Thoughts

My name is Lauren, and I have recently discovered that I was accepted to be Williamsport Rotary's 2014-2015 Exchange Student. I find out where I will be spending my exchange year in February, and let me just say that I cannot wait to find out where I am going. As of right now I am hoping for Italy, but over the past few months my #1 choice has gone from Denmark, to Belgium, to the Netherlands, to Croatia... and is now Italy. I think that I have finally settled on Italy, but I will be happy going to almost anywhere in Europe. Even if I randomly am assigned Japan or Australia, I am determined to make the most of my exchange year. Ever since I was young I have loved to travel, but finally I decided that to visit these places is only to skim the surface of their culture and to truly discover another way of life it must be lived. And I am so ready to live it. I write today because it is Christmas, and I have been presented with so many reminders that next year I will be away from my family for an entire year, probably missing home but embarking on the journey of a lifetime. Today I received gifts regarding my exchange (the book "The Exchange Student Survival Kit" from my mom and a suitcase set from my Nana, for example), told relatives of my acceptance, and discussed my decision to become an exchange student with my family. All of this has just reaffirmed that I am actually going to be an exchange student (for a while I was in denial, not a bad denial, it just hasn't quite sunk in yet. Will it ever?). I know that this is going to change me and my life entirely. However excited I am, this is also scary to think about. What challenges will I face? Will I be able to overcome them? Will I like the person I become after my exchange? Am I going to become homesick to the point of wanting to return home? I think about these questions and many more every day, because I really cannot predict the situation I walk into next September. But in a way I find comfort in that. I am excited to face all these challenges, to test myself and to discover more about me personally, another culture, and my own culture. I am ready to live and experience the world around me.