Troy Wolff: Exchange Year
Cherry Liu (Meng Ting Liu)
Eng101 10:30-11:20
Assignment essay 1
01/21, 2013
Troy Wolff
Exchange Year “Being an exchange student is awesome”, “I had the best year of my life”, “ I learned so much about myself”. These are what people, who had already been abroad, told me about their past experiences two years ago. They told me about how wonderful it was, how the exchange experiences have changed them forever, and what they had learned from it. I was truly inspired by their energy and passion. I became curious about going. What “life lesson” would my year abroad teach me? I thought about how awesome it would be to experience another culture for a year. I finally convinced myself to go on my own. No longer would people be telling me about their experiences; I would go out and find my own experience and have my own journey. It would be my story. I heard of the exchange program through my high school English teacher. It was him who recommended me to do an exchange year. I had to bring it up to my parents first before I could go though. After a long family discussion, my parent gave me permission to go and offered to support me. Then came the waiting. I could not choose the host family I would be living with or the state I would be living in. The program I was going through was called the Education First Foundation for Foreign Study or “EF” for short. EF had me submit an application about myself for potential host families to see. The host families would then select the children that they felt best fit with them. Finally in mid-July I was told that I had been matched with a host family in Toledo, OH. My dream was becoming a reality. My family was very happy for me; they had known how long I had dreamed and desired this and how much effort I had put into all the applications. The only thing they asked of me is that I use all my heart to get the best possible experience out of it. No matter what happened, I would have to try and face it. It would be a
Eng101 10:30-11:20
Assignment essay 1
01/21, 2013
Troy Wolff
Exchange Year “Being an exchange student is awesome”, “I had the best year of my life”, “ I learned so much about myself”. These are what people, who had already been abroad, told me about their past experiences two years ago. They told me about how wonderful it was, how the exchange experiences have changed them forever, and what they had learned from it. I was truly inspired by their energy and passion. I became curious about going. What “life lesson” would my year abroad teach me? I thought about how awesome it would be to experience another culture for a year. I finally convinced myself to go on my own. No longer would people be telling me about their experiences; I would go out and find my own experience and have my own journey. It would be my story. I heard of the exchange program through my high school English teacher. It was him who recommended me to do an exchange year. I had to bring it up to my parents first before I could go though. After a long family discussion, my parent gave me permission to go and offered to support me. Then came the waiting. I could not choose the host family I would be living with or the state I would be living in. The program I was going through was called the Education First Foundation for Foreign Study or “EF” for short. EF had me submit an application about myself for potential host families to see. The host families would then select the children that they felt best fit with them. Finally in mid-July I was told that I had been matched with a host family in Toledo, OH. My dream was becoming a reality. My family was very happy for me; they had known how long I had dreamed and desired this and how much effort I had put into all the applications. The only thing they asked of me is that I use all my heart to get the best possible experience out of it. No matter what happened, I would have to try and face it. It would be a