Madison Zhou

University of Missouri or Loyola University Chicago

Pre-Med

As a girl who has been accustomed to change her whole life, the idea of leaving her immediate family in Germany to pursue a new lifestyle was not at all terrifying for Madison Zhou. As Zhou, senior, endured the 12 hour flight from Frankfurt, Hessen in Germany to St. Louis, Missouri, she only had her future in mind. 

Zhou has lived in many places throughout her life due to her parents’ jobs. She was born in China and lived there for four years before moving to England for two years, and then to Germany for 11 years.

“The positive side [of moving] is that I’ve picked up a lot of languages and I’m pretty open to a lot of cultures,” Zhou said. “The negative side [is] you lose a lot of people when you move around a lot.”

Zhou’s twin sister, Ashley Zhou, still lives in Germany and said she misses her sister a lot. However, she said it’s easy for them to communicate via phone call.

“[Since we’re twins], we’re a lot closer than normal siblings,” Ashley said. “I wouldn’t say [her moving] affected [our relationship] too much since it’s [not difficult] for us to stay in touch.”

Zhou said leaving her sister in Germany has taught her to be more self-sufficient. Although she said the move was a difficult transition, she said relocating has been good for her to learn more about who she is.

“[At first] it was weird not being able to just walk into [Ashley’s] room and [talk],” Zhou said. “I was pretty dependent on her for everything so learning to be independent and do things myself was difficult.”

Zhou said moving around was definitely hard on her growing up. However, she said it is also very rewarding to not stay in one place forever.

“I’ve never had a lot of [consistency] in my life since I moved so much,” Zhou said. “But it really is great to learn about new cultures and languages and meeting new people.”