One year ago, even when we were selected as exchange students, we couldn’t even imagine what our life in America would be like. And what we definitely couldn`t imagine how we could make it through a year without our family and friends. This year is everything. This year is happiness, love, tears and fear. Fear of leaving your home country and starting everything from the very beginning. Fear of being so helpless understanding that you can`t hug your mom when you need it so bad because she is back there behind the ocean. Fear of saying goodbye to people you met and breaking your heart in thousand pieces which now will be all over the world. This year you are growing-up and changing yourself but not betraying yourself either. It is about learning how to listen to your heart. This year is about being a mother and a father for yourself and making your own decisions knowing that if you mess up something there will be no one to make it up or even to comfort you. This year is about learning how to trust strangers even if your mom and dad always taught you not to. This year is about swallowing your pride and giving up something because that`s how they live in the adults` world and you are not a kid anymore. Not for this year, and probably not ever after… This year is only a beginning of our life, it`s preparing for something huge, incredible and something that will get us all involved because we`ve met this year, and there is a reason for our meeting.
It’s not a trip or vacation it is a second life!
Written by Daria Cojuharova ’14
This made me cry. I remembered how I feel when I was in US. That year changed me a lot. Hope for all, who get the chance to participate in the program, changers will be for the better!