did my final-year project for secondary school with a classmate. We got a perfect score, a 10 out of 10, and even won the national KNAW Education Prize. We knew we wanted to study language change, and after discussing ideas with our Dutch teacher, we decided to investigate the use of the verb willen (“to want”). Officially, jij wilt (“you want”) and hij wil (“he wants”) are correct, but in everyday speech, people often say jij wil and hij wilt. We collected 288 survey forms from students in our own school. Our final report was 65 pages long, and our conclusion was that usage really is evolving – young people don’t always stick to the official forms.
"We got a perfect score, a 10 out of 10, and even won the national KNAW Education Prize"
I’d rather be in a courtroom. Er, I can’t see myself pleading a case in a courtroom just yet. I’m not very good at talking in front of people. I hope to become a much better, more confident and persuasive public speaker. I considered studying Dutch, but then I thought: what would I do with that? Maastricht doesn’t offer a Dutch language degree, so I chose law instead – it’s interesting and still involves language. It’s mainly the idea of helping people that appeals to me, but if you ask me what I want to do with it, or whether I can see myself as a lawyer, I’d say I have no idea yet.
What book is on your bedside table? The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – a mix of fantasy and thriller. I’ve always loved reading; as a child, I devoured books. I think it’s one of the reasons why Dutch was one of my strongest subjects. A book I’d recommend? The Lord of the Rings – a trilogy that’s not always an easy read, with its long sentences and detailed descriptions, but definitely worth it. Yes, the books have been made into films, but I prefer reading to watching TV. And my older brother has his Xbox hooked up to the television, so it’s often in use anyway. He even has a racing chair, so the living room sometimes feels more like a man cave. It isn’t the most stylish addition to our home – my mother only allows it at weekends, not during the week.
When was the last time you cried? Two weeks ago, when saying goodbye to my boyfriend in New Zealand. He’s on exchange at the University of Waikato. He really wanted to go and worked hard to get the marks to get selected. I spent nearly four weeks there this summer. It was my first time flying solo, which was quite an adventure – sixteen hours on a plane with a stopover in Dubai. I’ve travelled abroad with school before, even to the US, but I rarely travel alone. I’ve visited my brother in Nijmegen, which went well despite my bad experience with trains. When I was fourteen, I went to Toverland with friends. We took the train to Sevenum but didn’t realise that you have to press a button to open the doors. We were stuck in the carriage, wondering what had gone wrong. Let’s call it a learning experience.
"If others don’t put in as much effort, I end up taking over and doing most of the work"
What’s the hardest part of love? We’ve been together for nearly a year, and this is my first serious relationship. Being apart from him for so long [he’ll be back in December] is really difficult. I’ve known Laurent a long time; he’s friends with one of my brothers. He’s spontaneous, very sweet and adventurous, which encourages me to try new things. In New Zealand, for example, we went rafting together. I wasn’t very keen on it at first – we had to go through a huge waterfall – but looking back, I’m really glad I did it.
What was your favourite childhood activity? Horseback riding. My mother and her sister bought a horse, Blossom, for me and my cousins. It was a dream come true. As a child, I was always reading about horses, collecting all things horses, dreaming about horses… I still go to the riding school two or three days per week, still learning new things, even though I’ve been riding since I was six.
How do you deal with setbacks? I hate getting low marks – I always want to do really well. Yes, I’d say I’m a bit of an overachiever, a perfectionist, even in group projects. That’s something I’m trying to work on. I like to stay in control. I’m not a leader, not at all, but if others don’t put in as much effort, I end up taking over and doing most of the work.