While middle school was an interesting time for most people, it was especially interesting for my classmates and I who embarked upon this journey while living in Heidelberg, Germany and attending school on Patrick Henry Village (PHV) military base. We embraced the newfound horrors of growing up (crushes, first kisses, girl drama) and cherished our backward sense of cool (brightly-colored skinny jeans, Aeropostale, side bangs, blue eye shadow -- and if you were a boy, a Justin Bieber-inspired haircut) just like every other American kid as we teetered on the brink of teenager-hood.

Unlike every other American kid, we did not spend Friday nights at the mall, because we didn’t have one. We did not attend mixers at other schools, because there was only one school. We did, however, frequently hang out at the bowling alley and movie theater, along with Java Café or Burger King Park and other PHV favorites. We spent our free time downtown Heidelberg strolling along the Hauptstrasse or exploring the picturesque Heidelberg Castle. We went to parks in the surrounding villages and ate a lot of gummy bears, schnitzel, and döner kebabs.

Heidelberg, Germany is a place like no other. Should you ever decide to pay a visit, your tour guide will undoubtedly boast about it, and any friend who has studied abroad there will agree. For us military brats who were stationed there, though, there truly is no place like it, because we have the blessing of being able to have called it home.

From 2005 to 2010, I spent the remainder of elementary school and all of middle school as a Patrick Henry Elementary bobcat and Heidelberg Middle School panther. Adjusting to not only German culture, but also military culture was challenging at first. Somewhere along the way, however, Heidelberg became my home and it seemed like I blinked and all of a sudden I was crying while boarding the plane back to America five years later.

Following the end of World War II, the U.S. Army opened the base in 1947. It was home to thousands of American military personnel and their families until 2013, when it was officially returned to the German government. At its peak, PHV housed 16,000 Americans. My family lived off-base in a nearby German village, but I spent a large portion of almost every day on base while at school or extracurricular activities.

Since its closing as a military base two years ago, PHV will never again be the same; the German government opened the space as a refugee center in September 2014. Today it is home to hundreds refugees who have fled to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa.

Part of me is sad for the place that was my stomping grounds for those five years -- sad because I know no one will ever again experience PHV and Heidelberg the way my friends and I did. That being said, I am both grateful and proud to know that my old home can now serve the needs of displaced refugees seeking a better life, even if only having found it temporarily at PHV. For nearly 60 years the base served its purpose as a little slice of America for military families struggling to adapt to German culture. Now, it can serve as a little slice of heaven for families grateful to escape the chaos and violence of their own countries.

I may not have gotten the most prestigious education, but regardless of the flaws of the DoDDS (Department of Defense Schools) system, I had some of the best, most invested teachers I've ever had while at Heidelberg Middle School and I met some of the best people who I still talk to today, more than six years later. Being exposed to diversity while attending school on a military base as well as living in a foreign country and exploring Europe made me more culturally aware than I ever could've been. I wouldn't trade my time there for anything, even if I was somewhat isolated from American culture (I didn't know who Zac Efron was and thought that "High School Musical" was something my dad taped at my high school when he was in St. Louis for a business trip).

Here's to Heidelberg -- the Christmas Market downtown, Frankenstein Castle on Halloween, seasonal ice-skating rinks set up in the German villages, the indoor swimming pools that strangely enough had the best food (I really miss currywurst), the extravagant viewing parties villages would host during the World Cup, the vineyards, Berliner doughnuts, and playing hide-and-seek inside Ikea.

Here's to PHV -- birthday parties at the bowling alley (every single birthday party ever), Jump Inn (having trampoline power struggles with German kids), the döner place outside of the Shopette, the one-screen movie theater that would make any regular AMC-attendee cringe but everyone still loved, the cheap coffee drinks at Java Cafe, and wandering around base after school with your friends just because you could.

Here’s to both Heidelberg and Patrick Henry Village and the countless memories I was lucky to have made there. More importantly, here’s to those who are getting to make their own memories there now, hopefully better than the ones they have left behind. Here’s to you, H-town.

Above: Seventh grade field trip, 2009.

Below: Refugee children playing on base, 2015.

Above: The Village Pavilion as the venue for our eighth grade formal, 2010.

Below: The Village Pavilion today, catered toward the refugees.