How This Happened

One year, ten months, and 25 days ago, I decided to go on exchange. I hardly knew what it was, but I’d do it. In my forty-eight minute French class, I’d already cooked up a plan to convince my parents: tell them what I knew about it (nothing) and hope that they’d understand that I needed to do this. One hundred percent fool-proof plan, right?

Wrong. Turns out it’s really difficult to convince your parents that it’s a good idea to travel to a foreign country to live with strangers, when you don’t know the language. At all.

When I brought up youth exchange to her for the first time, my mom thought that my fascination with it would blow over in a few months, but I kept at it. The more I learned about exchange, the more I wanted to do it. I was never too daunted by the idea of homesickness, of being unable to communicate, of not knowing anyone within a five thousand mile radius of myself. I was more intrigued by the ups and downs than afraid of them. I guess that either makes me stupid or a good exchange student. Or both.

I’d found Rotary District 5160’s youth exchange website, and explored it throughly before coming to my parents (for at least the fifteenth time) and very kindly insisting that they sit down and hear me out. And so they did*.

In February 2018, I began my application. It had all the usual questions (name, age, etc.) and then asked for me to write a bit about why I want to go on exchange. This question took me a hot minute to figure out how to answer because I’m pretty sure “gut feelings” would’ve resulted in an automatic veto from the youth exchange gods.

Figuring out why you want to go on exchange is so incredibly important. For me, it allowed me to reflect on my life. Am I truly willing to give this up? Am I okay with falling behind in school? Is it really worth it? Yes, yes, and I hope so. I’ll get back to you on that last one.

I finally gathered my thoughts and poured my heart into a five hundred word letter to my first host family that’d be sent to them if I got into the program.

There were a couple of other fun things in the application, like a school recommendation, photo uploads, and a letter from my parents. I submitted the last of the online application in mid-May 2018. It was a very happy day.

About negative two seconds after I submitted it, I learned I needed seven more documents to complete the application process. I’m glad I had the summer to figure it all out.

Interviews were scheduled for the first weekend in November. On my way to the venue, my hands shook and I thought I might pass out. At this point, I’d been wanting to go on exchange for more than a year, and the idea that I might slip up at the last moment threatened to eat me alive. I didn’t want it to all be for nothing. But I managed to get through it without incident, and I felt good when I left. A note for exchange student hopefuls: don’t worry as much as I did about the interview. It’ll be okay.

Three days later, I got an email titled Rotary Youth Exchange- You’ve been accepted! I cried when I opened that email. My dream was becoming a reality. I could combust with excitement.

On the morning of November 30, I went to my first Rotary meeting to receive my country placement. One of my favorite rotarians calls this day the “Big Reveal”. I stood at the front of the room while they did a fun activity to find out where I’d go.

It was finally revealed that I would go to France! I was (quite literally) jumping for joy! My sponsor club gave me a gift basket full of French books and foods, which I dug into almost immediately.

After the exciting month of November, I began a game called the Waiting Game. It’s not a fun one. I was waiting to hear from France what my host district, club, and city would be. Whoever waits the longest is the winner.

Luckily, I lost pretty quickly. In April 2019, at an orientation for exchange students, I got an email from my host district. They said I’d spend the year in a little city called Cahors, located in the southwest of France. So far, that was the best day of my life, not only because I found out where I’d go, but because I found it out while surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world (shoutout to District 5160 Outbounds)!

The last few months of this story are a blur. Between May and July, I heard from my first host family, went to a huge Rotary conference and met so many wonderful exchange students, received my blazer, applied for and got my passport, gathered a mess of official documents, and got my visa.

I don’t know where the road will lead next, but I hope you’ll stick around to see it with me. All I know is that I’m so extremely thankful for the ninth grade Madeline who decided that it’d be a good idea to listen in French class one day in mid-September.

À bientôt!

*Disclaimer for future or hopeful exchange students: I have very nice parents who are okay with me having a little chat with them, but if your household is not a democracy, my persuasive strategy might not be applicable or appropriate.