I AM NOT THE SAME PERSON I WAS AT THE BEGINNING OF MY EXCHANGE.

Friday, December 30, 2016 Cristian 27 Comments



My exchange year shaped me in a way no other experience could. In an age where every problem becomes huge and where family and friends are the most important thing, I left. I observed my hometown slowly fading while the airplane was flying through the clouds. No, I didn't bring my dog with me, neither my habits nor my favorite food. It was just me with roughly 20 kgs of clothes.

The difference between a normal teenager and an exchange student is mainly one. The exchange student is a teenager who has to go through the drama and problems of that segment of life while living with strangers out of the country, having to socialize to be able to get new friends and start working hard to feel part of his host community and working on the host language to eventually become fluent in it.

No one truly understands how hard it can get to be far apart from everyone you loved since you can remember. Everyone else sees it as a "long vacation". They get encouraged by the positive part of the experience - learning a language and traveling - but do not take into consideration the downsides. According to me and my own experience, it wasn't too hard. My ups were way more than my downs, but when I did have some, I really felt like touching the bottom. In a bad day, even a stupid joke could compromise my mood.


If I haven't made the decision of going abroad, I wouldn't probably call myself a strong person, or even open minded. Although I always claimed to love North America, I was quite ignorant about the US. People think they know everything by simply believing, but they don't. I had to see what the States were really about with my own eyes in order to know the truth. My perspective about the whole world changed. I chose the USA because of my unchangeable mindset and because I wanted to be fluent in English, if they sent me to some other country I probably wouldn't accept it, or do it but with a lower level of excitement. At the moment instead, the situation is completely the opposite. I wanna go everywhere. I have a hard time deciding where to go first and where to do this or that. I constantly look up, stare at airplanes drawing in the sky.

I understand now that I am spending my life planning my way out, always thinking about traveling, exploring or simply wandering around. Before going on an exchange, I just thought it would have been cool to live as an American, being able to purchase Starbucks coffee (yes, we don't have it in Italy) or storing my books in a locker. I didn't even take into consideration the idea of traveling else where because I was confident Rotary would have sent me somewhere in the States. But yeah, I ended up forgetting about Starbucks and didn't even have a locker in my high school. Life is interesting and never goes as planned.

I'd like to conclude giving a little advice: if an exchange student starts a discussion with "When I was abroad I..." s/he is not trying to show off, but is simply trying to keep memories alive. We cannot go back in time and live our experiences again but we certainly can keep "living" our side-life in our minds by remembering and thinking about the emotions we felt at the time.

- Cris

27 comments:

  1. I love this. Thanks so much for putting my feelings into words, even though I didn't even go to the US. 💗

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post!! I completely agree with your last statement, too. I talked so much about my time abroad when I returned home, but no one could really understand me. And now I just can't stop travelling and have been abroad the last year and a half!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice one! In February - July 2015 I was an exchange student in South Korea and my two roommates are Italian! I still keep in touch with them and we might gonna meet this year hopefully! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds fun! I hope you will be able to meet, Ciao! :)

      Delete
  4. This is amazing ! My exchange year is almost over :(

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can relate to this soooo much. Great job! I always feel like showing off when i talk about my year in Canada, i think ppl just don't really get the purpose of me explaining my memories...
    If you're still abroad have fun, you're gonna miss it loads, if not, share your experience with as much ppl as u can, cause if it taught you a lesson it can also teach someone else.
    Cheers from Spain:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hola! Thank you for reading my blog and sharing with me your experience. Llego a Madrid en Junio. I hope that the sentence I just wrote makes sense. I will be coming to Madrid, looking forward to the trip and hopefully learning some Spanish! Adiós :)

      Delete
  6. This is just so well written!
    I have been abroad 2013/2014 and no one actually wants to talk about this experience with me anymore. Sad but true.
    So thank you so much for writing this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just wanted to say thank you foe writing this. Totally, same here. You expressed everything perfectly. I don't know who you are but I send you hugs as a Turkish girl who is currently an exchanger in Hungary and who read this right after last orientation camp...
    Good luck in life!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for reading! My blogposts wouldn't exist if I didn't have readers. Wow, in Hungary! Wasn't it challenging to learn the language?

      Delete
  8. I can relate to this so much. You probably wrote down what 90% of us exchange students think or try to explain to others. I just came back from my year abroad ,about two days ago, and people already tell me that I've changed so much. The thing is they don't understand why I changed and why I left for the US in the first place. This post pretty much sums up what I had in my mind for months, and I'm pretty sure, that I am not the only one to relate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad that you can relate and I hope that you will settle back home in a nice way. I struggled but eventually everything adjusted, even tho I miss my exchange year.

      Delete
  9. Dude! This is amazing...I am/was an exchange student, in the US. I am now travelling with my Real parents from back home within the US...so I am technically done being an exchange student...but this article is something I can relate to greatly! Thanks for this great write up, and I'm glad you had a positive experience, just like me :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, I hope you will have a wonderful time with your family in the US!

      Delete
  10. That's a powerful message. I can totally relate my experience to yours! Continue to write theses articles.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is amazing, exactly the same feeling! This is an incredible support for all the exchange students around the world, who are able to understand each other more than anyone else! Thanks for writing this!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm a host mom from NH to an incredible young man from Verona Italy. He and our son have become brothers over the year and all our lives have been so enriched by this experience. Thank you for your blog - I like hearing your perspective, especially what it's like to go home again. Giacomo leaves tomorrow but after having met his family we know our family has grown to include them all! And we are taking our first trip (of hopefully many) to Italy in just 4 weeks!!! So it's not goodbye, more like see you later. ��

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there, I am Italian myself! I love Verona and hopefully he will adjust to his life back in a better way than mine. Have a wonderful time in Italy! :)

      Delete
  13. This blog made my cry ����..I am also an exchange student.I was also in the US and I can relate to this blog so freaking much..Thanks for putting this blog out for all of us

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog!

      Delete