Finding the Magic at KISC

Scouting has always been connected to my hometown, my childhood friends, and known places. But what I’ve experienced this Autumn was something completely different.
Painting Crystal on Tunnel

Everybody is talking about the magic of KISC. But what is it and how can you feel it?

I threw myself into cold water. Into cold icy swiss alps water and it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made. The strangers from the first day, the Scouts from all over the world became family. The Chalet in the Bernese Highlands, the campsite and the forest became home. The new tasks and the new work I started dealing with became experiences for life. For the step into my adventure, I was a bit worried what turned into the best time of my life!

Before I came here I’ve seen many pictures and videos of KISC, I have read about the Centre and the life there, I have talked to (Ex-) Pinkies and stayed as a guest. All the time I was looking up to the "pink wearing people" and their enthusiasm even though I didn’t know what it meant to live in such a place with so many other Scouts. I wondered if it’s possible to be always as happy and smiley as them.

First of all, many people maybe think it’s the environment that makes this place magical. The mountains can be very majestic and fascinating but - well, I am Swiss, and I grew up in a place like this, so it’s not the Magic of KISC for me, it’s just the Magic of the Alps. Another option to find the Magic of KISC is to be surrounded by Scouts all the time. Yes, that’s very cool and to live and work with them is even cooler but is this THE magic?

So, I was still looking for this magical thing everybody was talking about.

Now I have been here for almost three months, and now I can say I have found the Magic of KISC. I don’t know when it exactly happened or how, but it’s just a place where it’s impossible to be unhappy. It’s a place where Scouts from all over the world, from countries you have never been or cities you have never heard before come together and live the same spirit. It’s a place where different cultures meet each other and give their best to find a way of happily living together. It’s a place where so many good-hearted people work together and try to leave the world a bit better than they found it. It’s a place where you can laugh and cry with your roommates, but in the end, you still wear a big smile on your face because you realise that this is the meaning of international friendship. It’s a place where you can lead a team, and you will get even more support of your team back. It’s a place where having a puzzle party night is fun. It’s a place where sitting in the dining hall after dinner is the most relaxing thing you can do because the people you are talking to are just amazing. It’s a place where you can decorate the whole laundry with funny photos you’ve taken while working. It’s the place where everything is possible!

I think I’ve found the magic.

And now I also know why it’s called Magic.  Because no words are describing the feeling you get when you live here. Nobody can express how you feel about the Pinkie Family. 

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