A lot can change in a year

Exactly one year ago from this very moment I was in Charlotte, North Carolina at my CBYX interview. Now, just a mere 365 days later, I am living in Berlin, Germany and have an entirely different life. It's crazy how much has happened in that time and how much I have changed. It's really weird looking back on how naive and hopeful I was a year ago about the promised wonderful experiences that awaited me in Germany if I was accepted into the program. I, like all other hopeful exchange students, believed exchange to be rainbows and butterflies and smiles all the time. Yes, I had been told it's not all like that and that there will be bad days and homesickness and moments of feeling completely helpless, but in my haze of bright sunshiny expectations I couldn't fully comprehend the truth of those warnings. Now, after living six months in a country and culture that is not my own, with out my family but with multiple other families, a different language, and no friends, I can truly understand these warnings and how incredibly naive I was as I was sitting in my interview 365 days ago. Exchange is the most life changing thing you will ever experience and it is so difficult to put an experience like it into words. Yes, there are the sunshiny, happy days where everything seems perfect and you feel like you're on top of the world and can't even fathom the thought of going home. But then there are those days where you wonder why on earth you ever did this to yourself and you feel like the world is just crashing down around you and you are ready to just pack up your things and get on the next flight back to the good ol' US of A. Other times, you feel neither. You just go through the motions day to day and then are shocked when another week has already flown by. There are so many different emotions that go into an experience like this and they are incredibly hard to deal with sometimes, especially at 16. This is what has shaped me into who I am today. I have dealt with so many different experiences, good, bad, and ugly, that I never would have had in America. I have learned how to deal with all different types of people and how to handle myself in times of conflict. I have learned that it's okay to make mistakes and that you just need to laugh about it and move on. I have learned what it's like to be truly alone and how to accept and embrace it. I have learned how to take care of myself and what it's like to be a grown up. These are all lessons that have truly shaped me into the person I am today and I can't imagine what my life would be like or the type of person I would be if I had never experienced these things. As stated in the title, a lot can change in a year, and it is amazing to look back on the naive little girl nervously anticipating her acceptance into this program a year ago and comparing her to the person I am today.

Tschüss,
Dani♡