Hey there! 

 

If you stumbled on this page, or looked for it on purpose, I hope not to bore you with a quick story about my life. 

 

I was born a six days too late for a great birthday for a mathematician, but still, my birthdate is pretty nice: 20-03-2003. I was born in Huizen, a pretty large village in Noord-Holland. I don’t remember much from my earliest years, but I have been told that I wanted to start reading at three years old because my brother (who is two years older) was learning to read at school and I was jealous. So learning has been a large part of my life from the beginning on.

 

I went to a primary school close to my house, where I skipped most of the first grade. After the fourth grade, I switched schools, to a school for so-called ‘gifted’ students. This school did not allow skipping grades but instead let you take several subjects on a higher level, so I got put back into fourth grade again. But this meant you were with your peers in age, so that was nice. In this school, I did the usual stuff you learn in primary school, but we also got taught the beginning of German, Chinese, Spanish, and many other weird extra subjects and assignments, such as making a 3D-paper maze for marbles. Also, a lot of time was spent playing Minecraft (yes, even during the lessons) so I had a lot of fun there. 

 

From age 7, I joined the athletics association, doing all disciplines. I mostly enjoyed long-distance (not very long distance as a kid, about 1km) running and high-jump. Later, I also started doing hurdles and enjoyed steeple-chase which combines hurdles and long-distance. 

At age 10, I also decided to play football. I enjoyed both sports and I sometimes exercised six days a week. I kept up these two sports until I moved out of my parents’ house. I also had guitar lessons but at some point I enjoyed it less every time so I quit after seven years.

 

After the fifth grade, together with 3 other students, we combined the sixth and seventh grade into a single year, which meant I was sort of skipping a grade. After a normal eight and final year at primary school, I went to the ‘SG Huizermaat’ in Huizen. Here, although I went to an atheneum school, I also took Latin and Greek even though our school wasn’t a gymnasium. After three years, I chose the NT/NG profile with Mathematics D. I dropped Greek, but chose Latin as an extra course. However, I also dropped it after my fourth year.

 

During high school, at first I always wanted to become a doctor. But in the later years, I really enjoyed all science courses a lot. So I decided to combine the two ideas, wanting to study Technical Medicine. This was my choice of study until the beginning of the sixth (and last) year, where I met another high-schooler who was really enthusiastic about math and wanted to go study it. I discovered I had a lot of things in common with him and that maybe I should also look into studying mathematics. So when I went to the Open Days in Enschede, I looked at both Applied Mathematics and Technical Medicine. There it was very clear that AM fit me much better than the other study. In a spur of the moment I also decided to combine the study with Applied Physics. 

 

But where to study? I really liked the atmosphere in Enschede, but also in Nijmegen, where I could do Mathematics and Physics. But Enschede just seemed a bit nicer. Funnily, both my parents had studied in Enschede and my brother finished his studies last week in Enschede. So this place definitely is in our DNA. Since Enschede was a bit too far to travel each day, I moved out and went to live by myself with some flatmates. I knew I wanted to do some sports, but I hadn’t decided which one, so I went to six different sports in the first few weeks. In the end, I joined the floorball association Messed Up and have been playing there ever since. Next to that, I have been running to be more active. In the first year, I quickly learned that I felt no passion towards physics and I dropped the study after the first year. I joined the Education Committee at the end of the year and went to more activities. I also moved to a more active student house on campus. In my third year, I did a board year as secretary at Messed Up. I really liked it, but didn’t want to give up studying for a full year, so I did not apply for a board year at Abacus, although I did consider it. 

 

Then I started my masters, this time a combination between Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. This fit me way better and I am still doing both masters at this moment. I became more active at Abacus as well, with RSA (Study Trip committee) and the Twick-In 2024. When there was the possibility of doing a part-time board, combined with the need for board members, I reconsidered doing a board year at Abacus and decided to go for it. Writing this piece at the end of my board year, I am very happy to do so and have no regrets. 

 

So now you now my life’s story pretty detailed! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you want a chat, you might be able to find me in the Abacus room (but not in the upcoming months :)).

 

Kind regards,

Renske Idzenga

Treasurer of the 57th board