The year that Christina Bergendahl arrived at BCSS as a Grade 8 student, she had the benefit of an older brother in the same building attending Grade 12. “It was a huge thing to have that support,” Christina recalls. “I relaxed and really enjoyed Grade 8 and had a lot of fun playing soccer and basketball.”
Grade 9 was a bit harder though. The family was going to Europe during the second semester, so the first half of Grade 9 was spent getting organized for that.
“I did math on my own in Grade 9 while we were in Europe, which was a real struggle because I am not a math person at all,” she laughs.
Soccer has been a big part of her Grade 10 and 11 experiences. But now it’s grad year and she says she’s finding that it’s going by very fast.
She has applied to the University of Fraser Valley for the Criminal Justice Program. “I’ve always had an interest in how different people deal with the law – not necessarily the practice of law so much though. I am looking to a career as a parole officer. I don’t want people to be looked at based on their cultural background or their ethnic background; rather as the person they are inside.”
Christina has a long history of community volunteerism. She joined the Boundary Community Church Youth Group when she was in Grade 8, taking on odd tasks in the community – collecting and stacking firewood for seniors or distributing cookies at Christmas.
Christina was a cabin leader at Pines Bible Camp last summer. She said there were between 10 or 15 girls in a cabin and her dream job was simply to be there to talk with them and hang out during the day.
But on a July afternoon a windstorm blew in that leveled trees in and around the camp, killing one young camper.
“It was something I had never experienced before,” she recalled. “When the windstorm hit it was, “Alright yeah there is more to this – we actually have to keep these kids safe and be responsible.”
Christina is one of nine Bergendahl children (she’s fourth from the youngest) – something that has taught her how to, “even when you don’t feel like it, interact with another person,” she says with a laugh.
The trip to Europe began in Germany visiting family. They then travelled through Austria, Italy, Greece and finally Albania where they helped a mission group called Operation Mobilization.
When Christina thinks back to her time in Montenegro she may recall the home where she helped lay a new floor; if reminded of Kosovo she may remember helping build a new kitchen facility at a Bible camp.
“When we got back here and saw how much we have, I thought – Wow! I didn’t realize it!”
While Europe was very exciting she confesses she wasn’t happy about the trip at first. After all, being away from friends for four months...
“I am very stubborn and once I’d said I didn’t want to go my mind was made up that I wasn’t going to have any fun. I definitely did enjoy it, but I didn’t show it as much as I probably should have. I appreciate it more now than I did at the time.”
This summer Christina plans to return to Pines as a senior cabin leader or possibly head to the coast and get a job while waiting for school to start in the fall.