If I ever had the chance to do it again, I definitely would. This was genuinely the best experience of my life. I know I’m only 17, but I also know that I will remember this year forever. It wasn’t perfect, there were, of course, some issues, but it was absolutely worth it. After talking to the friends I met during this year, I truly believe that the exchange changed every single one of us. It shaped us, gave us more confidence, and taught us how to be more independent. But let’s talk about my experience.
A couple of weeks before leaving, I was scared and unsure. I didn’t know how difficult saying goodbye to my family would be, but I was soon going to find out.
The day we left finally arrived, and it was hard. Hard to say goodbye to my family, to my friends, and to leave everything behind, knowing that I would have to build a whole new life in another country on my own. But the hardest part was when I first arrived at my “new house.” I just sat on my bed and said to myself, uncertainly, “So this is going to be my home for the rest of the year…” It felt extremely weird.
The first semester was really hard too. I was too shy to talk to anyone, I didn’t go anywhere unless someone invited me, and honestly, my host family wasn’t really helping…
Then came the second semester. I finally got to change host families and had the chance to have the best host brother I could have ever asked for. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but he was there whenever I needed support. He helped me open up and introduced me to new people. I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did, even if, again, not everything was perfect.
But the highlight of my exchange happened at the very end, during the last three months. I met some wonderful new friends, and I would like to thank everyone I met that day. I still remember how amazing it was to meet them, especially one of them.. He helped me fit into his group and was always there whenever I needed someone to talk to. The whole group was amazing too, I could never have asked for better friends. I’m so grateful that it happened. In such a short amount of time, some of them became my closest friends. I’m never going to forget them. I’m kind of mad that I didn’t meet them earlier, but good things come late, right?
Then came the worst part: saying goodbye. Saying goodbye to all these wonderful friends I made at the end of my exchange was incredibly difficult and painful. Leaving behind this whole new life that I had built felt so strange. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone, we were all kind of in the same situation, and talking to each other really helped. It was still incredibly hard, and even now, as I’m writing this report, I can’t stop thinking about how much I miss them. But hey, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — Winnie the Pooh.
Edwin
