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- When I came first time in the UK,
I couldn't understand anything.
I can't speak, I can't do anything,
I can't go anywhere because it's too strange.
- If it doesn't feel like second nature
to you, if you're not familiar with your surroundings,
it doesn't matter where you are.
You can't consider it home.
- I remember when I came to this country.
It was cold.
It was the first time I'd seen snow in my life.
And I thought it was really, really beautiful.
- I don't know who I am and why I was here.
So difficult for me because I can't speak English very good.
- I felt a bit of an alien.
I was, like, struggling to speak to strangers for the first six
months, because I didn't want them to figure out
where I'm from.
- A lot of the other kids didn't actually
understand what I was saying.
My accent was very Scottish, but I
remember it taking like 2, or 2 and 1/2 months
to really just get one friend.
- I met my teacher.
And she said, "This is your college.
This is your class.
And you will be safe.
You will be fine.
Don't worry."
- One of my teachers, he always used
to sit me down for like, 10 minutes before a lesson
and just talk to me and find out how I was,
and that was always really nice.
It put me in a good mood.
- I felt quite nervous.
Because when you go to a new school,
you don't know what's going to happen.
You don't know if everyone's nice or not.
- So when I was at school, there was a situation
I felt like I wasn't welcome, because they were being racist.
I felt like they don't want me here.
- There's people out there in England and in the UK that
would have this sort of hatred towards me based on my religion
or skin colour.
It's my job to sort of teach them and show them
that we have more in common than what separates us.
- Because if you're with people that you don't get along with,
then it's not-- you don't really belong.
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- Belonging means not being alone.
It's about belonging to something
that's bigger than you.
It is being surrounded by people who understand and share
something with you.
- Being safe is definitely one of them
and being with people that I love,
because that's a strong part.
- To me, it means, like, where you feel happiness
and where you enjoy yourself, and like,
where things are important to you.
- And confidence and being proud of yourself
is really, really a great thing about belonging.
- I wanted to fit in with my classmates.
I would dress like them.
I would get a haircut like them, and I
would try to copy the words they say so that I'm
part of the group, which--
it didn't go well all the time.
- I've worked really hard on my accent.
- But after that, after one week,
so I made a new friend from different country.
And we always meet together.
- There was this girl I met.
She showed me around, and she was very kind to me.
And yeah, now we're best friends.
- You don't have to make lots of friends the first day,
but make friends gradually.
- Use how you're different to inspire others.
- It's very difficult to be an outsider or a new person.
So just try and think of that situation where you've been,
you know, a new person or outsider.
- Being nice to each other.
There's other people that are going through similar problems
as you.
- Be kind to everyone, and everyone will be nice to you.
- Even the little things make a big, big difference.
A small smile will go a long way.
- Find out if there's a club that you might go to,
that you might be able to meet other people there
that are a similar age to you, that maybe
have similar interests to you.
- Don't cast them aside.
Don't leave them out.
Include them.
- Reaching out to that new person,
just saying hi and how are you, that's very, very powerful.
- Just start with hi.
That's all you have to do.
And they'll really appreciate that.
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