I'm happy to announce and publish my first article written in English, on my blog. I honestly don't know why I've never written any of my articles in English before, I suppose because I've always seen this blog as a way of communication with my Belgian friends and family about my life in Australia. Whereas, I'd like to share this article with whoever wants to read it. I can also proudly say that 'Nationality Unknown' , a pretty well known blog for exchange students, will publish this article anytime soon!
Going on the exchange is the unexpected. It's the unknown and the overwhelming. It's those times of discovery and change. It's the insanity and the eye opening.
Easy? No it definitely isn’t, being 16 365k or 2 oceans away from home. Your exchange won’t always be pretty or comfortable, it might hurt you several times. Your journey becomes a part of you somehow. It defines who you are as a person and leaves a mark on you, not only on your memory, but also on your heart and soul. In reverse you leave parts of yourself behind, in the places you go, the people you meet. What’s so challenging about the whole thing is, you can’t fully prepare yourself for what’s coming, you can’t really predict what to expect but you just learn how to go with the flow. Even though it ‘only’ takes up one year in your whole life, you’ll carry your experience with you forever. Your view on the world changes.
Going on exchange is deciding what kind of people you want to be surrounded by and what kind of person you want to be in life. It’s stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s those awkward moments when you go somewhere you don’t know a soul. Everyone seems to know everything about you, but you don’t even remember the name of the person you were talking to just 5 minutes ago.
It is opening up to friendships with people you might have had prejudices against before. By becoming friends with people that might not be your age, don’t speak your native language, aren’t from the same social class or have a different cultural background, you grow as an individual.
Going on exchange is the unique bond between exchange students. That click, right from the start. Being able to fully understand each other since you’re going through the same rollercoaster of emotions, sharing similar experiences, being homesick together.
Going on exchange is being confused, being tangled up and being misunderstood. It’s struggling with your own emotions and eventually finding peace within yourself and getting to know yourself better than ever. It’s wondering why you always used to over-think and worry about things that didn’t even matter at all. It’s reflecting. On your future. About what’s important to you and what’s not. Recognising your dreams, goals and interests, finding your passions, loves and talents.
It’s making your own decisions, taking responsibility for your life, being independent. You’ll start to realise you can actually accomplish something by yourself and being proud of yourself. It’s standing your ground. No more room for doubt, but just grabbing the opportunity because you know that if you wouldn’t do it you’ll regret it. You start to think about the next journey you’ll embark. It’s wanting to explore, wanting to discover the world, not wanting to sit still, having the urge to travel.
Throughout your experience you grow in so many various ways. Just the fact itself, signing up to go on exchange takes up a lot of courage, this first step might be one of the hardest decisions you’ll have to overcome. It’s okay if it scares you and you have doubts, but the key is to replace your fear of the unknown with curiosity. You might want to leave your hometown because you know who you want to become, so you enter the confrontation to become a better version of yourself.
You open up to something completely new and adapt to a new lifestyle. A lifestyle that doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to your old one. It is deviating from your own habits. Another country, another language, different food, a different school, new friends, a new family, an unfamiliar culture. You get exposed to different points of view, different thinking styles and start to realise that what you’ve always been used to, might not be the only right way to do it. You broaden your mind to other beliefs, lifestyles, behaviours, values and norms. You start to see it can be completely different. It’s teaching people something about your background but at the same time picking up something new about your own background too. You grasp another perspective on your own culture and learn to be critical and ask yourself questions.
Going on exchange makes you become more tolerant, it’s learning to deal with disappointments and unexpected twists. You gain patience. You learn how to show trust. Trust in people you’ve only just met, people that were just names on a sheet some months ago. Names you had never heard of before and couldn’t even pronounce. It’s the heartbreaking farewell. Knowing you’ll have to say goodbye to all those incredible people you’ve met over the past year. Promising each other to stay in touch. Hoping to be reunited soon.
Going on exchange is finding out who cares about you and who doesn’t, it’s finding out who makes time for you. It’s being excited each time there’s a postcard or parcel with your name on it. It’s being home sick. the extreme desire to be with someone from your home country, wishing they could be with you right now. Considering yourself lucky because you have people that special to miss. Crying over skype. Helplessly sitting behind your laptop, knowing there’s someone out there, on the other side of the planet, who needs you at this right moment, wishing you could give them a hug right now, but physically not being able to. It’s having faith that everything is going to be alright in the end, having faith that people you’ve left behind are doing well.
It’s that goddamn time difference, which makes staying in touch with people back home even harder. Regretting you didn’t meet up with that one person just before you left. The social media that reminds you what you’re missing out on. Feeling disconnected. It’s the fear of being forgotten.
I can tell you time does fly. Time is passing by way too fast, but on the other hand it seems like you’ve been living in your host country for ages since it feels like home to you. It is having mixed feelings, not ever wanting to leave your new home, the country that stole your heart, the country that holds so many beautiful memories, because you know that once you leave, things will never be the same again. You might be planning on coming back for a visit to your host country, but deep inside you know everything will be different if you go back one day. You won’t be the foreign exchange student anymore, you’ll just be a visitor on a holiday visa. You won’t actually be living in the country, you’ll just be ‘one of the tourists’ and you’ll know you’re leaving the country very soon. That is why those last few days of your exchange year are so bloody hard, because you know everything will be different, and you don’t want it ever to change.
I’m scared. Yes, I admit it, I am s-c-a-r-e-d. The idea of going home frightens me. It might scare me even more then the whole ‘going on exchange thing’. Why? Well, I wonder how much everyone and everything will have changed over the past year. Will I fit in or have I changed too much? Are people going to understand me? Will my relationships I had when I left, still be the same or will I have lost friends over time? Are people wanting to listen to all my stories or won’t they be interested? Will I stay in touch with people from Australia or will we lose touch? In just a few days I’ll be hugging, crying, saying goodbye to the people that opened their arms and hearts, that made me feel like I was just one of them. I’ll be returning to the people I hugged, cried with and said goodbye to the last time I saw them. I’ll leave my family and best friends, to return to my family and best friends. I’ll be taking my pictures and postcards I’ve received from loved ones of the wall, I’ll be packing my bag full of memories from a life changing year.
With only a few days left of my exchange I’m on the brink of going back. Going back to my old home town. where I once felt so good, so at ease, which will now become a struggle. I’ll probably just return to my old life and do the exact same things as I always used to do. I stepped out of my familiar life, paused it for a year, and I’ll just pick it up. When I’m going “home” and start getting into my old routines again, everything and yet nothing will feel the same. I’ll start to realize how much I have changed as a person and how my values and behaviour have changed.
Going on the exchange is the unexpected. It's the unknown and the overwhelming. It's those times of discovery and change. It's the insanity and the eye opening.
Easy? No it definitely isn’t, being 16 365k or 2 oceans away from home. Your exchange won’t always be pretty or comfortable, it might hurt you several times. Your journey becomes a part of you somehow. It defines who you are as a person and leaves a mark on you, not only on your memory, but also on your heart and soul. In reverse you leave parts of yourself behind, in the places you go, the people you meet. What’s so challenging about the whole thing is, you can’t fully prepare yourself for what’s coming, you can’t really predict what to expect but you just learn how to go with the flow. Even though it ‘only’ takes up one year in your whole life, you’ll carry your experience with you forever. Your view on the world changes.
Going on exchange is deciding what kind of people you want to be surrounded by and what kind of person you want to be in life. It’s stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s those awkward moments when you go somewhere you don’t know a soul. Everyone seems to know everything about you, but you don’t even remember the name of the person you were talking to just 5 minutes ago.
It is opening up to friendships with people you might have had prejudices against before. By becoming friends with people that might not be your age, don’t speak your native language, aren’t from the same social class or have a different cultural background, you grow as an individual.
Going on exchange is the unique bond between exchange students. That click, right from the start. Being able to fully understand each other since you’re going through the same rollercoaster of emotions, sharing similar experiences, being homesick together.
Going on exchange is being confused, being tangled up and being misunderstood. It’s struggling with your own emotions and eventually finding peace within yourself and getting to know yourself better than ever. It’s wondering why you always used to over-think and worry about things that didn’t even matter at all. It’s reflecting. On your future. About what’s important to you and what’s not. Recognising your dreams, goals and interests, finding your passions, loves and talents.
It’s making your own decisions, taking responsibility for your life, being independent. You’ll start to realise you can actually accomplish something by yourself and being proud of yourself. It’s standing your ground. No more room for doubt, but just grabbing the opportunity because you know that if you wouldn’t do it you’ll regret it. You start to think about the next journey you’ll embark. It’s wanting to explore, wanting to discover the world, not wanting to sit still, having the urge to travel.
Throughout your experience you grow in so many various ways. Just the fact itself, signing up to go on exchange takes up a lot of courage, this first step might be one of the hardest decisions you’ll have to overcome. It’s okay if it scares you and you have doubts, but the key is to replace your fear of the unknown with curiosity. You might want to leave your hometown because you know who you want to become, so you enter the confrontation to become a better version of yourself.
You open up to something completely new and adapt to a new lifestyle. A lifestyle that doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to your old one. It is deviating from your own habits. Another country, another language, different food, a different school, new friends, a new family, an unfamiliar culture. You get exposed to different points of view, different thinking styles and start to realise that what you’ve always been used to, might not be the only right way to do it. You broaden your mind to other beliefs, lifestyles, behaviours, values and norms. You start to see it can be completely different. It’s teaching people something about your background but at the same time picking up something new about your own background too. You grasp another perspective on your own culture and learn to be critical and ask yourself questions.
Going on exchange makes you become more tolerant, it’s learning to deal with disappointments and unexpected twists. You gain patience. You learn how to show trust. Trust in people you’ve only just met, people that were just names on a sheet some months ago. Names you had never heard of before and couldn’t even pronounce. It’s the heartbreaking farewell. Knowing you’ll have to say goodbye to all those incredible people you’ve met over the past year. Promising each other to stay in touch. Hoping to be reunited soon.
Going on exchange is finding out who cares about you and who doesn’t, it’s finding out who makes time for you. It’s being excited each time there’s a postcard or parcel with your name on it. It’s being home sick. the extreme desire to be with someone from your home country, wishing they could be with you right now. Considering yourself lucky because you have people that special to miss. Crying over skype. Helplessly sitting behind your laptop, knowing there’s someone out there, on the other side of the planet, who needs you at this right moment, wishing you could give them a hug right now, but physically not being able to. It’s having faith that everything is going to be alright in the end, having faith that people you’ve left behind are doing well.
It’s that goddamn time difference, which makes staying in touch with people back home even harder. Regretting you didn’t meet up with that one person just before you left. The social media that reminds you what you’re missing out on. Feeling disconnected. It’s the fear of being forgotten.
I can tell you time does fly. Time is passing by way too fast, but on the other hand it seems like you’ve been living in your host country for ages since it feels like home to you. It is having mixed feelings, not ever wanting to leave your new home, the country that stole your heart, the country that holds so many beautiful memories, because you know that once you leave, things will never be the same again. You might be planning on coming back for a visit to your host country, but deep inside you know everything will be different if you go back one day. You won’t be the foreign exchange student anymore, you’ll just be a visitor on a holiday visa. You won’t actually be living in the country, you’ll just be ‘one of the tourists’ and you’ll know you’re leaving the country very soon. That is why those last few days of your exchange year are so bloody hard, because you know everything will be different, and you don’t want it ever to change.
I’m scared. Yes, I admit it, I am s-c-a-r-e-d. The idea of going home frightens me. It might scare me even more then the whole ‘going on exchange thing’. Why? Well, I wonder how much everyone and everything will have changed over the past year. Will I fit in or have I changed too much? Are people going to understand me? Will my relationships I had when I left, still be the same or will I have lost friends over time? Are people wanting to listen to all my stories or won’t they be interested? Will I stay in touch with people from Australia or will we lose touch? In just a few days I’ll be hugging, crying, saying goodbye to the people that opened their arms and hearts, that made me feel like I was just one of them. I’ll be returning to the people I hugged, cried with and said goodbye to the last time I saw them. I’ll leave my family and best friends, to return to my family and best friends. I’ll be taking my pictures and postcards I’ve received from loved ones of the wall, I’ll be packing my bag full of memories from a life changing year.
With only a few days left of my exchange I’m on the brink of going back. Going back to my old home town. where I once felt so good, so at ease, which will now become a struggle. I’ll probably just return to my old life and do the exact same things as I always used to do. I stepped out of my familiar life, paused it for a year, and I’ll just pick it up. When I’m going “home” and start getting into my old routines again, everything and yet nothing will feel the same. I’ll start to realize how much I have changed as a person and how my values and behaviour have changed.