Page 21 - FIS World

Yes,
she
can!
An FIS Alumna Inspires
Her former teachers, Mesdames Clifton and Lebeth, should have known this determined young
Francophile of Dutch-American back- ground would end up in France one day.
Nicola Taylor attended FIS for the entirety of her school education, join- ing Kindergarten in 1982 and graduat- ing in 1994. What she remembers about FIS is “the importance of com- municating in different languages; enriching other peoples lives and being able to work in a both active and pro-active approach. You know this attitude of “Yes, you can”. Staying solution focused and developing the right values in life.”
Her said French teachers, not to mention former vice-principal and French teacher Mr. Fenner, enabled Nicola, already fluent in English, Dutch and German, to develop yet a fourth language. The English Department would further her love of Literature and Writing and the Arts Department would forever ground her in her big- gest love, Art.
After her IB, Nicola went on to study Business and yes, you guessed it, French at Edinburgh University. Her Erasmus year in France made her fol- lowing step easy. All it took was cour- age and a backpack. So off she went to live in Paris. She soon took jobs, amongst others at Ogilvy & Mather, studied Art History at the Sorbonne and came up with the fabulous idea of combining her passions in life, teach- ing English to people in Paris who are interested in Art.
Nicola’s “Taylor’s Art English” teaches English to people active in the Art Market, Art Critics and art lovers in general, who want to learn a different language. “If you are interested in a subject, language becomes a scooter for it”.
In the summer of 2013 tragedy struck. Whilst out jogging on holiday in the South of France, Nicola was hit by a motorbike. She was literally “shat- tered to pieces” and it was heaven sent that the first car on site was a fire fighter who would call for help.
After prepping Nicola for a helicop- ter ride to the hospital in Toulon, both her mother in the Netherlands and brother, Jarther, (Class of 1988) now in Australia, were informed that there was no or little chance Nicola would survive.
The initial orthopaedic surgery of eight hours went well, but nobody, not even the well trained medical staff at Toulon, who deal with military inju- ries on a daily basis, had hope she would ever recover.
Five weeks at Toulon, her brain and bones enduring further operations, her bones actually being held together with more metal than you can imagine- as a matter of fact, she is nicknamed the “Iron Girl” amongst some medics in France – she was to be moved to a hospital just outside of Paris to begin rehab.
Where did she get the will to carry on? “Someone told me weeks and months later, that the doctors said I
FIS Alumna Nicola Taylor
would not make it. Pah! Me? Of course I would make it! I am me. I can make it. I can!”
She doesn’t remember much of the first few weeks; her brother Jarther flying over from Australia, her mother being at her bedside, friends from near and far visiting.
“I think Jarther being there just after it happened, must have given me a lot of strength. We were always there for each other and he must have inspired me to carry on.”
Nine months Nicola spent in the hospital in Garches near Paris. But now she is back. Back in her beloved apart- ment in Paris. Back to a New Begin- ning. “2015 is my new beginning. All these values I have inside of me, work- ing solution focused, being pro-active, this “Yes, you can” attitude, which indeed were all instilled at FIS, are making this possible. My friends, new and old, Gilles, both Nadines who I have stayed friends with since my time at FIS, my former counselor, Bill Starns, even my Kindergarten friend now an internationally recognised opera singer, whom I reconnected with via Facebook during my recovery, have made this such an incredible journey. It is time for a new beginning. 2015 is my year!”
Nicole Smith, Alumni Relations
February 2015 FIS World 19