Marc Schroeder (R15-16) responded to SOF Honorary General Secretary Simon Dougherty (G60-67) about restarting OF gatherings in London. To our surprise Marc lived thousands of miles away from London and this prompted our Overseas Bag Editor Chris Essex (K69-75) to ask about his story so far that brought him to Mauritius. We thought we would share the story more widely to show the amazing life he has already had since leaving the College less than 10 years ago.
Marc writes : As Mauritius is a tiny island state in the middle of the Indian Ocean with just over 1.3 million inhabitants (but an unexpectedly large number of one million tourists each year), it was not with great surprise that I heard from Chris that I’m indeed the only OF living on this small piece of land surrounded by water – 6042 miles away from Framingham. So when he invited me to write a few paragraphs about what brought me here, I was delighted.
After leaving Framingham in early summer of 2016, I spent the school year 2016/2017 at my former school in Germany near Cologne and completed my German GCSE equivalent before jumping right into the world of working by starting an apprenticeship as an IT specialist. This apprenticeship brought me again to a new city – Munich – in the south of Germany. The time of learning flew past, and I was able to secure my first job as a software engineer in the summer of 2019. But it did not take long for me to realize that I wanted to see more of the world. So in early 2021 – not knowing that the worst part of the Covid pandemic was still ahead of us – two friends and I decided to go on a big adventure: Travelling to Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
And so we went on our first big trip and spent 4 months in Seychelles – a beautiful island with a population of just around 100,000 people. I used the time to strengthen my programming skills and slowly but steadily began taking on remote programming jobs. The time in Seychelles flew past even faster than the years before, so it was quickly time to make more plans. While my friends already had plans laid out, – starting university and heading for the first job – I was not quite done travelling yet. I decided that I would fly to Dubai to also stay in the Arab world for a few months. Life in Dubai was vastly different from everything I saw before, and the proximity to Europe made for a great opportunity for my brother Eric to join me for a great time together. After having travelled for more than 6 months, it was finally time to head back home and start on a more permanent idea of life.
But life in Germany quickly started to feel dull for me – mostly because I now knew what it was like living in the warmer parts of earth. So in late 2022 I went on another adventure: This time heading toward Mauritius! And it definitely was the right decision for me. Life has been a blast ever since – with the usual ups and downs of course – but overall Mauritius, with its friendly people and relaxing atmosphere, just keeps making you smile. And so it happens that I have been living in Grand Bay, a seaside town in Mauritius, for almost 3 years now, only travelling back to Europe a few times a year to visit family and friends or to attend important meetings with clients.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to keep in touch with many OFs during this busy time – except for an occasional digital greeting via LinkedIn. But that made the time spent at the OF London supper in 2022 which I was able to attend with my younger brother Jac Schroeder (R17-18) even more memorable.
Attached you find a picture of my latest hiking adventure: Climbing “Le Morne Brabant” – a 1800 ft mountain that I would describe as challenging for the untrained hiker with some very steep parts towards the top. And for those seeking the more relaxing sunset side of Mauritius: I also attached a photo taken at a rather beautiful evening at the beach club nearby a few months ago.
That concludes my short story about how I ended up in this remote part of the world leaving me only to wish you all the best and – should any of you ever make your way down south to Mauritius – invite you over for tea at my place – or dinner at one of the nearby beach clubs & restaurants – whichever you prefer!
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