Experience of a Lifetime

We were on the first week of august last year when one of my best friends, Karina, asked me if I wanted to go on an exchange program, her aunt owns this program. She explained me everything. One of the girls that were going to Tennessee broke her leg so she was no longer going; this meant that there was still a spot left. I was very excited with the idea of going especially because at my age (15) the idea of being on my own in a foreign country gave me that sense of independency that I would say every teenager wants to experience. I tried not to get that excited with the ides since we were on the first week of august and the date of trip was in the second week of august! This gave me only one week for trying to convince my parents so, even though I was I really wanted to go the chances of going were pretty much none, or at least that’s what I thought.

That same night I told my parents about it and surprisingly they said yes immediately. I have no words to describe how happy I felt at that moment. The first thing I did was calling Karina to let her know that my parents said yes. We were very excited for going on this program together. You might be wondering why were we excited for going together if we were obviously going with different families? Well, the answer is very simple we were excited because the exchange program planned a field trip to Dallas. We were going to spend a whole weekend in Dallas for the field trip, were we will visit Six Flags, Hard Rock Café, Speed Race and many other fun and interesting places.

As soon as I fixed everything with the program, as fast as I could, they gave me the email of my family to be in the exchange program. They also received my email and they sent me a message that same day which made me very happy, because in everything they emailed me I could tell how excited they were for me to arrive and have me home. They were counting the days for my arrival, and so was I.  I spoke to them every single day and they seemed to be very kind people and down to earth, which made me feel even more anxious for meeting them. So, finally the day of the trip came, Karina and I were experiencing a mixture of feelings, because of course we were happy for the field trip and for traveling together but at the same time the day in which we would meet our families was getting closer.

We arrived in Dallas and we had the most amazing time ever. We really enjoyed the experience and I think we took the best out of it. Our weekend in Dallas came to an end but the fun was not over yet, because we were about to meet our families to be. So, we arrived at the airport of Tennessee, Karina was leaving to Knoxville so she was going to have some kind of road trip with her family, and I stayed in Nashville. At the airport we walked through this long hall to get were all the families were waiting for us. When they opened the door I could see families with posters and flowers waiting for their exchange student and I remember thinking, what if my family didn’t bring any of those things? Or What if they are not here yet? I was feeling very nervous. I finally crossed the door and looked all the way around for my family and I saw them, and they saw me and I seriously thought they were the cutest family of all the ones that were there. Our first reaction was hugging and surprisingly I felt comfortable as soon as I met them. And guess what? They did had posters and flowers for me. Of course I was feeling a little nervous because they were practically strangers, because I've never met them personally and I was about to live with them for 8 weeks. But that nervousness went know within the first 2 days that spent with them. They are the most amazing people, the most amazing family I could have asked for to share that experience of a lifetime. I learned so much about them I felt loved, I felt home being there. My sister will always be my best friend I love her and the whole family. Even the grandparents treated me as if I was their granddaughter. I know in my heart that without them my experience wouldn’t have been as worthy as it was, they changed my life and I will always have them in a special place in my heart. Before I left home they said to me that maybe there was going to be one less person in their house but in their heart and in their family I will always have a special spot reserved. We all broke down to tears at the airport when I was about to leave home but we promised we will keep in touch and that’s how it’s been since I left we speak almost every day and I know these is a relationship that will never be broken, they are a second family for me now.