A New Year

At the beginning of this year, I was still working on graduating from high school. I was getting into the flow of the two track seasons that were to follow. I was planning on trying out for yet another school musical. I was driving my car around in the snow, and probably went galactic bowling a few times with some friends. I was around the same people I had been around for years, in the same town I had lived in my entire life. At the beginning of this year, everything was ‘normal,’ but I had no idea what my future would hold. I knew I would have no problem finishing school and getting accepted into a college, but specific details were no where to be found. I could have ended up anywhere across the northeastern United States, at many schools, with a variety of different programs, that offered the possibility of meeting an uncountable number of different people, depending on which decisions I made...
I think about where I am now, and I can’t comprehend exactly how insane my journey has been. I now live in a country that, less than a year ago, I had never studied the language of, and yet, now, I can understand almost everything I hear. I can respond, I can read, I can write. Less than a year ago, I could only dream of European youth culture, and now, I’m living it. I study with average German teens, I do sports in community clubs rather than participating in teams affiliated with my school, I go to parties on the weekends. Less than a year ago, the world had come to me in many different exchange-student-sized packages. I had met tiny pieces of the world, brave enough to leave their comfortable lives and share cultures that most people would never be able to experience, and now, I am one of those pieces. I teach people about another culture, another language, another world. I am a part of such an amazing system that has allowed me to make friends from across the globe and make memories I will never forget. This past year has been a roller coaster ride and a half, and I can’t wait for the one to come.