What's exchange?

http://exchange-students.tumblr.com/

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Lao Tzu

“I am an exchange student.
How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one?
How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one?
How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears?
How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying?
How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world?
How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it?
How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself?
How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course?
How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it?
How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “I am so far away”?
How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends?
How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “I love my country” holding a flag in your hands?
How do you know what is the true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one?
How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one?
How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished?
How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast?
How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones?
How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally?
How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours, to see what there was on the other side?
How do you know what appreciation is when you have never realized what it means to be welcomed in a new home and family without any equivalent?
How do you know what courage is when you never decided to leave everything behind you, to start a completely new life?
How do you know what happiness is when you never went through one year of repeated excitement, fear and relief and finally can look back and say it was worth it?
How do you know what experience is when you never realized the difference between it and things you have been told by others and think you got it?
How do you know what responsibility is when you never had to represent a whole nation?
How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home?
How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?“

"Let's go on exchange, so you can spend your time doing homework in another language and needing three times longer to get assignments done as everybody else."

"Exchange is crying without no reason and laughing at the same time. 

It's a turmoil of every emotion possible. 

Exchange is everything.

And exchange is something you can't understand unless you've been through it."

Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colorful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.

Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.

Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.

Exchange is learning to trust. Trust people, who, at first, are only names on a piece of paper, trust that they want the best for you, that they care. Trust, that you have the strength to endure a year on your own, endure a year of being apart from everything that mattered to you before. Trust that you will have friends. Trust that everything’s going to be alright. And it is seeing this trust being justified.

Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About what it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that boy is going to react when you see him again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the TV ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.

Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.

Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band or the vocal class.

Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.

Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s hearing your host sister asking where her sister is. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter (Nutella) is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. It’s getting 4 new families. One of them being a huge group of the most awesome teenagers in the world.
It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.

Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.

Exchange is falling in love. With this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.

Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…

Exchange is understanding.

Exchange is unbelievable.

Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.

Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.

Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.

Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.

Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.
And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.

Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.

Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it.

Exchange is about learning. It’s not as simple as learning whatever it is that’s taught in school, though. It’s about learning how to listen, how to speak, and how to think. Learning who you are, who your friends are, and the type of people you want as friends. Learning how to trust your innermost feelings, and how to find those feelings in the first place. It’s about learning what is really important to you, and learning what you don’t really give a damn about.

Exchange is about learning how to tolerate, how to accept, how to like, and how to love. Learning how to give as well you receive, and how to trust that everything will even out on its own. It’s about learning that your mom and dad do have the right answers sometimes, and that your kid sister isn’t such a dumb little kid anymore.

Exchange is about learning to treat people as people and not as stereotypes. Learning that sometimes a kiss isn’t just a kiss, sometimes it means more, and sometimes it means less. Learning how to achieve, how to succeed, and how to accomplish. It’s about learning how not to come in first place and still be proud, and about coming in last and learning how to admit that you could’ve done better.

Exchange is about learning that large parties don’t necessarily mean a good time. Learning that loneliness doesn’t go away in a crowd, and that sometimes it’s okay to be by yourself on a Friday or Saturday night. It’s about learning that your lunchtime crowd doesn’t constitute your popularity, and that popularity is all a matter of perspective. It’s about learning that boredom is simply laziness of the mind, and that watching three hours of TV every night is not quality relaxation time.

Exchange is about learning how to pack a bag and how to pack a room full of way too much stuff. It’s about learning that people probably like you a whole lot more than they will ever tell you and that it’s your responsibility to make sure your friends know how much you appreciate them. It’s about learning that simply doing what you’re supposed to do isn’t enough, you need to put forth twice the effort in order to fully grasp whatever it is that’s sitting in front of you. It’s about learning how to make people smile.

Exchange is about learning how to miss people enough to not stick them in the past, and how to not miss them so much that it keeps you from moving into the future. Learning how to motivate yourself and how to motivate others. Learning what the phrase "make do" means and how to use it to make it seem as if you’re not simply "making do".

Exchange is about learning. Learning how to live.